Professor Steve Raymer recently returned from Calcutta, now officially known as Kolkata, on an Indiana University New Frontiers Grant to begin a photo documentary project on what Raymer callsl "a city renowned for its slums, Marxist militancy, red tape and love of argument."

The former British colonial capital, with more than 800 officially protected buildings and monuments from the time of the Raj, also is home to more poets, authors, playwrights, filmmaker, photographers, and assorted intellectuals than other city in India, Raymer says.