Yesterday I went out with a friend. We met up and shared some chicken chow-mein. Then we started off to Forum Mall on Elgin Rd to see a movie and got a taxi. Well, we were just crossing Science City when I realized that the meter was running extremely high.
I pointed this out to my friend and she agreed, and at which point I called DH and asked him what the fare should be. He said the fare to Park Circus should be about Rs 45-50 ($1.05-$1.16) on the meter. So we told the driver to stop and we got down. Where my friend gave the driver Rs 100 ($2.33) and told the driver his meter was running extremely high, as the meter was reading Rs 98 ($2.28) which meant we would have to give him Rs 198 ($4.60). After my friend gave him the money, he was arguing how his meter was fine. We got down, and decided since the time was running out, that we would go see the movie at a South City Mall.
We went, and saw "The Tourist", which we both enjoyed. While we were there we splurged, we both had 2 sodas, and some popcorn. When we were done with the movie we had gone to the restroom. When we were done, the bathroom attendant was going off at me. She accused me of throwing toilet paper into the toilet, even though it was clearly written on the back of the door not to. She was going off at me in bangla so I don't know exactly what was said. My friend came out of the stall, and said, "Don't say anything." She then went on to ask the restroom attendant why she was yelling at me in bangla because I was a foreigner and didn't understand bangla. It went on and on, and my friend asked the lady if she had been inside the stall with me and if she saw me throw the paper in the toilet, to which she replied no, but she had checked the bathroom stall before I went in (which she didn't because she was standing by the sink when I went in...) and then I said, "aage chillo, aage chillo" (it was there before, it was there before) and pushed my friend out of the restroom.
Then, next we went to have coffee at Barista at Golpark. Here we had some hot chocolate while waiting for DH and another friend. Then we went to Gariahat and picked up a new tupi (woolen cap). We then wandered around Gariahat, waiting for our friend and DH. We decided we would go to one of our normal joints and have a drink. :-)
how can you go to Barista for a coffee and have hot chocolate instead... should say that you went for whatever you went for
ReplyDelete-DH
DH,
ReplyDeletegeez, you point out strange things ;-) we said lets go for coffee, and i chose to have hot chocolate and she changed her mind and had it too...didn't i tell you this?
if you keep commenting like this people will think we never talk at home ;-) lol j/k
well if people think so them do tell them to watch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1620620 with my complements ;-) j/k
ReplyDelete-DH
That brings back memories of taxi drivers in Kolkata!! I was with some friends (white) once and we traveled from Highland Park to Chowringhee Road. The meter was galloping along, and my friend looked over and the driver was tugging at a wire!! He demanded 240 rupees for a 130 rupee fare. I knew more Bangla than Hindi back then, and shouted at him. Aap ni karap. Baloh naa!! Of course, a huge crowd of people grew and they shouted at him too. The next day my friend got the same taxi driver (he was one of the ones that hang out at Highland Park) and he was really sheepish and gave her a discounted fare, and tried to blame the whole thing on a broken meter that he was trying to fix. lol. As if.
ReplyDelete@Sharell,
ReplyDeleteYeah, thats why I normally only take taxi's to the places I know.
Like once I was going to South City mall and the fare is normally around Rs 50 or so. There were no taxi's at the stand next to our house, so I went to the crossing and got a taxi there. One guy asked for Rs 100! I said no, and in my head I was thinking, wtf is this guy smoking? trying to charge me twice what it should be? and walked away. Then got the next cab, and he took me by the meter :-)