Slumbering bodies line the streets, some in stretcher beds like warring wounded. Others slump, grounded in humid heaps. Dark beauty stains her balustrades, drips from shadows onto rickshaws queuing for tomorrow’s show. The roadsides sag with countless stalls, draped with ragged tarps and debris. The dogs, mongrels abound. Alert, they fossick, or pose still on the road.

This is Calcutta while she sleeps.

We sail past her glowing sepia facades. My mouth gaping the sultry air through the taxi window. My green eyes, wide behold lush avenue trees. And my held breath snagged for a moment in a swarm of humanity.