I loved Delhi and loathed Calcutta. The work culture was the discerning factor. Delhi, not always skilled and efficient, was positive. Everyone attended, listened and obeyed. In Calcutta, everyone was defied and was inattentive. In Delhi, people looked upon work as an opportunity for engagement and earnings; in Calcutta, work was a burden as earnings were entitlement. Bengalis, it was said, were work shy and indeed, in the Annual Statistics of Industries, labour productivity in West Bengal was the lowest in the country.

The poor work ethics of the Bengali was best manifested in the taxi driver. No gos, no shows, dishonesty with fares, constant complaints making the passenger feel as if she has committed a grave crime in oppressing the cab for a ride. Delhi was full of zest, drivers most polite in serving, and the willingness to go that extra mile and well-kept cars.

Delhi and Calcutta were different cities then. Delhi had wide and empty roads, hardly any traffic, roads dotted occasionally with the autorickshaw, middle class rode the two-wheeler. Buses were few and far between. The air was clean, sky was blue. Calcutta, on the other hand, burst in its seams, its teeming people, plethora of public transport, dirty air, grey skies, honking of stuck cars, whistles of hustling buses. Delhi was cheaper to live in, Calcutta – the costliest in the country.

Since then, Delhi grew and grew, past its limits of endurance; it resembles Calcutta now as it is densely populated, buses with passengers stuffed into the chambers, roads with cars halted for hours of traffic, its air heavy with smog and skies always overcast with dust. Calcutta seems to have recovered a bit, its density is manageable, traffic tolerable, roads smoother, and crowds in buses breathable. And with such transitions, the work culture in the cities are gravitating towards each other like in Edgeworth’s box diagram. Delhi cab drivers are now getting reluctant to carry passengers, complain all the time about the dreary nature of their jobs, make the passengers feel guilty about them being the service buyers, look upon work as oppression and not opportunity.

We may infer that the work culture is not caused by ethnicity, nor by history and far less by politics but by immediate sociology. Density of cities, air pollution, costs of living, rising competition in one’s trade and seemingly proliferation of choices of profession can adversely affect work ethics. Growing density of cities also has the risk of downward mobility, second generations of residents find themselves edged out of respectable jobs by the inflow of talented migrants. The work culture of any city is the set of opportunities the city provides.