Last night, I was stranded in Calcutta. Again. This time I had to miss the last flight out of town because disgruntled residents and employees decided to block one of the major roads to the airport. We unsuccessfully tried to get the flight to wait on the taramac for us (the fact that we even dared to attempt this is one of the many reasons I love India).
Kolkata (Calcutta Indianized) is nutty as well all know. But could this happen in my beloved Bombay? Even the blogosphere is shocked: "Is Calcutta Happening to Bombay?"
I landed in Bombay at 9am to find that the motormen of the Indian Railways' (the world's largest system) went on strike wreaking havoc across they city--the local transit system (also the world's largest) is run by the railways. Only 20% of trains were operational.
Consequences of the strike for me:
1) Wading traffic in South Bombay which went from bad to worse
2) Waiting 4x as long to find a cab
3) Ordering lunch from the only (and crappy) restaurant in area that delivers -- no pantry staff
4) Watching overflowing garbage in the bathroom -- no cleaning staff
See what I have to put up with. Seriously though, I feel bad for the millions (yes, millions) of travelers who may not have been able to do the things they wanted to do today. Fortunately, the strike ended by evening!
dramatic !
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