About a month ago, I landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, cleared immigration and found my checked-in luggage. It took half an hour, mostly because the airport had diverted the passenger flow via a longer route towards the exit. My final destination, a friend's place in the suburbs, was approximately 40 kms away. I entered a free airport shuttle bus and was deposited at the domestic terminal 10 mins later. A short amble, an automated train ticket and an escalator brought me to the MARTA platform where a train awaited. 50 minutes later, I was at a dining table, exchanging stories with a grin, over a glass (and more) of whisky. Public transport journeys don't get any smoother.
About a week ago, I landed at CSI Airport in Mumbai, cleared immigration and found my luggage. It took about an hour, most of which was spent waiting for my bags to arrive. My final destination, home, was approximately 13 kms by road. I opened up the OLA app which claimed a taxi was just a couple of minutes away and booked one, only to be told that no actual rides were currently available. After 15 minutes of refreshing the app, I finally got a confirmed ride which was about 8 minutes away. The driver called, asked where I want to go, mumbled something and hung up. 5 minutes later, I received a mysterious text message saying I had cancelled the ride and would be charged Rs. 50. Once that was cleared up, I found another car that was 15 minutes away. By the time this gentleman cleared traffic and showed up, I'd been waiting another 30 minutes. And, reaching home took another half an hour. All in all, from booking a cab to reaching home, it'd taken 1.5 hours.
Now, it would be natural to say things like "Oh, this is typical India" or "These cab services are going from bad to worse", yada yada yada. And, we'd be walking distance from the truth. However, I got talking to the cabbie and discovered something. Up until September 2019, cabs which entered the airport but left empty within the hour, did so for free. But, in good old "Indian bureaucrazy" fashion, the airport, starting October, had started levying a flat Rs. 120 fee for the same thing. Cabs have stopped coming to the airport unless they have a confirmed trip. If they don't fancy the destination or think it isn't worth the airport fee, they cancel the ride with impunity. Which leaves woebegone passengers to brave chaotic elevators, slow internet connections and disorderly mobs at the cab rank, only to suffer arbitrary cancellations and even longer wait times for a ride home.
Whenever some supposed effort to improve people's lives gets tomtommed in the media, I find myself unimpressed because my base thought is "Well, it's about time". Sure, previous elected officials are/were shockingly corrupt and inept so it's the unfortunate nature of the political beast for incumbents to beat their '56 inch' chests with pride at the slightlest enhancement to processes or facilities. But, surely we haven't become so well-conditioned to accepting such shockingly low standards of decency? Actually, wait. One ride in a local train at rush hour sadly suggests otherwise.
Chalo, let's say some things have seemingly changed for the better. But, some have admittedly not. And, some just seem to be getting worse. Deliberately. Which, in the greater scheme of things, is more galling than waiting 1 hour for an airport taxi.
Song for the moment: Lo/Hi - The Black Keys
About a week ago, I landed at CSI Airport in Mumbai, cleared immigration and found my luggage. It took about an hour, most of which was spent waiting for my bags to arrive. My final destination, home, was approximately 13 kms by road. I opened up the OLA app which claimed a taxi was just a couple of minutes away and booked one, only to be told that no actual rides were currently available. After 15 minutes of refreshing the app, I finally got a confirmed ride which was about 8 minutes away. The driver called, asked where I want to go, mumbled something and hung up. 5 minutes later, I received a mysterious text message saying I had cancelled the ride and would be charged Rs. 50. Once that was cleared up, I found another car that was 15 minutes away. By the time this gentleman cleared traffic and showed up, I'd been waiting another 30 minutes. And, reaching home took another half an hour. All in all, from booking a cab to reaching home, it'd taken 1.5 hours.
Now, it would be natural to say things like "Oh, this is typical India" or "These cab services are going from bad to worse", yada yada yada. And, we'd be walking distance from the truth. However, I got talking to the cabbie and discovered something. Up until September 2019, cabs which entered the airport but left empty within the hour, did so for free. But, in good old "Indian bureaucrazy" fashion, the airport, starting October, had started levying a flat Rs. 120 fee for the same thing. Cabs have stopped coming to the airport unless they have a confirmed trip. If they don't fancy the destination or think it isn't worth the airport fee, they cancel the ride with impunity. Which leaves woebegone passengers to brave chaotic elevators, slow internet connections and disorderly mobs at the cab rank, only to suffer arbitrary cancellations and even longer wait times for a ride home.
Whenever some supposed effort to improve people's lives gets tomtommed in the media, I find myself unimpressed because my base thought is "Well, it's about time". Sure, previous elected officials are/were shockingly corrupt and inept so it's the unfortunate nature of the political beast for incumbents to beat their '56 inch' chests with pride at the slightlest enhancement to processes or facilities. But, surely we haven't become so well-conditioned to accepting such shockingly low standards of decency? Actually, wait. One ride in a local train at rush hour sadly suggests otherwise.
Chalo, let's say some things have seemingly changed for the better. But, some have admittedly not. And, some just seem to be getting worse. Deliberately. Which, in the greater scheme of things, is more galling than waiting 1 hour for an airport taxi.
Song for the moment: Lo/Hi - The Black Keys
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