THE GREAT KOLKATA TAXI RIDE

In those few days when my driver chooses to take leave, I get to experience the Great Kolkata Taxi Ride and be at the taxi driver's whims. It gives me a fair idea about how harrowing it could be for  taxi commuters in Kolkata.  To begin with the taxi stand just below my house on EM bypass had two taxis waiting  this morning. I thought I was lucky while I hurried towards the stand hoping that it would be a easy ride to office. But both the taxis shrugged a no saying that they would only go to sector V in Salt Lake which would fetch a good Rs 200 upwards fare and my office was a Rs 80 ride. This is not the first time I am facing this. The other daywhile waiting for a taxi, a lady was given preference before me  as she was going to Sector V, " Uni regular customer madam," told this man in the taxi stand with his paan stained apologetic smile. Interestingly each taxi stand which seem to have some party affiliations.( however, with the changing governments affiliations change over night) has an in-charge. They take a small cut from the taxi drivers every time they get a passenger. These in-charges instead of acting as facilitators to the people hiring the taxi just stand as mute spectators as taxi drivers have their will. Today while the Taxi drivers refused to ferry me to my destination that paan stained apologetic smile appeared again as he said, " ki korbo didi...jete chaiche na." When I started to take down the numbers of the taxi  and threatening a police complaint only then he swung into action stopping another taxi on the road and putting me into it. And there was a time when these taxis refused to take passengers to Sector V!

But,I am sure those who commute regularly by taxi bear the brunt of this supposed public utility service. My friend Syama living in Golf Green says, " I never get a Taxi from the stand near my house. Since the ride to my office is just Rs 45. I have to wait for a running taxi  passing that way. It's generally a long wait by the road while the taxi stand nearby is full of taxis." Passengers to the Airport or railway station find ready takers but short distance passengers are shunned with such arrogance that it seems they had asked for a free ride. The other day while I asked for a taxi at south city to  ferry me till bypass( near Avishikta).  The over zealous taxi stand in-charge showed me a taxi  the little away from him," he will go," he said and I thought how things had improved with the new government.  When I walked up to the taxi he just refused and each taxi driver in subsequent taxis passed the buck to the next person while I was left running from one taxi to another.  A taxi which was passing lastly agreed to go only if I paid Rs 20 extra. This was not a lone instance of my paying extra for a taxi on a short route. By short routes I mean routes which would cost me Rs 80 or Rs 90. Few months ago, I had to return from book fair paying double.  Same happened when I took a taxi near ITC  Sonar the other day. Whenever these taxis see police men or the hotel security they quietly take in passengers and once on the empty road they ask for the extra dough ( by extra I mean double) and if you don't agree to their deal they would nicely threaten to dump you on the empty road."Na hole onyo taxi niye nin, didi," they would nicely say. The  sight ofy  EM bypass road with not a single taxi in sight and other cars speeding by would give you a shiver as you would agree to shell out the extra dough instead. And the case of doctored meters is another story altogether!

For women travelling alone it is a double ordeal. A  journalist friend tells me, "I had boarded a taxi from Town Hall after an evening event at 9 o'clock. And the driver started behaving so strangely that I started feeling really frightened. He was giving real slimy looks and humming some songs. It one point  I wanted to get down but he did not stop. Thankfully he had to stop at a traffic signal near Rabindra Sadan. I jumped out and threw the money at him and boarded the nearest bus," she says. Singing strange songs( read obscene) and playing blaring music in the taxi something which most women must have faced while commuting in taxis in not only Kolkata but other parts of India as well. I asked many women and all of them came up with one or more stories of lecherous taxi men trying to be funny. Shyama tells me, "I just keep my fingers crossed every time during late hours and also in the afternoons. If I don't like the look in the driver's face I don't get up on the taxi."

There was a time when many taxi drivers in the city were Sardarjis and they really had the right attitude towards the profession. But now you hardly get a Sardar taxi driver in the city. Most of them are either Biharis or Bengalis. The Biharis taxi drivers may be of the musical genre  but the Bengali ones are the worst.  With no inclination to  hard work and a false feeling of political empowerment of the downtrodden they have developed an arrogant streak. As a result this public utility service  has gone to the dumps. I am sure there are  good taxi drivers but they often get lost this milieu. The general people who are the passengers take everything in their stride. No one will complain to the police " Why go into the trouble," they say or they would rather blame it on the city.....