Chowkidars lead hard lives, keeping wide awake and alert while the city sleeps, and often getting paid a pittance for their labours. To supplement their meagre income, they do odd jobs during the day such as washing cars, selling milk, making idols, working at construction sites or hawking on pavements.

In Kolkata, the ubiquitous chowkidar is an integral aspect of the city’s defining character. Many of them are senior citizens. Their work hours lend them an air of mystery. They often figure as characters in local detective fiction books and films, thanks to the nature of the job that often puts them at the scene of robberies, drunken and other antisocial offences, and even suicides and murders.

With the advent of security agencies, CCTV cameras and other advanced systems, the chowkidar is increasingly being seen as dispensable. The friendly neighbourhood chowkidar is being replaced by uniformed guards.

Yet, more and more people from several eastern states continue to migrate to Kolkata in the hope of becoming a chowkidar as jobs dry up back home with the shutting of small industries, jute mills, tanneries and cotton mills. Some of these men are appointed by police stations, while others are hired privately. The chowkidars generally start patrolling at 12 am, and continue till five in the morning.

Many areas are ill-lit and silent at that late hour. But trust the chowkidar to venture ahead with a torchlight, whistling and rapping the ground with a lathi — the sweet sounds of security for a city in deep sleep.

Jeet Sengupta is a Kolkata-based photographer

On call: Bimal Rudra (78) became a chowkidar after retiring from a beverage factory. A stick, shawl and a whistle keep chowkidars company and serve to reassure residents

Nocturnal creatures: Shivprasad Pashman (70) has been on the job for 18 years, and sells milk in the morning

Old hand: Jamuna Prasad Gupta (60) has been a chowkidar for half his life. He also hawks stationery goods during the day

Double shifts: Tarakeswar Sao (58) works at a chemical factory during the day. Migrants like him often become chowkidars in Kolkata

Heavy duty: Uttam Sao (50) of Bihar supports his family with his earnings as a night watchman

In character: Buzzing with the sights and sounds of local men indulging in ‘adda’ during the day, residential areas turn quiet after dark

Eerie does it: An abandoned garden ornament lit up by moonlight; props that keep chowkidars company

Horror story: Like chowkidars, knotted banyan trees often find mention in local ghost stories

Whispers in the dark: Older colonies inevitably feature empty houses called the ‘bhoot bangla’

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Midsummer night’s dream: A full moon night is a typical setting for mystery stories featuring chowkidars