The quintessential ‘Bangali babu’ or ‘Babumoshai’ (as he is called, more affectionately) is a middle-aged, middle-income, office-going Bengali man. He dresses like it’s still the ‘50s, complete with a plain shirt, pleated trousers, sweater-vest, an over-sized pair of spectacles and an inimitable hair-do. He likes to eat rice and fish curry and baigoon bhaja (fried eggplant) for lunch, always with a mishti (sweet) to finish the meal. He likes to engage in long-winded discussions about history and politics, read great literature and poetry, and smoke numerous cigarettes. There will invariably be a very sombre portrait of Rabindranath Tagore hanging on a prominent wall in his house.

Fascinated with the Bengaliness of Calcutta, and particularly with the men, I roamed the streets of Calcutta looking for these fictional characters I had read about in books and seen in Satyajit Ray’s films.  When I did find them, I decided to accost them in the street with my camera and make portraits of them. Many complied, some were suspicious, and others would have liked to have posed for a picture but they were rushing to catch the tram to India Coffee House to join their fellow babu friends for a chat over a long and meandering coffee.

(This project has been supported by a grant from the University of Oslo, Norway in collaboration with Drik India and Pathshala South Asia Media Institute, Dhaka.)