Explore the real-world places that appear in A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include U.S. Consulate General Kolkata, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Howrah Bridge, Howrah Station, College Street Boi Para and 6 more.
5/1 Ho Chi Minh Sarani — Where the family's visas are obtained
The visas that Ma, her two-year-old daughter and her elderly father obtained from the consulate are the family's ticket out of a collapsing city to join Ma's husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They are the documents whose theft sets the plot in motion. Ma's struggle to protect and recover the papers drives the novel's week-long search.
The U.S. Consulate in Kolkata, one of the oldest American diplomatic posts in India, was established in 1792. It has been located on Ho Chi Minh Sarani, formerly Harrington Street, since the 1960s. It has long handled visa services for eastern India.
The consulate still operates on Ho Chi Minh Sarani in the Park Circus and Park Street area, processing visas and consular services. It is a secured government facility, and the public cannot freely visit it.
Dum Dum — The departure point the family never reaches
The family's flight to America from Kolkata is just days away when Ma's purse, containing their immigration documents, is stolen. The airport represents the promise of safety and a reunion with her husband in Ann Arbor. The theft threatens to keep Ma, her daughter and her father stranded in a failing city.
The airport at Dum Dum began as a military airfield and later became Calcutta's main international airport. It was renamed in honor of freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in 1995. A new integrated terminal opened in 2013.
It is one of eastern India's busiest airports, with domestic and international flights. Travelers can use its terminals, shops and restaurants.
Visit: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (landmark)
Over the Hooghly River — Crossing between Howrah and Kolkata
The great steel bridge is part of the sweeping geography of Kolkata that the characters cross, whether in the search for the thief or in the daily scramble to survive. It links the Howrah side with the city's heart. It frames the novel's portrait of a crowded, strained city.
Howrah Bridge, a cantilever bridge completed in 1943, was officially renamed Rabindra Setu in 1965. It was built without nuts and bolts, using rivets. It carries enormous traffic and pedestrians daily.
The bridge remains one of Kolkata's most recognizable landmarks and a major route across the Hooghly. Visitors walk across it and view it from the riverbank ghats.
Visit: Howrah Bridge (Rabindra Setu) (landmark)
Western bank of the Hooghly — The city's great rail gateway
Howrah's vast station and its surrounding streets embody the crowded movement of people through Kolkata. In a week of scarcity, such transport hubs are places of desperation, where those trying to make a living, like the novel's characters, converge. Majumdar uses such spaces to show the stresses of a city under pressure.
Howrah Junction opened in 1854 and is among India's oldest and busiest railway stations. Its red-brick terminal building dates to 1906. It serves as the gateway to eastern India.
The station remains a major hub, with hundreds of thousands of passengers each day. It is a working transit facility that the public may enter as passengers.
Visit: Howrah Junction Railway Station (landmark)
North Kolkata — Bookstalls and crowded lanes
North Kolkata's dense, bustling lanes, including the College Street area, evoke the city in which Ma and Boomba each move. The crowded neighborhoods are where hunger and tension rise as the food shortage worsens. Their lives, though very different, play out across this shared urban fabric.
College Street is home to Presidency University, the University of Calcutta and the Indian Coffee House. Its bookstalls have drawn students and readers since the 19th century. It is often called the largest second-hand book market in the world.
Thousands of bookstalls line the street and the Indian Coffee House still serves customers. It is open to the public as a lively market district.
Visit: College Street Book Market (landmark)
Lindsay Street — Central market district
Markets are central to the novel's concern with food shortages, rising prices and the search for the next meal. Scenes of people hunting for rice, vegetables and basic goods show how scarcity reshapes everyday life. Ma and Boomba each negotiate the same strained economy from opposite sides of class.
New Market opened in 1874, designed by Richard Roskell Bayne and named for Sir Stuart Hogg. Its red-brick Gothic clock tower is a landmark. It was one of the first municipal markets of British Calcutta.
The market remains a large shopping complex with hundreds of stalls selling clothing, food and household goods. It is open to the public daily except Sundays.
Visit: New Market (landmark)
Central Kolkata — Restaurants and nightlife
Park Street evokes the city's more comfortable, cosmopolitan side, in sharp contrast to the hungry neighborhoods where Boomba's family lives. The novel's view of Kolkata contrasts those who can still eat well with those scraping by. The divide sharpens as the food shortage deepens.
Park Street, formerly Burial Ground Road, was renamed in the 19th century and became famed for restaurants and nightlife. It runs past the historic South Park Street Cemetery. It has long been the city's dining hub.
The street remains known for restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. It is open to the public.
Visit: Park Street (landmark)
Maidan — Marble monument and gardens
The vast open spaces of the Maidan and its landmarks are part of the Kolkata that the characters cross. They offer a glimpse of the city's colonial grandeur against the backdrop of its present crisis. The monument stands as a symbol of a city whose past glory contrasts with its fragile present.
Victoria Memorial was built between 1906 and 1921 in memory of Queen Victoria, designed by William Emerson. Made of white Makrana marble, it blends British and Mughal styles. It now houses a museum of the colonial era.
It is a museum and set within landscaped gardens, open to visitors most days. It is among Kolkata's top attractions.
Visit: Victoria Memorial Hall (museum)
Central Kolkata — The city's great green lung
The Maidan is an expanse of open ground where many people gather, rest and pass through. It serves as a shared public space in a city where families like Ma's and Boomba's struggle in different ways. It underscores how the rich and the poor inhabit the same city.
The Maidan was cleared in the late 18th century around Fort William to give the fort a clear line of fire. It is one of Asia's largest urban parks. It hosts football clubs, rallies and sports.
It is a vast public park used for recreation, sports and gatherings. It is open to everyone.
Visit: Maidan (park)
Along the Hooghly — Riverside steps
The Hooghly's riverbanks are places where people of all classes gather, bathe, and find a moment of relief from the crowded city. They echo the novel's themes of survival and community. The river frames Kolkata's daily life, including those of its poorest residents.
Babughat, built in the 19th century, is one of Kolkata's historic riverside ghats. It is near Strand Road and the Eden Gardens area. Kolkata's ghats have long served for bathing and ritual.
The ghat is a public riverside space where people bathe, pray and walk. It is open to visitors.
Visit: Babughat (landmark)
East-central Kolkata — Crowded transit hub
The crowded streets around Sealdah show the pressure of a city with too many people and too little food. Those living on the edge, like Boomba, move through such spaces seeking any opportunity. The area embodies the desperation that drives his escalating crimes.
Sealdah railway station opened in 1862 and became the entry point for refugees after the 1947 Partition. It serves the eastern and southern suburban network. It is one of India's busiest stations.
Sealdah remains one of the busiest stations in India, with a huge daily commuter population. It is open to travelers.
Visit: Sealdah Railway Station (landmark)
More by Megha Majumdar: All Megha Majumdar books
Other nearby maps: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai locations map