It's a cool, sunny winter morning and members of Calcutta's Mookim Family are preparing for a big Jain festival to take place at the family temple on January 28. They are sitting around on the long portico of their house, which is situated on one side of the temple. Descendents of Rai Badridas Seth, who established one of the first Swetambara Jain temples in Calcutta, the Mookims are amongst the first migrants of the Jain community to have arrived in Bengal. "Our ancestors originally came from Rajasthan," explains 68-year-old Jainendra Kumar Mookim, "But today we consider ourselves as much a part of Bengal as any Bengali would because we have been here for several generations." Indeed. All the members of the Mookim family speak fluent Bengali and they proudly proclaim it. "We may have the reputation of being a tight-knit community, which keeps to ourselves, but in reality we have assimilated ourselves with Bengal one hundred percent and in heart, mind and soul," says Mookim.