Dola De

It’s a bit of a climb to the second floor of this building in Kolkata, especially when it’s hot outside. Flat No. F1 is where everything happens for Dola De. We’ve got the 700 010 pin code which most people around here know well. The flat isn't huge, but we make it work for what we need. The balcony gets some good light in the morning, which is nice for a break. We started here because it was convenient for everyone. The area is pretty busy, so there’s always something happening on the street below. Sometimes the traffic noise makes it hard to talk, so we close the windows even when it’s humid. We don’t have a fancy lobby or anything like that. You just come up the stairs and knock. Usually, there’s a stack of files by the door and some old furniture we haven't replaced yet. It’s just how it is. We spend most of the day here, drinking water and getting through the tasks. The neighbors are mostly families, so we try to keep things quiet. It’s a lived-in space, not some sterile office you’d find in a mall. There’s a scratch on the main door from when we moved the big table in three years ago. It reminds us of how much work it was to get set up. It’s our little corner of the city and it works for us. We also keep a few plants on the windowsill that we sometimes forget to water.