Naptime for a cart puller and his kids. They sleep so peacefully on this crammed little lane.

A deaf and dumb sari wallah who is really the best of all of them. He's so easy to communicate with - almost like he can read your mind. If you are just thinking about something, he reaches for it and hands it to you! He laughed when I mimed I will fold you up into my suitcase and take home with me. He's 10 times more industrious than any other worker too and has a sweet smile on his face mostly. Everyone in the market just loves him and talk about what a peaceful and sweet guy he is, and smarter than all of us. I guess in a screaming buzzing place like new market its nice not to have the din in your head.

Rush hour in the shop. The staff unfolded sari after sari, but these women had eyes too big for their wallets and walked off without buying a single piece. Everything gets folded back up again.

A constant shuffle of goods around the different shops of the new market make it an interesting beehive to hang out in.

This glorious old colonial building was probably once the home of an affluent family when it was built. Now it's a beehive of tiny flats and offices and hasn't been repaired since. The spiral staircase is glorious art deco ornament, just left there unused and unappreciated to rust. There are 10 people living on those roof shacks in the foreground. I got to watch them bathe on the roof every morning and the housewifes meticulously sweep the floors of their kotris.

A tight and organized network of sweepers with handcarts, temporary dumpsites and old sagging vehicles miraculously clear the constant stream of trash thrown onto Kolkatta's streets.

There is a quiet grace to the utter filth and disrepair. A stray dog lounges in the shade of the wheel, he's just had a good breakfast in the trash pile.