Having arrived in the city of joy after a rather ardous air journey , the sight of the hugely comfortable and rather archaic yellow Ambys was a pleasant departure from the Mercs, santros and VW jostling for space back home. Nothing to mention the tariff charged, which can be truly called ‘daylight robbery” – its double the base tariff + Rs. 2 /- : I find that back home, it was fleecing to travel by cabs, but by these standards, it’s a relief with a tariff card.
Navigating traffic is a actually no challenge here- u could be driving on the left most lane and suddenly swerve to turn right without any indicator (even after crossing the red light)- It doesn’t bother the guy next to u – he is doing exactly the same thing or even worse ramming into a handcart puller who is choosing to draw his cart onto the footpath !! Whew!
The smell of tobacco rather hangs over the air quite strongly - in hotel lobbies, road or even office spaces – probably Kolkata is a huge importer of the same.. is that why ITC choose to have its HQ here in city of joy?
The strong feeling of communism somehow is palpable in the atmosphere – almost like a flash strike waiting to happen; All women above 40 appear exactly like our honourable Railway minister : sickle in hand and waiting to explode like grenades set free in Park street!!
Rashmolai, Robindra shongeet & puchkas appear and disappear with much gusto on every palate, and the mall rats are abundantly found scurrying away from location to location – much like any other metro (or even a tier-3 city). I am told the cost of living is rather low here – something that I discovered for myself when a homeo drug that I bought here costs a third of what it costs back home. Ramkrishna paramahamsa alogn with the ubiquitous Kali maa appear on every corp desk with much affection and gratitude!
The winters have really not set in, with nov being fairly warm for this time of the year. All young ladies (either working or otherwise) do not however appear like Komolika (of TV fame), although I did detect a more leisurely (not laidback) attitude with all at office. Chai peeyo, office aao, 6 baje swipe out karo.Life mein aaram karo – that being the general attitude of the working class here, one can definitely guess what drove the nano out of WB, can’t we?
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