There is an hour in April, sometime after two, when the lane empties out and the heat rises off the road in slow waves, and the house gives in to it - shutters half-down, the light turned the colour of turmeric on brass.

গ্রীষ্মের দুপুর : the summer afternoon, a pause we never were taught to schedule, it is simply how we have always lived. Slow.

A গঙ্গা ফড়িং (Dragonfly) stitches the air above the water. Down in the lane the flower market is being swept- marigold, bel, tuberose,the same blooms that will be laid, by evening, in the corner of a house where people fold their hands. A mango is cut and eaten with fingers.

A বেলফুলের মালা (Bel flower) goes soft in the heat and gives everything away.

This is where our culture comes from.