What is a thek? Simply put, it’s a joint (though not the kind you may have smoked in college!!), a place where like-minded people informally get together for a common purpose. The purpose can be a questionable one, such as drinking, drug use or gambling; or it can be a benign form of socialization. Thek has been a common term in the street parlance of Bengali culture since around the 1970s, when my generation came of age. While I’m not absolutely sure about the provenance of the word, it’s possible that it came from the Hindi word “theka”, meaning a place to halt or rest.