Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee calls them an “inhuman mode of transport” while Kolkata mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya says they are an object of shame peculiar to Kolkata among all the cities of the world. They also made Dominic Lapierre a household name in the state.
On Tuesday, the hand-pulled rickshaw turned into a savior not of the common man, but corporate honchos alighting from their sedans to enter the venue of the annual general meeting of at least two companies.
With large parts of Kolkata under knee-deep to waist deep water after three days of heavy rain, the AGM venues of four big companies were no exception.
Duncans Industries, the struggling tea and fertiliser major, Emami Ltd, the emerging giant in personal care, the public sector Balmer Lawrie that takes care of babudom’s air travels and Srei Intenational Infrastructure, a leading player in infrastructure financing– – all had set their AGMs for September 25.
And it was no coincidence that all the venues — Kalakunj on Shakespeare Sarani for Duncans, Vidya Mandir on Moira Street for Emami, GD Birla Sabhaghar for Balmer Lawrie, and Science City for Srei — were waterlogged on Tuesday morning.
So, when Duncans chairman Gouri Prasad Goenka entered Kalakunj’s driveway, water started flooding his Honda City and he faced to prospect of having to mount a stool (as his shareholders did) to enter the ground floor.
A rickshaw was promptly arranged and kept aside to ferry him between the gate and his parked car.
At Vidya Mandir, the auditorium of Birla High School, the Agarwals and Goenkas, joint promoters of Emami, faced another stretch notorious for waterlogging. The school itself had declared a holiday, but no such luck for the chairman and his board.
Minions arranged a hand-pulled rickshaw to take them from the car park to the gate, with a stool acting as a bridge.
At GD Birla Sabhaghar, the scene was not that bad and the directors could all enter without much difficulty.
At Science City, shareholder’s attendance was sparse and a few who attended the Srei meeting had to brave knee-deep water.