The Ubiquitous Yellow Taxi !!!

The day is still fresh in my memory as yesterday..... The day I landed in Kolkata . It was almost three years ago. I had come here for the GP /PI for SCMHRD (Symbiosis center of Management and Human resource development) . It was a dream come true for me.. getting a call.

I arrived in Kolkata ... The enormity of the station was so awesome ... I still remember the feeling..... A sheer feeling fo magnamity by the city which was going to become my abode for the next three years.....

As if the city of joy.... was just giving me a mere glimpse of what I was going to see in my next few years ……..

As I stepped out the site of the imposing man made structure made me weak in the knees .... People call it the Howrah bridge I call it the …”identity of kolkata”.. The structure that gives kolkata its soul …….

Then..wait … I saw something …… Something next to this colossus display of human prowess …….. It was a sea of yellow. Flowing through the bridge like the water flowing below it …..

It was the biggest fleet of ambassadors all painted in yellow … Here I was introduced to the phenomena named as the Kolkata Taxi ….. I call it the “ubiquitous Yellow cab” ….. No Pun intended …. It is literally everywhere … This was what I was going to discover in a few days ……

Then there are the all knowing kolkata taxi drivers …… A glaring example of the cosmopolitan nature of the city … the majority of these Shumacher’s are the biharis and Sardars . My first experience with these kings of the road was anything but pleasant ….

As I alighted out the station there was this Sardar jee … A Huge Sardar aged somewhere 50 having a flowing beard .He reminded of the greek God Zeus.
I was looking for a place somewhere around the college street, it being the place where my Interview center was …….

Zeus through his divine eyes of experience could make out that it was the first time in kolkata for me. Promising to find me a hotel at the place where I wanted, he took my luggage, a trekkers bag containing my humble belongings and locked it in the trunk of his yellow taxi.
The born entrepreneur that he was, he wanted to make the most out of my ignorance of the place.
He started waving at new passengers. Then when it became too late , I called out to him to give me the bag but then using the sheer power of his Greek God physique , he was successful in intimidating him .

Later on I found myself in a jam packed taxi with a family of biharis, plying for the first time on-board the ubiquitous taxi.

This was my first experience of the yellow miracle, the eight wonder of the world, the kolkata cab.

Then encountering these taxis in one way or the other was passé for me. Somehow or the other this taxi was always there in the lives of the kolkata dwellers.

Till today when I have my means of transport (a Pulsar) these taxis have become more important . Nowadays they have become the carriers of death for me (touchwood) . They appear to be on direct contract with the Grim Reaper himself. You can see these taxis a la Shumacher zipping across the roads all the way to kingdom come. One small distraction is enough to pack your bags to heaven.

The only thing running faster than these cabs are their meters. Till date I am not sure what alien technology was deployed to make these meters. Some devious god forbidden black art make these meters work . Be it the old quintessential analog meter ( looking like pegs sticking to the side of this animal like horns) or the new upgraded digital version, their speed of accumulating numbers is always the fastest.
Lucifer himself was involved in the manufacture of these meters. The obvious devilry that accompanies this meter that tends to devour the overlooking eye of the every day traveler leve alone the new comers to this city.
The numbers shown on this devious meter is not the actual amount that one need to pay to the taxi drivers . Some sort of calculations are involved in calculating the amount you actually pay to the devils advocates for the death defying trip. A little mistake and the humble taxi vallah becomes the Lucifer incarnate.

But then there is always the flip side of every thing. The ubiquitous pushpak Viman is the life-line of this great city. As I said before this is the soul of the city and how can the soul force be devilish ?
These yellow angels are always there when you need them. Be it anytime of the night you can find these guardians of the city of joy always at your service.

Many a times these messiahs become our path showers to places we don’t know. The safest bet to know any place is to ask a taxi driver and lo and behold you will be transported to the exact location. Be it the smallest nook in the worst market place in the world i.e. The Burra Bazar, you name the place and these traffic kings will guide you to the place.

Then these yellow taxis are your own chauffeured Benzes. The vehicle that takes you to your destinations sans the pollution ( you can always roll up the window), the noise ( there is usually a blaring FM radio in the taxi) and the works ( provided you are mature enough to play into the hands of another Zeus like my first time )

As the time comes for me to end my journey of life in Kolkata, it will be again the ubiquitous yellow taxi that is going to take me to the Howrah Station plowing its way through the sea of its look alikes as if it is on a funeral march of a dignitary. Because for it every passenger is nothing short of a dignitary.
As I pass through the portals of the Howrah bridge, it appears as if it is holding its arms wide asking me to not to leave.

But as everything comes to an end this journey has to come to an end too. I keep thinking as I move in the yellow taxi towards the Howrah Station……