Today’s Mahalaya marks the beginning of the festive season, and with it, the first Shiuli flowers are falling gently from the trees across Bengal and East India. Known as night-flowering jasmine, ...

Every year, long before the city streets of Kolkata come alive with the clatter of puja preparations, millions of Bengalis wake to a familiar 4am sound: "Ashwiner sharad praate…”, the recitation of ...