Neighbourhood Diaries (in English), Para Diaries (in Bangla), Mohalla Diaires (in Urdu/Hindi/Hindustani), is a citizen journalism conceived and run by Kalam: Margins Write, a literary arts organization for urban youth in Calcutta, India.
Often times, Bow Bazaar is recognized as a generic slum or red-light area of Central Calcutta. But the young growing, living, working, studying, in Bow Bazaar know that this neighbourhood has multiple identies, narratives, histories, and cultures.
In order to give voices to the multi-locality and multi-vocality of this thriving neighbourhood, Neighbourhood Diaires works with youth residents in Bow Bazaar mobililzing them as journalists, story-tellers, ethnographers of their locality through a weekly workshop series. Every Tuesday evening at Bow Bazaar High school, at the Sanlaap Drop-in-Center, Kalam educators Urbi and Bina get together with 15 participants-turned journalists to think, discuss, observe, and write about Bow Bazaar.
This weblog features the writings, photographs, and creative work of 15 youth journalists of Bow Bazaar.