Demon statues line up in Kolkata as Diwali, the festival of lights, nears

Not the kind of crowd you expect on a quiet street. In Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, a whole row of demon statues is standing in front of a workshop.

A man walks slowly between them, almost as if he were inspecting the line-up. The scene comes just before the start of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

The figures are arranged side by side outside the workshop, so anyone passing by has to squeeze through a small army of demons. The picture has a certain irony: in the days before a festival of light, the dark figures get all the attention.

For the man in the photo, it is simply a walk past the work in progress. For the rest of us, it is a neat glimpse of the preparations in Kolkata as the festival gets closer.