Kolkota Diary-2

Day 2 began on a pleasant note with constant drizzle and occasional short bursts of heavy downpour. Our day's programme was structured to contact government officials who can help us gain authentic information and provide access to land customs stations about indo-bangladesh trade inputs (commoditywise and route wise) and link up officials at Petropole, situated approx. 100 km from Kolkota.

With an introductory letter from Delhi, we landed up with Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics of Ministry of Finance and Department of Revenue at Anandpur area of Kolkota. After a short wait, we met Dr Amitava Saha, Director, and he was more than willing to 'sell' these intelligence inputs for a price - officially, that is.

So long as authentic information is available for a price about anything in India and from Government, I have no hesitation in procuring it. It is altogether another matter that there is a tendency to gain access to these inputs free of cost.

I strongly believe that information is invaluable. Authentic information, more so. The very fact that government which has ultimate access to all legal transactions between these two SAARC nations through surface, air or ocean from various entry/exit points has seen the possibilty of selling these inputs for a price is truly laudable for a variety of reasons.

No doubt, these inputs are definitely accessed by the Planning Commission and relevant ministries at the federal level for formulating policy framework. Similarly research outfits and think tanks should also be ready to buy these inputs to gain an alternate insight into these data and come up with their own policy outline.

Dr Saha briefed us about the procedure to acquire inputs and indicated a 10 day timeframe to provide us the information we were seeking. While DGCI&S would provide us all-India figures, interaction with LCS at Petropole is under the jurisdiction of Kolkota Customs.

Later we moved to Kolkota Customs on the Howrah/Babagarh/Strand Road front. Smt B D Dasgupta, Chief Commissioner of Customers, Kolkota, entertained us and she was already familiar with colleague Absar Alam who had a quick visit to Petropole a few weeks ago.

We subequently met Mr Gurmeet Singh,Commissioner, who had assumed charge only recently and he had already been briefed by Smt Dasgupta over phone in our presence at her office. He is yet to visit Petropol, yet he shared his inputs heard from others with us. He also sought our feedback when we are back.

He has linked us with Assistant Commissioner at Petropol (U C Dass) and categorically stated not to visit on Friday which is a weekly day off on the Bangladesh side and hence there will be very little happening on the Indian side as well.

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Living in Salt Lake guest house was fine, but searching for early morning tea/coffee was difficult. Barrring roadside tea-cum-eating joints that open up at 5 in the morning, even guest houses don't operate their kitchen before 7 a.m. If you are an early riser and want your hot cuppa soon after you wake up, you had it. I faced this challenge. But gingerly stepped out for a roadside tea.

By the way, the cost of tea varies between Rs.3 and Rs.4.  Yes, you can buy a tea for less than five Rupees in Kolkota. You can have your tea in: small earthern cups, plastic ones or glass ones. You're asked about your choice. Wow!

Except Delhi, you can see the circulation of one rupee and two rupee coins more frequently! A friend said, Delhi is not a "chillar party"! I have been seen this in Chennai, Mumbai and elsewhere.

After every trip outside Delhi I had invariably returned with at least 50 rupees worth of coins! Only to be shunned by shop keepers and DTC bus drivers when you hand over these coins. Even they prefer five rupee coins or notes in any denomination. Big boys!

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Can't help talking about yellow Ambi cabs in Kolkota. They are dare devils. Like mosquitoes .... sorry, they are everywhere. Omnipresence. Omnipotent! Like mosquitoes. Like God, if you wish. All taxis are metered and we did not come across even a single cab driver negotiating a price for any destination. Printed receipts are promptly given when asked for at the end of each journey! Even racing horses feel shy of competing against Kolkota cabs.

Though I enjoy traveling in Ambassador because it is spacious and comfortable, these Kolkotan cabbies pray for safe passage.

Kolkota roads offer a unique picture: there are trams (British legacy!); there are private mini buses. there are state transport buses; there are yellow cabs; autorickshaws; cyclerickshaws; and, hold your breathe, even handpulled rickshaws. all these compete for roadspace and you can imagine the chaotic scenario. add private cars of all dimensions, motorcycles, cycles  and pedestrians.

***
Talking about the daredevilry of kolkota cabbies, we had a personal expeirence. While returning from Kolkota Customs, it began to rain. Passing through Lenin Sarani, narrow road, you have tram tracks on both sides. our cabbie more or less hit a motorcylist who was thrown out of his vehicle, he flew into space for a short while before landing on the ground with a thump. I jumped out and rushed to the victim. His motorcycle carromed off to go under a stationary public transport bus that had also stopped. the entire traffic came to a standstill. two traffic policemen in the vicinity came running. one quickly flipped his notebook open. Public also gathered. Someone helped the victim to get up and his hands were bleeding and there were some scratches. While all attention was on the victim and the melee in the middle  of the road, my cabbie (I suspect he hit the victim from behind) quitely slipped out leaving me behind.

it was raining and we were all getting drenched. my colleague was inside the cab. Once convinced that victim is not dead, I moved out of the crowd and began looking for my cab. From a distance, I could make out, he was jumping a red signal and dashing across. Maybe he does not want to be stopped and slapped with a police chargesheet. Don't know.

At a distance of 200 metres he halted the cab, waiting for me. My colleague craned his neck out and waved at me. I got in and asked cabbie as to why did he not stop because he has hit him. He said, it is not his fault. The victim was driving very slowly leaving no space for other vehicles and therefore he was hit from behind. What a logic!

I told my cabbie, had this happened in Delhi and if the cabbie tried to run, public would have halted and bashed him up. He did not respond. Maybe he was lucky to skip out any mess.

While it took us almost one hour to reach Kolkota Customs while going, this daredevilry cabbie brought us home in less than 30 minutes. No doubt, he might have taken some short cut. But he was jumping red signals and driving as if he was possessed. Well, this is Kolkota!