On the road in Kolkata in Dec 2021

 On the first day of our six day Kolkata sojourn, I was happy to see "NO REFUSAL" sign on the taxi.


Four days on , I realised "NO REFUSAL" applied to the customer and not the taxi driver 😢😬😢😬

Local transport is a big pain point for once in  a visitors.

Autos ply only point to point with three passengers at the back and the fourth to driver's left on a extended seat. You can take shared auto  from Tollygunge metro to Joka ( just short of IIMC ) but you need to change twice. Yhe autos would not budge a metre from their route.

Ola and Uber - minimum four cancellations if you are lucky. Average rate is  Rs 40 plus per km minimum. Yellow taxi guys tell you a "take it or leave it" rate, a few budging a little.

Ola / Uber guys would ring and ask where you are headed. If you say you would tell him only after boarding, he would straight away cancel the trip. I found a way out of this. Two / three cancellations on Uber/Ola ( it takes less than ten minutes- you have to ensure the driver cancels the trip and not you ), you get an idea of exorbitant rate. Then try for a yellow taxi for around the same rate. Yellow taxi drivers knew about your Uber/Ola failure. They know visitors "trust" Ola and Uber. As they drive you around, they tend to ask, " Ola / Uber mei kya kiraya dikha rahe thei? "( how much is the fare Ola app and Uber app are displaying ?)

We engaged a taxi for day trip to Bishnupur - a taxi service set up strongly recommended by a friend for reliable service. We asked him to report at 6 am. After persistent follow up from 5.30 am ( he was always five minutes away ), he turmed up at 6.35 am- extremely punctual by Kolkata standards ( city is bathed in daylight early thanks to being in the east but people do not wake up 😬).

The driver turned out to be the owner of the taxi service set up. He said, "Raasta mein itne signals tha, poocho math."( So  many signals on the way )

I asked him whether all the signals came up overnight after I engaged him. He responded with a disarming smile saying I was a humorous person.

We tried for a Ola taxi for our last leg from Lindsay Street to airport- engaged him on phone for 20 minutes - but the guy could not make out our location.  We were in such a prominent location but the guy could not locate it - that is Kolkata for you.

We engaged a yellow taxi.   The  driver of last taxi we engaged from Lindsay street to airport - a yellow taxi - needs  appreciation. The  driver of this taxi  needs to be appreciated. He took us through a very crowded route where our taxi fought for every inch of space. I asked him why he did not take the long fly over at Park Circus. He said there were four party rallies on the way to the fly over ( Kolkata Municipal election was on 19 Dec -three days away ) and he would ensure we would be at the airport well in time. He knew the route well. First 4 km took 50 minutes and the remaining 14 km took 25 minutes.

I shudder to think of what would have happened if the Ola guy had reached us...

We traveled on Metro as much as possible. If you  move away from South Kolkata, there are no autos. Mini buses and hand pulled rickshaws are the only choices after alighting from the metro with a few yellow taxis waiting for you to go upto them.

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