Last Compartments are for Females only !!!

Gaurav would really be sad on hearing such a gay-ish decision by the metro rail authorities. The last compartments of the Kolkata Metro Rail have recently been reserved for females, where no male can put their curious toes. We are all really amazed by such a gay-ish decision. It will have its effect. Some are: -

1) Girls / Females / Ladies will be stared at by the fellow passengers on the Metro Stations more as the men would not be able to stare at their female co-passengers on the train during the journey. After all everthing should be in balance. Na?

2) Number of male as well as female passengers on the train will diminish on the Metro Rail thus creating huge losses for the Metro Rail authorities. To compensate this, the authorities should reduce the price of the fares by one rupee else I don't find the chance of number of passengers to increase.

3) Sometimes we see some villagers (with due respect to them) visit the Metro Rail for the sake of riding the train and fun. They usually travel with 10 kids and 5-6 adults who are either male or female. They also usually have a tendency of entering and exiting the compartments by holding each other’s hands in the fear of getting lost from their dear ones. Thus if there are 4 females in a group of 15 people, then there is a high possibility of their getting lost as they will not be able to get inside and get outside the compartment by grasping each other’s hands. There is also a possibility of these males getting off on one station and females getting off on the next station or on the next to next stations. So the authorities should be prepared for more and more villagers getting lost in Metro Railway from now onwards. They can start preparing a lost and found cell in all the Metro Staions.

4) Girlfriends and Boyfriends or at large couples would have a difficult time travelling on separate compartments from now on without their better halves.

5) The loss of metro would be gain for the buses and taxis as people would be travelling more on buses thus adding congestion on the roads. Thus Kolkata Police would have a difficult time in managing more traffic jams and so they would have to put extra effort on their duty.

Instead of such an emotional step, the Metro Rail authorities should have increased the frequency of trains from 15 minutes to 5 minutes throughout the day. People would have really praised them and blessed them as the number of traffic has drastically increased since the inception of the Metro rail.

Visitors till this post: 12900 visitors

2nd Metro Railway in Kolkata

We are going to have a second Metro Railway in Kolkata soon. I would like to discuss the boons and the banes that would follow it: -

Boons: -

1) We can reach Howrah within 15 minutes of Metro Journey from Bowbazar.

2) We can reach Salt Lake (including Sector V) withing 20 minutes from Bowbazar.

3) More people will be moving through this lifeline or East-West Metro Corridor as a result there will be less air and noise pollution in these stretch.

Banes: -

1) At least 100 buildings in B.B. Ganguly Street will collapse like packs of cards.

2) Many insane people will protest the building of the East-West Metro Railway.

3) Construction work will go for at least next 10 years in the new Metro Railway route with severe waterlogging during monsoons.

Visitors till this post: 9721 visitors

BOOK FAIR 2007

This year's Book Fair was not looking like one. It seemed like a normal fair that was unable to draw people to it. I had the opportunity to visit Book Fair 2007 with Gaurav and stayed there from 2.00pm till 9.00pm on Sunday the 18th of Feb, 2007.

The poor infrastructure at Salt Lake Stadium made the fair look lean. Maidan, where the book fair is held every year has its own charm. No other fair grounds can ever have the same charm or copy the charm from maidan. People travel by Metro Rail to visit the book fair at maidan each year which was something people missed a lot this year.

Even the collection of books were less compared to the previous years. Leading publishers were also not seen this year.

Firstly, a fishy stinking smell was coming out from the mud and the sand that was laid before the stalls. The lanes between the stalls were narrow, that made it difficult for the crowd to pass during peak hours. Only one good thing was that there was no puddles here and there that is a common site in Maidan.

Another thing that draws praise is the paper-pickers who picked the papers lying here and ther on the ground. The collected the papers to keep the place clean. They were sponsored by a leading FM Station. (I don't remember the name) . Those paper-pickers did a great job.

The toilet facilities were good for the males, but I saw a great queue in front of the female toilet. Only the authorities knows the actual reason.

The price of food items touched the sky. Cost of any food items was charged twice their normal price. This is a common phenomenon seen in Kolkata nowadays. The food items have become really costly. It is really difficult for the middle class people to afford them. The quality was also lacking.

There were only about 900 book stalls but most of the book stalls were extended around the stadium making most of the people unaware of the stalls there. So many remained aloof of the stalls around the stadium. All the people concentrated on the stalls that were erected behind the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

There was a grass field where couples and lovers haad the good opportunity to sit together and chat their heart out. This grass field was behind the stadium and was secluded from the main fair which made the couples have a good time.

While returning there were absolutely no transport facilities by the transport department and most of the people has to return to the next more (crossing) by walking and catch a bus or a cab from there. As for our case, we had to walk till Beliaghata CIT More to catch an auto to Sealdah. Others had to walk till Phoolbagan or Ultadanga or Chingrighata to catch a bus or auto to their home. The inadequate transport facilities disappointed the enthusiastic crowd.

Next day, I saw on the newspaper that there were about 90,000 footfalls at the book fair on Sunday the 18th of Feb, 2007., which was about 1/9th compared to the normal footfall at the Maidan. Hats off to Rani Rashmoni for gifting the people of Kolkata the Maidan which is both culturally rich and filled with heritage.