Kolkata
This gallery puts together fleeting glimpses I have had of Calcutta/Kolkata and its people during short visits to the city. There is so much to enjoy photographically starting from the golden winter sunlight to the textures on the walls. Most of the photographs here are in colour - black and white does leave out important information.
I saw this man sitting a little behind the entrance to a building on Ezra Street. He was in the shade and I asked him to come forward under the sliver of sunlight right at the entrance.
Auto-rickshaw driver near Shobhabajar, North Kolkata.
This gentleman runs a shoe shop on Chitpur Road/Rabindra Sarani. This is one of a line of shoe shops on this side of the street.
Kumortuli.
This gentleman agreed to let me photograph him using two different cameras as he sat outside a tea shop on Jawaharlal Nehru Road. I love the amused, playful look on his face.
Bookseller on College Street.
Taxi driver on Sarah Bose Road. Note his blood shot eyes. Drinking the night before?
Shopkeeper near Tiretta Bazar.
A man taking in the last bit of winter sunshine at the end of the day on Gariahat Road.
Worker at a bakery near Bow Barracks. I was able to photograph him at his place of work. He kept an intense gaze while his colleagues around him found it very amusing.
God in high places. Roadside temple near Shobhabazar metro.
Bhar. Tea cups. Near Central Avenue.
A lucky photograph in Kumortuli. Lots of parallelism - not just the vertical lines made by the bamboo poles, but also the artisan and the god looking at the camera at the same time.
Migrant workers milling together on a morning off. Ezra Street.
Restaurant worker, Hindustan Park.
At a vegetable market on B. B. Ganguly Street. Love the man's relaxed pose.
Shopkeeper on Manohar Pukur Road.
Photo of a photo. The background in the photo frame matches the colour of the wall. Vegetable market on B. B. Ganguly Street.
A brilliant mishmash of chaos and texture. Election posters, Modi, Career Sniper and Body Massage all in harmonious coexistence.
Old door, old wall. Somewhere in north Kolkata.
Winter sunlight patterns.
Kumortuli. And somewhat reminiscent of the Argonath in Fellowship of the Ring.
Light and dark in a workshop in Kumortuli.
Work in progress bathed in golden afternoon sunshine at Kumortuli.
Flower seller near the flower market under Howrah Bridge.
Iconic Howrah Bridge. Some people who never grew up still feel excited crossing the bridge.
Mullick Ghat flower market.
Traffic policeman in his hut on Hazra Road. He has a very non-police, innocent look on his face. He was wary of me thinking I was from the press.
Two policemen curious about cameras. Dalhousie Square.
Migrant worker. Rash Behari Avenue.
Afternoon sunshine and lens flare. Bhowanipore.
This security guard in Bhowanipore was sitting in the sunshine not having much to do. So he spent his time writing in his notebook. (See next photo.)
What the security guard was writing.
Messi and CM Mamata
Sleeping on the job in a yellow taxi. Bhowanipore.
Light and shade. Winter sunlight magic. Somewhere in south Kolkata.