Kolkata rediscovered on an Uber ride

Goats strung together and hustled away

Yesterday evening I was going from Dhakuria to Shambazar by Uber. We were a little past Park Circus Maidan when he announced 'Google abhi Convent Road se raasta dikha raha hai'. I was surprised. Circular Road diye jabo na. 'Nahi yeh paanch minute short raasta hai, koi red light nahi hai' bole he drove into a darkish gulli off the main road near Sales tax bahaban. Soon we were on Canal West road passing under a railway bridge behind Sealdah station. The day before on a Sunday we had marvelled how neat and clean the relatively empty streets in Jadavpur and beyond towards Baisnabghata Patuli in deepest South Kolkata  were. Small parks, with benches, smartly coloured railings on pavements , the roads recently swept. But here Beleghata in the middle of the city it was grimy and nothing seemed to be different from the late 70s when my way to school passed this way. I asked the driver 'jaldi hoga is raaste se?' He answered confidently 'Han, abhi kuch din pahle jab Mamta Bannerji ne shahar mein log bhar diya tha maine bis bais trip kiya tha. Google ke bharose. Gali ke raaste se koi jaam nahi.' He assured me. The road meanwhile was getting darker with trucks, thela, rickshaw on one side and line of tottering lean-to shanties on the other. A little past where the road crossed the Narkeldanga Main Road the road was blocked, there was a pandal and some celebration taking place. My driver cursed but was still in good humour. We were directed across a narrow bridge on the khal or canal which was barely wide enough for the car. And there were many motor cycles and some cars too jostling for space so the the passage was slow.
I was not prepared for what I saw on the other side of the canal - on Canal East road. Suddenly we were in the midst of what seemed a mideaval marketplace. The one product sold being goats. There were goats by the thousands all around us. Lots of 8 to 10 goats were strung together on a rope and while one man hauled them another was beating them on the rump. And they banged and rattled against the car all the while bleating hoarsely as they were guided between the cars. Needless to say we were now stuck. The driver jumped off to investigate the jam. He came back a while later announced that there was a truck trying to come from the other side causing the impasse. He somehow managed to turn the car and we ploughed our way back into the goat mandi. On one side of the road the goats were lined up and were being tied in batches. Behind them were bamboo corrals lining the canalThere were also many small trucks which may have brought these goats from villages into the city. On the other side there was a milling crowd and some officious looking men sitting on benches or stools handling chits of paper. They looked like the men managing the transactions. Even inside the closed and air-conditioned car, the smell of goats was becoming overwhelming. As we crawled onto Narkeldanga Main Road, I changed my destination. It was too late and I had to go to Purbasha now. We had hardly gone a few hundred metres towards Phulbagan when the driver swerved into another ill lit narrow street. 'Arre Kya hua, main road se nahi jayenge'. 'Age jam tha Google isi ko short bata raha hai' he announced as he navigated the narrow lanes in Kankurgachi. His confidence still unshaken. Thankfully the path was narrow winding but clear. It took me nearly two hours from Dhakuria to Purbasha and we had followed Google maps the whole way.
(written on Jan 29, 2019)