The Map Seller of College Street

There are streets in a city that merely carry traffic, and then there are streets that carry memory. College Street in Kolkata belongs to the latter. In the early mornings, before the buses begin their impatient honking and before the tram bell rings its metal warning, the street wakes slowly. Booksellers lift the tarpaulin sheets…

Weirdo Behind The Window

Behind the College Square swimming pool on Bankim Chatterjee street in the Indian city of joy, Kolkata, stood a dilapidated tiny two-storey building crowned with unwanted banyan saplings sprouting from the cracks in its outer walls. A forty-year-old weird man with a midget face and enormous arms lived in a small plaster pealed damp room…