Meat Market, 6:12 AM
I was there before I meant to be. Took a wrong turn at 6 AM and ended up somewhere that had already been working for an hour.
The shutters are half-raised.
Water runs across the floor but does not make it clean. It just moves things around.
A butcher sharpens his knife without looking at it. The sound is controlled.
Hooks hang from beams. Some empty.
A woman presses a cut of meat with her thumb. She names yesterday's price before asking today's.
Flies settle early.
A boy fans them away with cardboard.
Outside, milk boils over at the tea stall and is forced back down.
The knife hits bone once.
No one reacts.
-Abhishek Banerjee
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