Shamsabad blues
When adversity strikes, it does so irrespective of your aptitude and capacity to plan it away. As an Indian I was almost sure of the chaos that was going to reign when Hyderabad's new high-end state of the art International airport would get operational. As 15 March 2008 was the declared date of commencement of operation, I decided to do my Chennai trip from 21 to 23 March by train. What added on to the urge to travel the Lalu Yadav's way was the recent "Chuck de Railway" budget which promised of a better rail journey than ever before with lower fairs and enhanced facilities. I was so curious to see how a profit making railway would look like, since the last time I did a rail journey, both rail and railways used to suck and stink.
Well nothing seems to have changed in railways except balance sheet. Right from reservation to boarding - conditions at platforms, within bogeys, on the tracks and virtually everywhere the rail went- the railways continued to suck and stink. It was 21 March and me and my wife were on our first railway journey in ages, and were staring at each other in utter disappointment. The disappointment came less from the absence of Chuck de element altogether from the journey but more from the fact that Hyderabad's Begumpet airport, with its convenient location, was still operational as on 21st march - 2008.
Being the 'aware citizens of the information' age we proudly assume ourselves to be, we decided to cancel the return train journey and book tickets on a flight instead - assuming that it would be long before the Shamsabad airport would be operational and the civil aviation ministry will have at least the sense to inform the nation well in advance of a major change in transportation facility. In a rather unprecedented sense of urgency, I called up my sister who booked my ticket on-line through our household internet connection. The best part was that i had to get in the stinking Indian railway toilet to guide her through the steps to book a ticket online and tell her my credit card details - giving due protection to my own privacy.
So far so good. But when i reached Chennai and was returning from getting my train return tickets canceled, i learnt that Shamsabad airport had suddenly become operational - as if it was waiting for us to be caught sleeping - on the Chuck de sleeper! Bingo, Begumpet shall no more be known for an airport in the heart of the city. Actually, now the twin cities do not have an airport anymore! There is an international airport though in a nearby town Shamsabad, which is 40 km by road from the twin cities.
On 23 March, evening 8 PM a new airport - the first of its kind- welcomed us. And I knew that I was going to go though the same chaos i wanted to avoid by the Chuck de Railway experience. The new airport is truly international and simply awesome. No doubts about the airport and its credibility as an international destination as long as you are within. So much so that i forgot that i am 40 kms away from the city.
And then I walked out of the arrivals gate. My assumption that such a big airport - even though it is the second day of its operation- will have a pre-paid taxi counter was proven false. There were private taxi counters within the airport which the conscience that i sometimes carry in my pocket (apart from the little money that i had at that time) did not allow me to go for. When i asked some very welcoming receptionists for pre-paid taxi counters, they misguided me to a place where they were running metered cabs of just one company apparently gaining monopoly over the facility. They were charging a whopping 15 rs per km. 15 rs per kilometer- 40 times over? This would cost me more than what my airline charged me for a 400 km journey (less the taxes)! The conscience did not let me go for it.
I then went to the shuttle area where over crowded buses would ply to and from the city. When i asked for a service till Madhapur, they said that i would need to take the shuttle to Mehdipattnam and get down there, wait for an auto, and then go to Madhapur. There is no shuttle bus service to a place where i believe most frequent fliers would come from! I was not willing to hunt for an auto at 11 in the night at Mehdipattnam. I have had pathetic experiences of black-mailing auto rickshaw drivers in the middle of night charging you a fortune for even small distances.
What is traumatizing here is the inhuman tendency to extract as much money as possible from a person who is clearly in a desperate situation - if it is visible that he is well off and can afford to shell out that extra. Taxi drivers, auto wallahs, cab owners, they seem to fish for people trapped in situations where they can be exploited. And it is not about money, it is about the unscrupulous look in the eyes of these people when they catch you desperate. I don't know about others but it leaves me shaken.
