Colors of India: On The Road

The boss was off for his very much anticipated Sandakphu-Phalut trekking in Darjeeling, India. All in all, the journey took more than 10 days including the overnight transit in KL, the stay in Kolkata city pre and post trekking in Darjeeling, India. The boss was scheduled to return to KL on the 10th Nov 2011, before catching a flight home to Sdk on the 12^th Nov 2011 evening. We managed to catch up with each other from time to time with the boss’ newly acquired India cell number. Thus, I was sort of roughly aware of his itinerary but there was one thing he deliberately kept away from me. Not until the Saturday night, when he was about to catch a flight from KL-Sdk. He dropped me a text that night from the airport asking if I have any tasks for Sunday School on the following day, or shall I have any errands to be carried out on that day to which my answer is no. That certainly arouses me to quickly reply and ask if he was scheduled to come over to KK that night :P. To my expectation, well, he said ‘Nope, I am returning to Sdk’. Not until few texts down our conversations, the boss replied ‘But pity someone who has to fly over to KK again tomorrow morning’. I definitely need not to elaborate how did I feel. LOL. By the way, that’s very very t-p(cal) of him! :P

So, fast forward to the boss’ November’s spot-check entry on the following day (131111). We did the normal stuff from eating, eating and more eating as well as some shopping apart from lazing while letting the boss to do all of the talking. I made him talk and talk about his trip and trekking journey along with the photos he took from his camera; which was indeed a rare sight to someone who let me to do most of the talking all the time :P So, here’s a snippet on some random photos on what can be found on the road in Kolkata, to which i find interesting. I’ll leave the honour to the boss to go round with his itinerary journal in his figurines and scale modeling oriented blog :)

Kolkata city is formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal.  The city is also aliases as ‘Cultural Capital of India’, ‘The city of Processions’, ‘City of Joy’ and so forth. Picture 1 from left to right:  If you were born in the 80s era, you would probably be very well versed with Dr. Bombay’s famous song ‘Calcutta Taxi’ which was a hit when I was in my early teenage. I remembered the whole class can hum away with ‘Calcutta, taxi taxi taxi in Calcutta’ almost whole day long. :) When I did my research a while ago, I have just discovered that the singer, Dr. Bombay was not an Indian in person. Jonny Jakobsen (famously known as Dr. Bombay) begun his career as a country artist, but was famous only after his metamorphosis into Dr. Bombay. So, this is the authentic Calcutta's taxi ;) Picture 2: Another type of taxi in the form of van apart from Kolkata’s trade-mark taxi. This is better known as mini bus in our country. 

Picture 3: I first came to know about what trams are only in uni during my Highway and Transport subject. In my definition, trams are literally train on asphalt road :P From some of the websites I visited, I learnt that this transport evolution debuted with horse-drawn trams as early as 1881 and subsequently evolved into steam tramway in 1882 and eventually into electric trams that India has to offer today. The Kolkata tram is the oldest operating electric tram in Asia, running since 1902. Tram lends Kolkata an old world charm and add to the romantic element of the city. This slow moving, electrical transport in narrow and crowded streets, completes the ultimate attraction of the city. Having glided down the rails as a historian witness, tram has itself been turned into an immemorial heritage, of which all Kolkatans are proud of (via).

Picture 4: A typical looking 4x4 jeep like what we have in Malaysia. But, what made my jaws dropped was the fact that this jeep can actually engorged up to 14 adults there!. This jeep ferried 10 trekkers in a group along with 4 porters tagging along for more than an hour  or so ride from Darjeeling to the site *roll eyes* :) Picture 5 & 6: An auto rickshaw (i.e tuk-tuk, baby taxi) and the conventional runner pulled one, respectively. It’s almost unbelievable to find such traditional lifestyle in the latter still exists amidst the modern transportation technology in the country. Talking about rich culture, valuable history, I think Kolkata had it all. From all the photos can be found in the boss’ memory card, I think I can also safely assume that the city is also animal-friendly :). Picture 7: A living stallion probably has lost his way standing in the middle of the road, somehow do look like a statue in a roundabout. If you squint hard enough, you'll see public buses in the background. Picture 8: The picture may not do its justice. There was a tribe of more than a hundred of goats by the roadside.