01Ideas
A conversation about work and dignity
A made-up interview with a retired schoolteacher about pay, respect and forty years in a classroom.
Cover story · City life
The Courtyard Quarterly
Living with the river
Families on the riverbank talk about floods, fishing and what the city upstream does not see.
Read the storyA quarterly magazine of essays, profiles and ideas, published online and read slowly.
Features
A jeweller who repairs what others throw away
Broken chains, missing stones and heirlooms in pieces. The quiet art of the fix.
03Culture
The street photographers of the old city
Old cameras, early mornings and a rule about asking first.
In brief
A day at the wholesale cloth market
Thousands of bolts, hundreds of shops and a language of prices you learn by listening.
Ten objects that tell the story of a home
A steel trunk, a radio, a prayer mat. Readers sent us the objects their families kept.
The last letterpress in the old city
Wooden type, hand-mixed ink and wedding cards that take a week. A workshop that refuses to hurry.
Inside the city's oldest music shop
Harmoniums, tablas and a repair bench that never empties.
What a city looks like at 5 am
Milk vans, sweepers, joggers and the first tea of the day. A photo essay.
In praise of boredom
Phones fill every gap. What we lose when we are never bored.