I was just coming back home after a visit to the barber at the Shopping Complex near our place. Nothing particularly exciting about that, but as I was walking down the stairs, I happened to look across towards the taxi stand opposite the Calcutta Greens Shopping Complex.
And there they were.
Yellow Taxis. Lots of them.
I couldn't help but stop and take a photograph.
I actually counted eight of them lined up at the stand.
Now, the sight of a yellow taxi in Kolkata is hardly unusual. For decades, these iconic yellow-and-black—or rather, these days mostly yellow—Ambassadors have been as much a part of the cityscape as trams, hand-pulled rickshaws and the Howrah Bridge.
Except that they aren't quite as ubiquitous anymore.
The iconic Calcutta Cab is slowly becoming a piece of history, with newer vehicles steadily replacing the old Ambassador taxis. There was a time when you couldn't look down a Kolkata street without spotting several of them. Today, seeing eight parked together in one place somehow feels like discovering a little time capsule.
And perhaps that's why I found myself reaching for the camera.
There was nothing particularly dramatic about the scene. Just eight yellow taxis waiting for their next passengers. But sometimes it's the ordinary things that become the photographs worth keeping, especially when you realise that the ordinary may not remain ordinary forever.
For a city that has changed so much over the years, these yellow taxis remain one of those instantly recognisable pieces of Kolkata's visual identity.
So, eight yellow cabs it was.
A completely random photograph taken while returning from the barber—and perhaps, in years to come, one that will remind me of a time when the sight of a whole fleet of yellow taxis was still possible right outside our neighbourhood.
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