Another positive development I noticed here is the ubiquitous "Paytem" Payment method available at most places, which includes but not limited to the small businesses like street vendors serving fast foods. I see many ordering their Chat or Chicken Egg rolls, then rolling their their smartphones over the Paytem barcode, thus completing their cashless transactions. It makes me feel great to see that we are slowly but steadily moving towards a cashless society and the trend is catching up fast in India.
More than half way through my India trip I have realized that time flies faster than the speed of light. Explaining his famous "Theory of Relativity" for a layman to understand Einstein said "Time flies slowly when you listen to a boring lecture, but it flies fast when you talk to a pretty girl". He wasn't far from the truth. Similarly a vacation week passes a lot faster than a work week.
Last Saturday night I booked an OLA cab at 10.30 PM in front of Swosti Grand, Master Canteen. No sooner I completed the booking than the assigned cab driver immediately called me and wanted to verify the exact destination address. After hearing me out, he demanded Rs.100 more or he is going to cancel. Don't mind paying Rs.100 more. But I didn't want to be taken for a ride by my OLA ride and face extortion. The Uber car I booked immediately after this OLA fiasco arrived and picked us within minutes without any hesitation.
My friends who were visiting from Calcutta and Chennai told me that they haven't encountered such situations in their respective cities. Our complacent Odia Bhai probably made enough for the day, wasn't in a mood to drive any longer that night, so demanded Rs.100 as a driving factor to drive further. 10.30 PM on a summer night isn't too late these days, even by Odisha standard. It speaks volumes about the professionalism in Bhubaneswar vis a vis other cities.
On our way back, we narrated this incident to the Uber driver. His views was more nuanced. It's not uncommon for OLA - Uber drivers to face unruly passengers late in the night - from drunks in different stages of drunkeness to unreasonable night owls. That's one of the reasons to dissuade them to ply late into night, though 10.30 PM may not be too late even for a tier 2 city like Bhubaneswar.
The Uber cab driver made his point. The capital city of Odisha is no more a sleepy township of salaried people. A city originally designed to accommodate 40,000 people now harbors no less than 12 lakh (1.2 million) people of all shades of hue. Dacoity, Burglary, gang wars, chain snatching, drugs, prostitution, and other crimes hitherto rare during my growing up days are now rampant and on the rise.
Yeaterday, June 14 was the day of RAJA SANKRANTI, the first day of the popular three day festival celebrated mostly in the long, culturally rich coastal Odisha (Raja isn't native to Western Odisha).The festival invariably comes in mid June as per the Gregorian calendar. The festival of Raja is also considered as the harbinger of the cooler rainy season, as the South West monsoon rolls over the state during Raja festival, bringing waves of rain.
As the silvery monsoon rains ornament the thick humid air, the perfume of PODA PITHA (baked rice cake) pervades the environment. Young and old alike play on DOLI (swings), with men snarling their blackened teeth and girls exposing their red pouty lips - post effect from chewing PAAN (betel leaves filled with colored condiments and scented tobacco).
Raja arrived, still no sign of monsoon. When I arrived close to the monthend of May, the monsoon was predicted to arrive early in Odisha by June 7. There was no sign of rains. The arrival of monsoon was updated by the Meteorology department yet again to coincide with the arrival of Raja on June 14. Still no sign of monsoon. Now the prediction is for monsoon to bless Odisha at the end of the 3 day Raja festival. Guess the weather department keeps on changing the goal post by just looking at the sky and making their predictions. More later...
Last Saturday night I booked an OLA cab at 10.30 PM in front of Swosti Grand, Master Canteen. No sooner I completed the booking than the assigned cab driver immediately called me and wanted to verify the exact destination address. After hearing me out, he demanded Rs.100 more or he is going to cancel. Don't mind paying Rs.100 more. But I didn't want to be taken for a ride by my OLA ride and face extortion. The Uber car I booked immediately after this OLA fiasco arrived and picked us within minutes without any hesitation.
My friends who were visiting from Calcutta and Chennai told me that they haven't encountered such situations in their respective cities. Our complacent Odia Bhai probably made enough for the day, wasn't in a mood to drive any longer that night, so demanded Rs.100 as a driving factor to drive further. 10.30 PM on a summer night isn't too late these days, even by Odisha standard. It speaks volumes about the professionalism in Bhubaneswar vis a vis other cities.
On our way back, we narrated this incident to the Uber driver. His views was more nuanced. It's not uncommon for OLA - Uber drivers to face unruly passengers late in the night - from drunks in different stages of drunkeness to unreasonable night owls. That's one of the reasons to dissuade them to ply late into night, though 10.30 PM may not be too late even for a tier 2 city like Bhubaneswar.
The Uber cab driver made his point. The capital city of Odisha is no more a sleepy township of salaried people. A city originally designed to accommodate 40,000 people now harbors no less than 12 lakh (1.2 million) people of all shades of hue. Dacoity, Burglary, gang wars, chain snatching, drugs, prostitution, and other crimes hitherto rare during my growing up days are now rampant and on the rise.
Yeaterday, June 14 was the day of RAJA SANKRANTI, the first day of the popular three day festival celebrated mostly in the long, culturally rich coastal Odisha (Raja isn't native to Western Odisha).The festival invariably comes in mid June as per the Gregorian calendar. The festival of Raja is also considered as the harbinger of the cooler rainy season, as the South West monsoon rolls over the state during Raja festival, bringing waves of rain.
As the silvery monsoon rains ornament the thick humid air, the perfume of PODA PITHA (baked rice cake) pervades the environment. Young and old alike play on DOLI (swings), with men snarling their blackened teeth and girls exposing their red pouty lips - post effect from chewing PAAN (betel leaves filled with colored condiments and scented tobacco).
Raja arrived, still no sign of monsoon. When I arrived close to the monthend of May, the monsoon was predicted to arrive early in Odisha by June 7. There was no sign of rains. The arrival of monsoon was updated by the Meteorology department yet again to coincide with the arrival of Raja on June 14. Still no sign of monsoon. Now the prediction is for monsoon to bless Odisha at the end of the 3 day Raja festival. Guess the weather department keeps on changing the goal post by just looking at the sky and making their predictions. More later...
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