The Lazy Eye

  For the first-time visitor, Kolkata's Chitpur Road, now Rabindra Sarani, is a raid on sensation, sense-making and signification. The reflexive ethnographer disentangles herself momentarily from the traffic congestion outside the 'Badi Masjid, ' as the muezzin starts sounding the call to namaz on the microphone. It was almost time for the evening prayers- namaz-i-maghrib- and men ( namazi log , as one of the officials pointed out) were already making their way inside the congregational prayer hall. Birds circled about the mosque's two minarets breaking into the menacing Calcutta skyline as the first rak'at  rolled onto the terrace where I was standing.  From a window adjacent to the courtyard of the masjid, we sighted a man participating in the congregational prayers from his own room next door.  We were on the lookout for a very specific attar that afternoon. Itr-e-gil: the earthly smell that follows the first spell of rain. The shopkeepers at the Calcutta branch