The man with stubble shot a sharp glance from the front of the general store

Man wearing Taqiyah — Man wearing a Taqiyah

Walking through the old town of Sonargaon, the ancient capital of Bangladesh, I came across a man sitting beneath the dim eaves of a small general store. He wore a white takiya cap and was staring intently in my direction. When I raised my camera, he looked momentarily surprised—but neither smiled nor turned away. Instead, his expression seemed to ask silently, “What exactly are you photographing?”

Behind him, the shelves were lined with small packets hanging in neat rows. From a distance, they looked like shampoo samples, but in fact, they contained gutkha—a popular South Asian stimulant made from a mixture of lime, tobacco leaves, and aromatic spices. Users tuck a pinch of it beneath the tongue or between the gum and the lip, savoring its sharp burn for long stretches of time. In Bangladesh and India, it’s said to be even stronger than tobacco, and you can often spot habitual users by the curious bulge in one cheek as they speak.

This little shop, too, seemed to embody the microcosm of local life. Each packet costs only a few taka. Shampoo, soap, and gutkha alike are sold in tiny portions, as though rationed by the rhythm of daily existence. The workings of the economy, I thought, are never abstract here—they dissolve quietly into the smallest units of life itself.

Sonargaon on Google Map

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