Having turned back from the in-feasible shuttle service I went back to the metered cab section again. The scene there had changed in a matter of 10 minutes! There were no more cabs waiting for people. There was a queue there now, and about 20 to 30 people were waiting to shell out 15 rs /km as if they were waiting for a bus! To make matters worse, the people who were manging the cabs were at utter failure to manage the chaos and as soon as a cab would arrive in a ready state to pick up, it would be mobbed by people and the "first come first serve" basis had acquired lethal dispositions with people mobbing the cab in life threatening fashion. Their 'own' life threatening that was. The people in-charge of the service were also not allowing any other cab or taxi driver other than their own label to stop and negotiate with the customers. I even saw one of the passengers getting in a heated argument with these people when he tried to book a cab of another label. Monopoly at its best and competition suffered a natural death. It was disheartening to see an old lady unable to get hold of any cabs and waiting in the queue desperately. As was visible, a cab once went would return back only after at least two hours and as i overheard one of the guys wearing a cap of the same label as the cabs, speaking on mobile phone, there were not enough cabs to clear this queue for coming 4 to 8 hours. When i went to one of these guys and asked "Can you help me with a cab?", he said "Not available sir!!! ". "Are you sure?? ", I asked. "Sir! Please sir wait in the queue sir! 15 minutes sir!!!", he said, as if even he too knew that this might be his day but that won't be for-ever. But 15 minutes is something we both knew was not what it was going to take.
The whole night at Shamsabad airport? I asked my wife. She looked at the desperation on my face and said "We will go by Shuttle! And we will get an auto at Mehdipattnam! ". "Fine", I said having to other option visible.
When we were on our way to the shuttle service a guy whispered "Sir. Pre-paid taxi! ". "Where were you! I was looking for you!!" I said as if I had found a long lost brother. "Sir we are not having a pre-paid taxi counter here till now sir. It will be a couple of days! ". "Anyways! I want to got to Madhapur. "
With the same unscrupulous look on his face as a response to my desperate call, he said "650! ".
"O.K." I said. "F**k u!", I heard the pocket conscience scream! Yet again a desperate customer was made prey to vulturous exploitative tendencies. It was then when i understood the plight of a young beautiful woman! Just like she suffers from the phobia that everyone around is after her beauty, I felt that everyone around was after the little bit that i have in my pocket.
Welcome to the world class facilities at the new International airport.
When adversity strikes, it does so irrespective of your aptitude and capacity to plan it away. As an Indian I was almost sure of the chaos that was going to reign when Hyderabad's new high-end state of the art International airport would get operational. As 15 March 2008 was the declared date of commencement of operation, I decided to do my Chennai trip from 21 to 23 March by train. What added on to the urge to travel the Lalu Yadav's way was the recent "Chuck de Railway" budget which promised of a better rail journey than ever before with lower fairs and enhanced facilities. I was so curious to see how a profit making railway would look like, since the last time I did a rail journey, both rail and railways used to suck and stink.
Well nothing seems to have changed in railways except balance sheet. Right from reservation to boarding - conditions at platforms, within bogeys, on the tracks and virtually everywhere the rail went- the railways continued to suck and stink. It was 21 March and me and my wife were on our first railway journey in ages, and were staring at each other in utter disappointment. The disappointment came less from the absence of Chuck de element altogether from the journey but more from the fact that Hyderabad's Begumpet airport, with its convenient location, was still operational as on 21st march - 2008.
Being the 'aware citizens of the information' age we proudly assume ourselves to be, we decided to cancel the return train journey and book tickets on a flight instead - assuming that it would be long before the Shamsabad airport would be operational and the civil aviation ministry will have at least the sense to inform the nation well in advance of a major change in transportation facility. In a rather unprecedented sense of urgency, I called up my sister who booked my ticket on-line through our household internet connection. The best part was that i had to get in the stinking Indian railway toilet to guide her through the steps to book a ticket online and tell her my credit card details - giving due protection to my own privacy.
So far so good. But when i reached Chennai and was returning from getting my train return tickets canceled, i learnt that Shamsabad airport had suddenly become operational - as if it was waiting for us to be caught sleeping - on the Chuck de sleeper! Bingo, Begumpet shall no more be known for an airport in the heart of the city. Actually, now the twin cities do not have an airport anymore! There is an international airport though in a nearby town Shamsabad, which is 40 km by road from the twin cities.
On 23 March, evening 8 PM a new airport - the first of its kind- welcomed us. And I knew that I was going to go though the same chaos i wanted to avoid by the Chuck de Railway experience. The new airport is truly international and simply awesome. No doubts about the airport and its credibility as an international destination as long as you are within. So much so that i forgot that i am 40 kms away from the city.
