Calcutta Confidential

31/10/2024

Happy Diwali to all! The Festival of Lights, celebrating victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance! All of us at Responsible Charity want to send a bright signal of gratitude and love from Kolkata, Pune and Mumbai straight to all of you!

Thank you for your support, for your generosity and for your positive energy throughout the years, we wish you health prosperity and wisdom in the year ahead! Namaste!

Happy Diwali to all! The Festival of Lights, celebrating victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance! All of us at Responsible Charity want to send a bright signal of gratitude and love from Kolkata, Pune and Mumbai straight to all of you!

Thank you for your support, for your generosity and for your positive energy throughout the years, we wish you health prosperity and wisdom in the year ahead! Namaste!

From $10 a month you can help end poverty in one generation for families living in slum communities through our holistic fifteen-year plan which covers education, family planning, healthcare and financial assistance. Please support us today: www.responsiblecharity.org/donate

22/07/2024

When the day exhausts all the worn out feet and hands and the steam of the sun seems to have no end, the sidewalks turn into humble bedrooms as the vaporous breeze cradles you to sleep.

13/11/2023

Now that the drums have quiet down and the firecrackers have run out, and all the lights have started to dim as Diwali comes to an end, let the tired and faithful sleep under the watchful eye and embrace of Ma Kali.

19/10/2023

A portion of a building gradually protruding.. slowly overtime, unnoticed by those who brisk by it daily, a synthesis of bricks and humans coexisting in the same space, life fleeting slowly from the sapiens as gravity inflicts its demise upon the structures, a mirror of decay and existence.

calcuttaconfidential.com

07/11/2022

Sometimes my heart turns tumultuous, mirroring the ground below and sending it in all directions in thunderous waves replete with pent up rage, riding far and wide and holding back the break-point like an old canvas bubbling down, ready to burst at any moment.

26/05/2022

Living on the streets ain’t easy, but here you are, with your goddess and gurus hanging by your side, and your dog guarding the small radius of your occupancy, somewhat sheltered by a bridge above and a mosquito net that has seen better days.

calcuttaconfidential.com

10/07/2020

Everything. Everyone. All the fallen leaves and forgotten drops from all the failed storms. Every single botched attempt to love, to feel, to see a smile equate a sunrise.

calcuttaconfidential.com

02/05/2020

Sometimes I feel the entire city is hanging by a thread, and the crows are picking at it with the same voracity they do at the still warm flesh of dead rats on the side of the road; but then I see the shine beneath the clunky and anachronistic tram pushing through, majestically in its own right and unapologetic of the layer of history that has peppered itself over its rails. And then there's the will of determined men and the women who chose them, or often chosen for them, and if they're lucky, as the years go by, the colors of their saris brighten while the dust scattered by the flap of countless crows add yet another thin layer of memories to the rails.

calcuttaconfidential.com

01/05/2020

Where the smoke from makeshift stoves covers the lanes, and the rage and agony die and are reborn each day.

Where the heat is strong and the water flow weak, where there’s no secrets or quietude to seek.

Where a cycle of despair is weaved with waves of hope and the numbers of successes are grim and aspirations low.

Where I walk in silence with my heart on my sleeve. Often invited to hear pleads, often left with optimism at my feet.

calcuttaconfidential.com

01/05/2020

Hood dinosaur endures a swat of gnats under a heavy light right above his head. Can’t leave, can’t move, only stare ahead into the abyss of our neighborhood’s cyclical gossip and banter.

calcuttaconfidential.com

30/04/2020

Every early morning a battalion of garbage collectors roam the lanes of neighborhoods doing their duty. The unmistakably loud whistle blowing on cue, as if all of us have committed infractions and must make our way down from our respective apartments and atone for our sins by handing bags of refuse to these peculiar referees. And there’s even a bonus, for many, this daily occurrence also serves as a very effective alarm clock.

calcuttaconfidential.com