Mullick Ghat Flower Market

Directly beneath the eastern end of Howrah Bridge spreads one of the largest flower markets in India, well over a hundred years old, with some two thousand sellers on a good morning. Marigolds arrive in garlands coiled like rope, by the basket and by the truckload; lotus, jasmine, roses, and hibiscus (the offering flower of Kali) move through in volumes that defy belief. This is a working wholesale market feeding the city's temples, weddings, and funerals, not a tourist installation.

Go at dawn. Between roughly 5 and 8 AM the market is at full intensity: porters running with bales of garlands on their heads, auctions conducted in shouts, the air thick with the smell of crushed stems and river mud. By mid-morning the best flowers are gone and the energy fades.

Practical notes:

• Watch your footing: the ground is slick with petals and mud; wear shoes you don't love
• Keep cameras close and movements polite; you're standing in the middle of people's workday. A smile and a nod go a long way
• Afterward, climb to the bridge for the view down over the marigold carpet, or walk down to the ghat behind the market, where men bathe and wrestlers train at the centuries-old akhara
• Combine: flower market at dawn → Howrah Bridge walk → ferry across the river. The best three hours in Kolkata, and they cost almost nothing

Dawn under the bridge