Impressions Of A City by Puneet Rajhans

Impressions Of A City by Puneet Rajhans
Spitting and standing on the vestibule is prohibited. This is the message etched inside the metro which moves in the north-south corridor. The other is on the duration of stay which is desirable for 30 minutes if one wants to enter and exit from the same metro station. And if one has taken the ride, the exit has to be within 90 minutes failing which the penalty would be levied on you.
As i stand in the queue to take a metro to Jatin Das Park, the token availability is not much of a problem, trigerred by functioning of more than one window. As the token is procured and the ride is taken, i am reminded of the morning ride which i completed with seeming ease given fewer vehicles on the road and fewer passengers on board. Going past Elliot Park and other destinations in the north-south divide, the ride back and forth was exhilarating; the difference being thick sheets of shower that came down during the return journey.

The chase for a cyber cafe is intertwined with the intake of a strong tea; the tea had to be specially prepared given the wholesome meals that had been tried at Lakhanlal (second time in three days) and the tea vendor that could not be located at Esplanade and roundabout. What i located was a hoarding on Benfish ISO 9001: 2008 and 22000: 2005 certified. There are interplay of forces with hoardings and hootings in and around. Perhaps a query to India Coffee House employee who spends more time outside than inside about tea availability is met with a stiff response; this followed by another guy declaring in chaste Hindi about ICH employee being secretary to some politico. And the guy who has made this declaration hoots if one hasn't acknowledged the all-pervasive influence. If this hooting was an exception, the K C Das food joint has a staff which seem to be overburdened with work- the renovation inside has made them stale stuff- and any query about sweets is met with a terse response and a wait that has no end to it. About two years ago as well when i had gone to fetch curd that could be carried to the National Capital, the exorbitant prices had stalled my effort. Equally it is true for meals including the one at Lakhanlal which on previous occasions came for Rs 25 and this time round it was Rs 34. As these experiences appear to be a mixed bag, the stay by all reckoning has been smooth and tidy. The pulse of the city reverberates with an agenda that has its feet firm to the ground, there is nothing to discredit those who are on the margins and nothing to credit those who are on a ladder. Lapped by a ladder and limos, they have to share space with commoners as huge number of buses ply and thrive. Personal transport could easily be dispensed with given the limited roads and the excessive crawling they have to do. But that is too difficult a solution to be tried. Because the Metro provides the limited North-South connectivity and rest of the territories have to be accessed by vehicles or on foot.
As these impressions take centrestage, i am reminded of the hot tea served by a vendor. The rates for special tea (full glass) Rs 12; special tea (half glass) Rs 8, ordinary Rs 2. Perhaps no other visible city in the country which has been subjected to economy catastrophe courtesy misguided liberalisation of economy can make a claim of serving tea for Rs. The tea vendor appeared to be a man of big heart and his declaration that 80 paisa for special tea (full glass) existed in the past showed the road we had traversed. From the states of Maharashtra to West Bengal, the tea quality may differ and the price as well. In Maharashtra, the tea is exceedingly sweet and in West Bengal it is somewhat tempered. Post meals tea is a necessity and braving all odds including long distance travels one is bound to have it.