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An Atheist Villa in a Hindu Pilgrimage Center in Bengal
Most of the narrow, winding lanes in Old Nabadwip lead to temples with terracotta ornamentation and curved rooflines. Rooted in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, these temples blast out devotional kirtans and Hare Krishna mantras night and day. They’re dedicated to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a Hindu saint from Bengal who founded the Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu religious movement in the sixteenth century.
Festival of Mystical Wandering Minstrels in South Kolkata
The tarpaulin tent sat in the middle of the fairground. All around was festive wintry cheer as the wandering minstrels, the bauls and fakirs from all over rural Bengal, assembled outside the tent. They were there for the Baul and Fakir Festival, a celebration of the artistic diversity and cultural heritage of the wandering mystics of Bengal.
Pathways Around Old Srinagar
Every morning, on opening the shuttered windows of his workshop in the Fateh Kadal District of Old Srinagar, 62-year-old Mohammad Hanief Bhat contemplates what’ll become of it after he’s gone. Sunlight washes over his wares—little brass casings, vibrant stones and beads—and dapples his charcoal furnace, the pastel green walls, and the age-old artisanal wheel—tools of a vanishing craft nurtured over centuries.
Neela Devi and the Blue Mountains of Tirthan
Neela Devi, strong and surefooted mountain woman, will not be lost in time. Neela’s giant strides in rural entrepreneurship may not be known to most people, but she truly is one of a kind. At the age of 14, Neela eloped with her lover. Almost four decades ago at the strike of midnight, she left her home…
Festival of Lights at 8,500 Feet
The darkness was enclosing except for the brilliantly star-studded sky. We were riding 8,500 feet up to the small village of Sharchi in the Tirthan Valley of Himachal Pradesh in the still darkness. It was the most memorable day for Sharchi and the fifteen or more villages surrounding it. It was the second day of Devli, Kullu District’s festival of lights. Celebrated a month after Diwali when devotees across India remember…
Kali in a Forbidden Neighborhood
A different Kali dominates Kashipur, a neighborhood that became part of the bustling metropolis of Calcutta in 1717. Kashipur’s fine muslin was one of the reasons that had spurred the British East India Company to solidify their base in Bengal from where they ruled over large parts of the Indian Subcontinent for nearly a century…
Priyadarshini Sen 