Reasons why one should visit Calcutta

No let me clarify at the outset only that I dont have any roots there nor am I a Bengali.But I went there sometime back on a trip which covered IIT KGP , Shankerpur beach , Fort wiliam an IAF Air base and ofcourse sweet Calcutta.
Infact the most surprising part was Calcutta , I had certain pre concieved notions about the city which turned out to be both true and false
To experience them you should visit Calcutta atleast once:

Probably the only city in India where all means of transportation exist Buses , Trams , TAxis , Boats , Rik shaws etc

• You will see the kids playing football and not cricket
• Those nostalgic yellow taxis.
• A marvel in sorts by the name Victoria Memorial
• Park street a pretty upscale market and in a way only one of its kind
• Chelo kabab of peter cat
• People who are Honest.
• Taxi wallahas who unlike Delhi doesnt cheats you.

I am tempted to write Fort William but for an Army enthusiast like me I will take that as two different entities all together.
But there are few things thats pretty interesting and that's the concept of Service Industry or the concept like "Customer is the king" thats pretty non existent there. These things caught more of your fancy when you are a Newbie MBA and are travelling with a group which share the same educational traits.

• Well as I have been told and experienced almost all shops ( In many parts of calcutta and west bengal) are closed between 2 - 5 PM just because they think its hot.


• I saw N number of processions there ( Being an illiterate when it comes to bengali) I cant figure out the intention.It could be because my trip co incided with May day.


• This ones take the cake : We a group of 12 people made an advance booking for a hotel and informed the manager that we would be late reaching at about 12 midnight. As Mr Murphy would have it we left IIT KGP at 12 midnight and then it was app a 3 hour drive. Well on reaching the hotel the manager said he wont give us the rooms now because " We are late by 3 hours". It took 12 MBA guys 35 minutes to convince one Manager and during discussion his only grudge being " Why are you coming late".

All marketing concepts gone for a toss

Not the end of story yet he then declined to open the main gates so thet we can reach the beach again citing rules, that to at a beach with no known history of shark attacks and the prevailing human race that cant predict Tsunami. Ofcourse we walked those few kms by jumping the gates.

But all in all West bengal is different and I will pray to God left ends up loosing all the seats in the current lok sabha elections, becaue I think they are behaving like ostrichs not allowing the winds of change and time to sweep through W Bengal , eventually they will sweep through but by that time they will be two steps behind the world.