Reflections: Kolkata

It has been just over 5 years since I was last in Kolkata. Like the new shiny airport, there are things that have changed drastically - yet much remains the same. The airport itself seems to have this dichotomy - the transformation is an engineering marvel; but it manages to retain the bureaucratic overhead, seemingly recycled the public signage from the old airport; and since it is largely underused, with no one but passengers and staff, it is quite soulless.

The gap between the rich and the poor has become more noticeable. Kolkata, previously proudly working class and communist, has acquired a distinct upper (middle) class segregation - flashy malls and gated high rise complexes, live side by side with beggars, slums and street vendors eeking out a living.

The pollution levels have not decreased, instead it probably has increased. Part of that could be purely cultural behaviour - shop keepers for example regularly thoroughly wash the perimeter of their stores, but have no hesitation to throw rubbish or spit just outside the perimeter. Noise pollution has certainly increased, and the haze seems to be ever present. That said , Kolkata is probably one of the greenest cities in the world - with greenery across the city, and one of the most noticeable aspects from any high rise.

Life seems to have become harder - the long commute times and big traffic jams (average car speed seems to be around 30 Km/h) and living costs have spiraled. Although some things, like the low cost of telecommunication services (due to economies of scale), and more stable electricity supply are significant improvements, these are probably still luxuries for most.

In short a lot has changed, but not necessarily for the better or for all. In many ways it retains the old stereotypes of being dirty and unprogressive (when compared to other large Indian cities). India may be on its way to becoming an economic powerhouse, but for Kolkata at least, it has a log way to go to becoming an attractive place to live.

Navigating Kolkata Traffic

Except for major roads, which have clearly defined pedestrian crossings, navigating traffic in India can be an experience on its own.

Cars, busses, trucks, bicycles, rickshaws, auto(rickshaw)s, motorbikes and pedestrians seem to have a complicated dance where they all seem to flow together. There is a cacophony of hooting from the various vehicles and the occasional cursing (usually of a smaller vehicle/pedestrian against a larger vehicle) although I didn't see any of these escalate to anything more.

In all of this, all parties just seem to flow past, in slow steps. Pedestrians do not wait, they just cross - vehicles seem to give way, one way or the other. Likewise, vehicles are often passing each other, often across what would be the opposing direction. Almost all vehicles preach about "following the rules of the road", none seem to actually do so.

Remarkably, I didn't see a single accident, but that is not to say that they don't happen. But the relatively slow speeds (cars seem to average about 30 Km/h) means that it is relatively easy to stop. Travel times are therefore long, and frustrating.

I haven't driven a car in India, and I don't think I want to. Being a passenger or a pedestrian is scary enough.

Effective Airport Security

For the most part, airport security is more theatre than reality. There are a number of articles written elsewhere on this subject, Bruce Schneier being the most prominent, so this post is about an airport that I think has got it better than most.

I didn't pay much attention to Kolkata's airport security coming in, but the differences on the outbound was certainly notable. Most notable is that quite a number of the key decisions are performed by the army as opposed to contractors. This means that the mandate that they are working with is more aligned to the goals (anti terrorism, civilian safety) than the contracted security firms in other airports. It also probably means that the level of training for the security personnel is significantly higher, so they can make meaningful decisions instead of relying only on written instructions.

Only passengers are allowed into the airport terminal itself, which is somewhat strange in itself. This off course means that the airport is not a shopping mall, and all goodbyes have to be done kerbside. Entry into the terminal requires an air ticket and a passport. The process is slow, but each passenger is checked on the match (does the passport document match the traveller , and does the ticket match the traveller).

Like the US, each bag is then x-rayed, but this us before check in can take place.  Airlines cannot check in bags until it has gone through this process; and an appropriate tag has been attached. This was one of the places where there were civilians manning the apparatus, although I think it was still supervised by a soldier.

The passenger security clearance didn't require separate screening of liquids and gels; but the screening process itself was more thorough. Each passenger undergoes a pat down, bags seemed to be scanned with the passenger, and they do seem to pick up more details. They also tag each bag that has been screened. At boarding, there is a final round of checks to check whether the bag you are boarding with has been screened or not. 

It is a massive bureaucratic process, with checks and counter checks. It is certainly not fast, neither is it particularly welcoming. However, I think it is a lot less theatre - it feels more effective. It feels like every check had a reason and that it all ties up together. It is a small airport with a handful of flights, so I don't know whether the process can scale. But compared to other airport checks, it feels safer and better.

Second Test: India vs South Africa

Test cricket is apparently dead. Yet, within the last few months we have seen some matches that have been better than any 20-20 or ODI; not only in the manner of scoring runs, but in the tension and skill exhibited. There was the Pakistan-New Zealand match where Bond showed what Test cricket has missed out on and the emergence of Umar Akmal. There was Shewag's 290 odd runs in one day of battin against Sri Lanka, and then there was South Africa vs India, in the recently concluded test match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, where I am currently.

Eden Gardens is trully a different atmosphere for test cricket - both to what I have seen and experienced in Durban or Cape Town. While the (current temporary) capacity of 70 000 was never reached on any of the 5 days, there was still a sizable crowd; with each day's crowd probably exceeding 5 day combined crowd numbers at most other grounds, and if nothing else Eden Gardens showed that there is a paying public willing to watch test cricket (and makes a good case for why certain cities should just not get test cricket matches). The atmosphere was electric featuring a few interesting characters - especially the man painted in the Indian flag, carrying a massive flag and blowing a conch shell (used mostly for Hindu prayers) for either showering blessings on a 4, 6 or wicket, or to usher wishes to the bowler or batsmen.

