Passage

An open notebook of destinations, craft and the light that shapes how we see.

Essays by Deesha Goswami, from Ahmedabad.

Ink and watercolour illustration of an old city square at night: lamp-lit food stalls in front of carved stone arches and balconied houses

The latest essay

Manek Chowk After Nine: One Square, Three Trades

Ahmedabad's Manek Chowk changes its trade three times a day: vegetables at dawn, gold and silver by day, dinner after nine. On the square, the saint it is named for, and its night market.

Read the essay
A woman in an ivory kurta wearing Black Bloom pearl and tassel earrings beside a kitchen window after dark.

At Home

After the Lamps Go Out

An essay for the hour after Diwali: the last diya guttering on the parapet, the kitchen finally quiet, the rangoli walked through,...

3 minute read
Editorial illustration of a lightweight floral cotton razai airing over a wooden railing on a sunlit Jaipur terrace.

Destinations

Light as a Razai: Jaipur, Quilting and the Bags That Carry It

A Jaipuri razai is judged by how little it weighs. On hand carding, why quilts are stitched at all, and how the...

5 minute read
Editorial illustration of an open wooden cupboard, brass vessels, a steel tiffin and bundled newspapers during a pre-Diwali clean-out.

At Home

Before the Lamps: The Diwali Clean-Out

Before the first diya, the ladder comes out. On the Indian Diwali clean-out: the raddiwala's scale, brass under tamarind, the shelf of...

6 minute read
Illustrative editorial scene of women dancing garba in an old Ahmedabad pol courtyard at night.

Destinations

Round the Lamp: A Night of Garba in an Ahmedabad Pol

Nine nights of sheri garba in an Ahmedabad pol: the clay lamp at the centre, the sound of bangles and ghungroo, mirror...

6 minute read
Illustrative composition of an aubergine sari draped over a dark wooden chair beside a sunlit window.

Clothing & Memory

The Second Wearing

On returning to a beautiful garment: the familiarity of its folds, the confidence of repetition, and the clothes that become our own...

5 minute read
Illustrative editorial view of a quiet Ahmedabad textile studio with folded cloth, threads and tools

At Home

The Room Where Work Happens

A studio is not defined by its shelves or samples, but by the quiet sequence of choosing, undoing and choosing again that...

5 minute read
Illustrative editorial scene of wooden block printing on cotton at a craftsperson's table

Inspiration

A Morning at the Printer's Table

Before a printed cloth becomes pattern, there is a table, a carved block, a measured hand and the patient work of making...

5 minute read
Illustrative editorial view of an Ahmedabad pol courtyard in noon light, with carved timber and shaded stone

Destinations

The Pol at Noon: Shade, Courtyards and the Old Houses of Ahmedabad

At noon, an Ahmedabad pol house reveals its intelligence: deep shade, inward courtyards, carved timber and rooms arranged around light rather than...

5 minute read
A brass thali filled with katoris of dal, sabzi, rice and roti beside a South Indian banana leaf meal, the same food arranged two entirely different ways

At Home

The Same Plate, Arranged Differently: Why Every Region in India Has a Different Thali

The same dish, arranged differently. On regional thalis, the grammar of a plate, and why there has never been one correct way...

9 minute read
Ceramic and glass pickle jars standing in the sun on a terrace above Ahmedabad, with raw mango slices drying on a cloth beside them

At Home

Jars in the Sun: Regional Indian Pickles You Must Taste

Mango on a terrace in May, mustard in a Bengali kitchen, prawns in Goan vinegar. A journey through India's regional pickles, and...

9 minute read
A bowl of moong dal khichdi with ghee pooled at the centre, served with a brass bowl of kadhi and roasted papad

At Home

Khichdi: The Story Behind India's Ultimate Comfort Food

Rice, a handful of dal, water, and time. A reflection on the oldest bowl in India, and why the simplest food is...

9 minute read
An Indian doorway at dawn with a fresh white-and-rust rangoli, mango-leaf toran and brass diya in warm natural light

At Home

At the Threshold: The Indian Art of Welcoming

Before a guest enters, an Indian home has already begun to welcome them: a swept step, a line of rangoli, leaves above...

6 minute read
A wooden harmonium and a folded cotton shawl on the floor of a quiet Indian room, lit by louvred window light

At Home

The Hours Have Their Own Music

In the old music of India, a melody belongs to an hour and a season the way a colour belongs to its...

5 minute read
Hands folding a silk sari into a weathered blue-grey wooden cupboard stacked with jewel-toned zari-bordered saris

At Home

The Cupboard

Twice a year my mother opens a cupboard the rest of us are not allowed to touch, and the whole house changes...

6 minute read
Frozen Lake Louise under snow, ringed by dark spruce and grey mountains at the turn of spring in Banff

The Seam Between Seasons: A Fortnight in Banff

Two weeks in the Canadian Rockies at the turn of spring, where the snow had not left and the summer had not...

5 minute read
A lone figure in a handwoven indigo shawl standing on the white salt flats of the Rann of Kutch beneath a violet dusk sky and full moon

Destinations

Salt and Indigo: A Day at the Edge of the Rann

A day spent between two whites and one blue, the salt desert of Kutch at dawn, and the indigo vats of Ajrakhpur...

4 minute read
A lamplit armchair with a knitted throw beside a tall window on a rainy night, books stacked on a side table

At Home

The House That Keeps Secrets

Eight domestic thrillers, read over a single monsoon, and what they keep teaching me about the rooms we think we know best.

5 minute read
Paper kites above weathered Ahmedabad pol rooftops in warm late-afternoon light

At Home

Seasons of Colour

How the light and festivals of one city, Ahmedabad, repaint the same streets year after year, until the calendar becomes a thing...

6 minute read