And then I walked out of the arrivals gate. My assumption that such a big airport - even though it is the second day of its operation- will have a pre-paid taxi counter was proven false. There were private taxi counters within the airport which the conscience that i sometimes carry in my pocket (apart from the little money that i had at that time) did not allow me to go for. When i asked some very welcoming receptionists for pre-paid taxi counters, they misguided me to a place where they were running metered cabs of just one company apparently gaining monopoly over the facility. They were charging a whopping 15 rs per km. 15 rs per kilometer- 40 times over? This would cost me more than what my airline charged me for a 400 km journey (less the taxes)! The conscience did not let me go for it.
I then went to the shuttle area where over crowded buses would ply to and from the city. When i asked for a service till Madhapur, they said that i would need to take the shuttle to Mehdipattnam and get down there, wait for an auto, and then go to Madhapur. There is no shuttle bus service to a place where i believe most frequent fliers would come from! I was not willing to hunt for an auto at 11 in the night at Mehdipattnam. I have had pathetic experiences of black-mailing auto rickshaw drivers in the middle of night charging you a fortune for even small distances.
What is traumatizing here is the inhuman tendency to extract as much money as possible from a person who is clearly in a desperate situation - if it is visible that he is well off and can afford to shell out that extra. Taxi drivers, auto wallahs, cab owners, they seem to fish for people trapped in situations where they can be exploited. And it is not about money, it is about the unscrupulous look in the eyes of these people when they catch you desperate. I don't know about others but it leaves me shaken.
Having turned back from the in-feasible shuttle service I went back to the metered cab section again. The scene there had changed in a matter of 10 minutes! There were no more cabs waiting for people. There was a queue there now, and about 20 to 30 people were waiting to shell out 15 rs /km as if they were waiting for a bus! To make matters worse, the people who were manging the cabs were at utter failure to manage the chaos and as soon as a cab would arrive in a ready state to pick up, it would be mobbed by people and the "first come first serve" basis had acquired lethal dispositions with people mobbing the cab in life threatening fashion. Their 'own' life threatening that was. The people in-charge of the service were also not allowing any other cab or taxi driver other than their own label to stop and negotiate with the customers. I even saw one of the passengers getting in a heated argument with these people when he tried to book a cab of another label. Monopoly at its best and competition suffered a natural death. It was disheartening to see an old lady unable to get hold of any cabs and waiting in the queue desperately. As was visible, a cab once went would return back only after at least two hours and as i overheard one of the guys wearing a cap of the same label as the cabs, speaking on mobile phone, there were not enough cabs to clear this queue for coming 4 to 8 hours. When i went to one of these guys and asked "Can you help me with a cab?", he said "Not available sir!!! ". "Are you sure?? ", I asked. "Sir! Please sir wait in the queue sir! 15 minutes sir!!!", he said, as if even he too knew that this might be his day but that won't be for-ever. But 15 minutes is something we both knew was not what it was going to take.
The whole night at Shamsabad airport? I asked my wife. She looked at the desperation on my face and said "We will go by Shuttle! And we will get an auto at Mehdipattnam! ". "Fine", I said having to other option visible.
When we were on our way to the shuttle service a guy whispered "Sir. Pre-paid taxi! ". "Where were you! I was looking for you!!" I said as if I had found a long lost brother. "Sir we are not having a pre-paid taxi counter here till now sir. It will be a couple of days! ". "Anyways! I want to got to Madhapur. "
With the same unscrupulous look on his face as a response to my desperate call, he said "650! ".
"O.K." I said. "F**k u!", I heard the pocket conscience scream! Yet again a desperate customer was made prey to vulturous exploitative tendencies. It was then when i understood the plight of a young beautiful woman! Just like she suffers from the phobia that everyone around is after her beauty, I felt that everyone around was after the little bit that i have in my pocket.
Welcome to the world class facilities at the new International airport.
posted by UltaChashma @ 1:53 AM
1 Comments:
At 3:37 AM,
Shini said…
Wow Anshu! What a description! This post must go to the GMR people and the newspaper wallas!
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