Rooney gets drowned by Kolkatta Rain!!! [Kolkatta Diary (Part 1)]

Kolkatta Calling
Life has its own way, i had a matter in ahmedabad to attend and one fine evening i got a call from client and was informed to had to appear in kolkatta.And actually i was dreaming of that famous hugli bridge where mani ratnam shot climax of yuva.. and entire kolkatta shown in yuva… but heaven had other ideas, Well not much happens except that that when u board the flight all the people in there are bengali 😉 and didnt had a single clue what they where talking save for few jokes i cracked in english anything more was abnormal… and it bloody takes 2.5 hrs to fly (its a vital statisitic whose importance u will know below! 🙂 ) and and when u land u feel u have landed in a local airport, yup they are to do a faceover and renovation i am inofrmed the state is in a bad health financially and theres too much debt, but still i cudnt believe it!! I was in sonar bengal and beautiful and cheeky kolkatta 😉

Yellow and White Ambassador Cab
Once you get out of the airport you expect to get pre paid taxi but no such luck as they say u have to come inside to book it, well i was already feeling like alice in wonderland! When i tried to go in from where i exited i was inform i cant i have to enter from original entrance inspite of the fact i just exited from arrival gate 30 seconds ago!
So i said heck with it ( i will regret that) so it was raining hell, and nobody to guide me to taxi, and i am informed sir we have two taxis here yellow taxi and white cabs…. Now well the intellectual may ask.. whats the difference?? why so?? well the yellow ambassador is yellow in color as u can see the pic above.. and white ambassador is white in color… simple.. naaah.. well yellow is cheap and white is Rs 50 expensive.. so next time u remember when to chose yellow or white.. choose yellow thats cheap 😉 .. anyways seriously well in appearance both where ambassador except god knows if one ran on water and other on petrol… (actually the difference was one was taxi association the yellow ones for which i was denied to enter airport again as their front window which was supposed to be open was closed as the person told me “Welcome to Calcutta” ) Actually indeed i was dreaming of sonar bengal dreams and saurav ganguly and and eden gardens.. but destiny had other ideas it was raining like hell i was informed since last one week…. and finally i got a white ambassador, and cracked a deal more expensive than yellow… well why? well coz i missed the yellow cab! …

3.5 hrs journey to hotel
All was stil fine but i completely lost it when i was informed it would take hours to reach Hotel 😦 so i nquire what does hrs specifically mean? bhaiya? i was informed hours mean hours. . kolkatta traffic plus rainfall means hours means hours.. i guess!! Well it took 3.5 hours to reach hotel (remember the vital statistic from first para of flight time from ahmd to kolkatta 2.5 hrs!) only!!

Dont rely on google maps or dont rely on them when in kolkatta 😉
All the idea great kolkattan night was spoiled, and i decided to take rest anddrop in the place where i am suppose to visit next day i was guided abt a certain place. .. and so after lovely dinner we took a cab, and went there… only that according to google map it shud take 5 directions and 10 minutes it took us 1 hr 🙂 And did i say in the interagnum we met all kind of people alcoholic, dalal types, watchman who ran after our car, and did i forget to mention that actually the place we were searching was actually filled with encroachers? at night… and we had to run!

Eden gardens…
So came the morning, and i just decided to cross check the place where i had to visit and the desk person gave a completely different address and cross check with google search and it also showed two different placefrom two different website… so in morning i ran to catch a cab and visited this new place now! well this was the good part, except for the fact the cab guy was bullying me and asking more rates then normal.. and in the road i saw eden garden beautiful! indeed i dont know why people say home of cricket is Lords… i always felt it was Eden Garden…

Being a supporter Mohun Bagan helps
i just saw people young kids playing football in mud and said mohan bagan, and the driver asked me reitirate what i said and i feared what if he was a east bengal fan! but nope actually he turned to be bagan fan and said he would take normal rat for me( a reason why one should follow football, and hope to meet the correct fan 😉 )

the unique kolkatta way of charging in a taxi…
Another interesting thing is in kolkatta they dont charge u directly the rates in taxi.. whatever u get in machine double that and add 2 rupees to it… figure that!!

anti climax
Well finally i came back and got readied had a breakfast and went for appearance only for other side to turn up and say we were here only to move minor application and NOT THE ACTUAL MATTER WHICH WAS IN LINE OF FIRE… SO IT WAS A TECHNICALITY DEALT WITH IN 5 MINUTES and i was free!!! excpet for various one ways of calcutta which automatically convert themself to otherside one way at their will!!

“Heat” Millind Calling
I Went back to my place, and called Millind which will form part 2 of this Kolkatta series. And one can only imagine what happens when the great satyamshot member (and later NG member) and the NG legend Millind collides, one of the most breathtaking encounters, debtates and war of words.. huh… well i guess i might have oversold it… thats next week 😉