An encounter with the taxi driver of Kolkata

I got down in the airport. As advised by my friend Kaustuv here, who is from Kolkata, I went to the prepaid counter, booked a taxi for myself, followed the directions to reach the taxi stand. There as I got the taxi assigned to me, to thin men approached me. I was this woman holding a big laptop bag and a trolly bag alone. I must be looking like a easy shikar to them. Being used to the behavior of people at Chennai and Hyderabad, I thought one is the taxi driver and the other is the helper. The guy who looked like the helper snatched my bag, and placed it in the taxi, I said thanks and got into the taxi. As soon as I entered, he asked me money for chai pani !! I was like why??? And he would not move! I then told myself,'Girl! Don't forget! You are in Kolkata!' and paid him some money...

I was told that there are two ways to ISI, my destination, one through DumDum, a long, slow route through the old city with narrow streets, the other one through an expressway, faster, shorter and quicker... I made it clear to him to go through that way.

But suddenly I see, we are entering a really narrow street! I was confused.. When I confronted him, he said, he was entering into DumDum! I was like hell! And after that, the kind of arguments he put forth to defend himself why he wants to go through that way were amazing!!! Even while writing them down, I am boiling! x-( A few of them are, "Because people like you are unwilling to pay little bit extra money, we are not getting to fill our stomach!", "Expressway is longer one, and is longer by some 600 meters than DumDum route, and because of which, I will charge 50 Rupees extra if you demand any further to take that way!".... And he was unwilling to stop and turn back!  In the end, I had to say firmly, " Take through the expressway and I am not going to pay a single paisa extra to you for anything." And finally, he somehow managed to get himself out of those streets and join the expressway...

I was astonished! How my morning turned out to be, how I could have lost in the busy traffic of Dumdum and how was about to miss my conference, how miserable I was feeling while arguing with that old taxi driver and how irritating the city of Kolkata is.. I was resentful on this bad treatment of the city to me ... and at the same time, was slightly excited for being able to successfully argue with a Bengali Taxi Driver in Kolkata!