Kolkata: If one ever really wishes to properly experience the feeling of being in a crowded city, Kolkata is the place to be.
With a population of 14.59 million, it is a miracle how everything works here without too many hiccups. Footpaths are lined with vendors leaving very little space for people to walk, so many are pushed on to the road where taxis whizz past at great speed and hand-pulled rickshaws leave hardly any room either. Outside my hotel, a man was seen taking a bath on the footpath!
Getting to Eden Gardens is a tough task.
Ask any taxi driver to take you there and he refuses outright. Not surprising, because all roads in and around the stadium are closed. Interestingly, as per government regulations, no taxi driver can refuse to take a passenger anywhere, and so the words ‘NO REFUSAL’ are actually written on the door of the taxis.
In such a hugely populated city with almost everyone a cricket fan, the 66,349 who had managed to secure tickets for the final can be considered the elite group of the city, at least for the day.
Many had purchased tickets hoping to see India in the finals. However, now that Indian has been knocked out, many were trying to sell their tickets. This has also badly hit a group called ‘ticket blackers’ who are famous for selling tickets underhand in and around the stadium. It is said that if you approach them through the right sources you will never be disappointed since they have tickets for almost any match. With India out of the World Cup, it appears their business has been badly hit as hardly anyone is willing to cough up the high price they are demanding for an England-West Indies final.
Outside the stadium, you can catch many fans simply hovering around looking at the Eden Gardens or the team bus. So crazy are some that with cricketers out of reach, many can be seen taking selfies in front of the team bus!
The press conference room at Eden Gardens resembles a crowded train carriage. For a stadium of this size, one wonders why the press conference room is so small and narrow? Most journalists and photographers squat on the floor, and a latecomer can only expect to peep his or her head from outside the door to catch the captain’s comments. There have been occasions where the captain has been unable to spot the journalist asking the question as he would be seated on the floor below his table. Ditto is the situation in the press box where all scribes work.
However, for all the inconvenience one has to encounter in the press box or the press conference room, one has to grant it to the Cricket Association of Bengal for their high standards in hospitality. Journalists are well taken care of, whether it is food or any other requirement. And no meal her is complete without fish ... something that Bengalis cannot do without.
