Day 1 amidst Dhakkkka !!!

Honestly I had no expectations!!! But there is bare minimum that a civilized human needs for existence!! One who has not been through this would probably be apathetic to the pain or rather frustration of a human soul.

Lets start from scratch. The Kolkata International Airport – The first thought that came to my mind, are we still living in the stone or iron age. Probably those people would have lived in better surroundings. If this is what the state of affairs is, I wonder what is the impression that we are giving to tourists who land up here!! Leave apart the fact that they would never ever in their wildest of imagination have the thought of revisiting this part of the country. Whoever is travelling through the KIA please make sure that you never use their washrooms (well if I may say those are washrooms). Funnily enough, aboard the crampy ATR aircraft for the half n hour ride we find strange people involved in even stranger conversations. I wish I was blessed with some sardonic annoyance but there are certain things that kind of hit you right in there.

So finally the travel to country, that boasts of far too many doctors than engineers (probably 10 times). I later found out that here they provide graduate doctors degree through distance education as well. Wow!! A neurosurgeon who has learnt the same through distance learning!! Amazing!! I am sure that I am hitting too hard, and the situation is not that bad here, but such is the plight of my situation right now, I need to vent this out in some form.

On arriving at the immigration the officer seemed really polite, well that’s what I am thinking right now considering the aftermath. We complete the lengthy immigration check and move towards a counter that was supposedly the most popular telecom service provider. For the first time some pleasantries were exchanged and the guy asked for some documents. The formalities over the guy hands me over the SIM with the assurance that SIM would have talk time worth 50 TAKA. Happily I put on the SIM on my phone and when I switch it on, a new surprise. The phone displays – Invalid Sim Card. This guy astonishes us with his worldly knowledge – “Sir you must be from Bangalore. We have seen this problem to happen in all Blackberry sets from Bangalore”. Could someone in the world help me understand what is the difference in a BB purchased in Bangaluru and one in Kolkata. I would be surprised if RIM has evolved to such levels of customization that they have started recognizing Indian territories as well. The communication by this time had changed from Customer service oriented mode to a victimizing mode. Fine I take help of my colleague, and check whether the SIM has been activated and yet another surprise. The talk time left was only 44 TAKA. I have been divinely blessed with the power of selective ignorance and since I had landed up here with an expectation of facing such tyrannies I took that on my stride and moved towards the prepaid taxi counter, with a wise thought of not falling prey to the touts outside!! The guy at the counter suggests an AC and a NON AC version of the cab the difference being 100 TAKA in this country. When we request to book a non AC cab, the guy promptly replies that only AC version is available and there is an additional 100 TAKA of service tax that comes along with it. Great news! God wants us to lead a comfortable life considering we are so well paid; some amount should go towards the development of the economy of this country. The guy starts writing a voucher in some language which would have given the highest paid cryptologists a run for their money. Finally we take the voucher and look for the cab – please bear in mind that although you have paid for it, you need to look for the cab. All the luggages inside we started our way towards the Guest house. Strangely the cab driver seemed to have no interest in putting the AC on. We thought of reminding the driver gently considering that we had put in hundred extra bucks. “Ac’s doesn’t work on CNG” – prompt reply from the driver. We have had enough till then already and chose to silently curse the driver, the country, its people and anything remotely connected with the place.

Finally we reached our destination, our home for the next month. The place looked decent, the community around looked pretty good. So finally at the end of the day, some respite and time to rest. God knows what lies ahead. Yet to face the people with whom we are going to work. I hope the little bit of good that started towards the end of the day continues tomorrow as well.