Thanks to everyone who has complained about me not posting anything here. Hope you haven't been put off and stopped checking. The first month was allocated to settling in, learning some basic Bengali, finding a place to stay and being ill. All four of these tasks now completed, I can start looking towards starting my research. In the mean time here are some pictures from the my daily journey from the training centre where I've been staying to my Bengali language school.
The training centre (and also the Institute for Educational Development) are in Niketan, which according to my 2004 Lonely Planet map is part of a big lake, but is now a huge construction site full of unsafe-looking bamboo scaffolding. 
Large gates punctuate the journey - these seem to function partly as a zoning system for the city's rickshaws.
The next part of the journey is a series of market lanes.
Taking this photo caused a retinue of small children to gather around and follow me for the next half hour.
Emerging from the market area onto the congested main road at Mohakali
Further on I cross the land-filled bridge through Bonani Lake, surrounded by slum housing and with a few skyscrapers visible through the heavy smog. The city's largest slum, Karail, with over 100,000 residents, is near here, although this slum is apparently being cleared.
New flat
Moved in on Friday to this new, wastefully huge and slightly under-furnished flat in Bonani. The photos don't do justice to the echo-y expanses of empty space. Had to find somewhere quickly and this place was available for short let and reasonably priced, but yes, there are some contradictions involved in doing slum research whilst living in a flat that has a laundry room bigger than most people's entire dwellings.
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