Barely 3am, the shutters of every shop of central Calcutta’s Taltala Lane are down, all doors and windows shut tight to keep out the winter chill. He is a vendor, a peg in the mid-sized machinery of indigenous bakeries and vendors servicing Calcutta and its outskirts for the last 50 years. Rahman says, “From Taltala, we send bread to Kidderpore, Bhowanipore, Behala, to college canteens, sporting clubs and government offices in central Calcutta. Our bread slices are thick and keep you full for a longer period of time.”Hasibul’s cycle van rolls out of Taltala. He goes inside each shop, takes stock of what it has, accordingly selects from his wares, offloads and arranges them, scribbles details in a notebook, makes the shopkeeper sign and leaves.

Source: The Telegraph December 21, 2025 03:05 UTC