Kolkatta rising

There’s no middle class in Kolkatta . The consuming class of Kolkatta is outside Kolkatta . If one goes to the fourth floor gym in the swanky new multiplex forum in downtown Kol , you’ll realize that it costs six thousand bucks per month for a gym membership . Now , gyms in Mumbai cost three thousand a month at best . The ones in Mariott would be ten thousand a month , but that’s where you find Amitabh Bachchan at five am . There are cheap gyms at hundred bucks a month , run from apartments and pretty unhygienic . One of the best restaurants is O ! Calcutta , for authentic bengali cuisine , where you can run up a bill of two thousand rupees for a dinner for two . The smaller ones like Mainland China , Marco polo , peter Cat , Don Giovanni are pretty expensive too . There’s nothing in the five hundred to nine hundred range . there are a lot of roadside eateries , though . A meal for five bucks is easily available . The one multiplex , Kolkatta , have tickets costing two hundred bucks for a weekend . A new year party in Kol costs above four thousand for a couple . That’s the same price as in Mumbai .
You need to be either very rich or very poor to enjoy Kolkatta .
The trams and the Mercs co-exist in Kolkatta . the super rich are all industrialists who have been here for generations , amassed a lot of wealth and have the traditional old wealth . There is no new generation wealth in Kol .
That is also one of the reasons that the Bengalis who are not in Kol don’t like the ones who are in Kol . The non-resident Bengalis in Mumbai , Delhi and other cities , own houses , earn good incomes , own cars and work in good organizations don’t want to come back to Kolkatta .
That is set to change .
One recent investor from Malaysia , Salim just bought five thousand acres of land in Kolkatta to develop an industrial hub . He wants to manufacture a low cost scooter with Kolkatta as a hub. Mitsubshi Electric corp wants to create a Haldia equivalent and pledged six thousand million dollar investment to the govt. Buddhadev Dasgupta , the erstwhile finance minister in Jyoti Basu government , welcomes investors with open arms even while Mamta Banerjee and opposition leaders stage dharna’s and block roads against these so called invaders .
Builders have changed the Kolkatta landscape . The Rajarghat area which is now the defacto route to the airport have construction frenzy . Wipro has come up with a BPO outfit that now employs more than three thousand young people who will have monies to buy things at reasonable prizes . And businessmen might just be forced to look at this market . China might find easy access to Indian market through kolkatta . Jute and Tea are the next rising markets as coffee has already taken over Indian pastimes with a series of coffee retailers like Barista , Café Coffee day , Qwirky’s and Just Coffee in most metros . Tea is the next big thing .
Bengali movies are hitting the hindi league . Choker bali with Aishwarya hit bigtime. Antar mahal roped in Abhishek bachchan and captured national imagination .
Kolkatta is rising to its past glory .
Slowly , but surely .