But the noise and the crowd would be meaningless without good cricket - and there was tons of it. Amla and Petersen provided great batting on Day 1. Khan and Harbhajan caused one of the biggest collapses, also on Day 1. Shewag, Tendulkar, Dhoni and Laxman showed their respective skills while Amla stole all the glory and praise for his technique and patience as he almost single handedly saw South Africa home.

I had tickets for all 5 days; but I only went to days 1, 2 and 5 - and I wished I was there for all 5. It was definitely one of the best matches in recent history; and a great showcase for test cricket.

Reflections: India - Kolkata (formerly Calcutta)

It is freezing outside in Frankfurt - its a nice 1 degree Celsius, which is a full degree warmer than the temperature in London a few hours back! That said, Frankfurt was covered in snow - a very picturesque sight, which can't be said of London - it was just cold, no snow. And it is all a great change from India, where despite the fact that it is winter, the average temperature was in the 20s. So, despite the fact that India has over 9 million broadband connections (more on that later), I stayed off the information highway for my stay - so this will be a rather long post ....

It is very weird to be considered huge - not because of the results of overindulgence of good food, but because I am apparently very tall. I suppose, in Indian standards, I am - the average height for an Indian seems to be about 1.65m and there have been many instances where I had to watch my head lest I bump into something - I pity the really tall people (like Sean)...

It is very interesting when confronted with opinions from two ends of the cultural spectrum, and I am not talking only about arranged marriages. India is a very conservative nation, values imposed by Victorian England, values which will probably be retained for a long time into the future. As an example, a major talking point in the newspapers has been a comment by a south Indian actress (as opposed to a Bollywood actress) who said that there was nothing wrong with "safe pre-marital sex". That quote is apparently about 2 weeks old, but since then, there has been numerous protests, demonstrations by politicians and others on how the comment was degrading to the women of India, how it was degrading the moral fibre of the nation etc. Anyone who has supported her has been similarly labeled, even if all they said was that she had a constitutional right to freedom of speech. But its not really pre-marital; sex that was the issue - but rather that sex was raised as a topic in the first place! But the cultural differences do not end there - there are many more - and it has been quite an experience trying to remember all the differences.

India is all about numbers - 1 billion + being the most significant of these numbers. Because of the huge population, even small percentages have huge impacts. This has both good and bad; but IMO, the trend is more towards the bad than the good.

Pollution - of all types - is bad. With the number of people, there is just not enough resources being allocated to maintaining a healthy environment. And the general health of Indians is probably very much worse off than many other developing countries in the world. And much of the air pollution is due to the old car models - and the transport networks in India (both rail and road) are clogged to the extreme. And while we are on transport - driving in India is a nightmare - not that I attempted - just being on the road is scary enough! No one cares about the rules of the road (despite slogans of "obey the rules of the road" on the bumper of basically every vehicle) and with the huge load of traffic on the roads, many roads are crumbling making the whole situation even worse.

What is making the whole situation worse is corruption - and I am not talking of only bribes! The issue of bribes is definitely a factor and is not just with the cops. Take education for example - because of the huge numbers (again) there is a huge demand for places in tertiary education institutions (for example this past weekend, there was a nationwide exam for the very prestigious Indian Institute of Management, with about 1200 places - more than 100 000 people wrote the entrance exams). However, many of the places often go to people who have paid bribes rather than on academic merit (if you don't have a first you can often forget about applying for most tertiary academic programs).

But higher education does not necessarily have huge financial rewards. One of my cousins' wife (that does not entirely sound right) has a PhD in geography (or something in that area) and is only a high school teacher. She is not the only teacher in the school with a PhD! Another cousin has a MA in Bengali literature (Bengali being the language of the region) and is a primary school teacher. And the quality of school education itself has deterioated with the proliferation of different school boards with differing standards. Virtually every child goes to private tuition, and apparently most teachers do the private tuition, hence they prefer not to teach everything in class! Its a vicious cycle.

But there is a worse form of corruption that I hope never to see in South Africa, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. This is the issue of selling and using fake or partially fake goods - and I am not talking of fake jeans - but of medicines, spices (remember the Sudan dye saga in SA), fuel and in fact just about everything. In fact it has become so bad, that anti corruption agents that are trying to stop these practices are being killed. Again, in the past week, one such person was killed while doing a surprise inspection on a petrol station.

As for the good about numbers - its the potential for real mass market low cost goods. India already has one of the lowest telecom rates in the world, and cost of living is really low - although the standard is definitely not high. There are more than 100 cable TV stations in India, most making profits. Low cost flights are now as cheap as trains and the carriers are still making profits (a three day trip from Kolkata to Kuala Lampur/Singapore/Bangkok with accomodation at a 3 star hotel, B&B, flights and taxes cost about 14 000 rupees or about 2 000 rand). And where else can you have a gameshow like "Who wants to be a millionaire" (although its really 20 million Indian rupees which is about 2.4 million Rand) playing 5 days a week? Cost of basic necessities, including public transport, if exchange rates are taken into account, are really low and you can easily live very well on about 100 rupees a day (about 15 rand).

However, as one person (yet another cousin) pointed out to me - that is rather misleading, because most people also earn very little in comparison. Most salaries are considered to be ok if the are in the region of 2000 rupees (about 500 Rand) a month! But then culture has a lot to do with it - after all many families are still living together - thus sharing expenses and incomes.

6 years ago I realised that I would never be able to live and work in India on a permanent basis - my latest visit has just strengthened my views. It is for that reason that there is such a huge emigration of Indians - but again its all about the numbers - the number of Indians outside India is still a very small percentage of the total number of Indians living in India ...