Institute For The Future

Mullick. Mobility, Kolkata, 01/09/09

S Mullick is a statistician who works with the National Sample Survey of India in Kolkata. He is 50 years old. He is married and has a 12 year-old-son. His wife is a home-maker and they have a son of 12 years. Mallick moved to Kalyani, a suburb of Kolkata, in 1996. He owns his own house in Kalyani.

Mallick is a member of a local community organization, ‘Nagarik Samity’ (Citizens’ Forum) that works with the local municipality on neighborhood issue, and organizes community festivals like Durga Puja. He is fond of listening to Indian classical music, and he listens to music on his laptop.

Domain

He lives in Kalyani, which is a suburb of Kolkata, and is about 50 kms from Kolkata. He commutes everyday to Kolkata. It takes him about 2 hours one way to get to work from his house. We interviewed him in the car while on the way to work. We met him at his house, and rode with him in the car. He has a government car that has been given to him by his office. He also has a government driver. He has to share the car with other fellow officers in his organization. After the driver drops him at office, he covers 2-3 different routes before picking him up to take him home.  The road from his home to his office is very narrow, bumpy and overcrowded. It took us about 3 hours to reach his house. The road was completely blocked by large trucks. He is scared of having an accident with the trucks. He has witnessed many accidents on his daily commute.

Before he started commuting by car, he used to take the local train to work. He is nostalgic about his experience of those days as he misses the camaraderie of his fellow daily passengers. He also has a private car that he uses to get around in his neighborhood. 

For him his commute is a time to relax and unwind. He has a pillow that he keeps in his car to sleep. He uses part of his commute time to sleep. He only carries his cellphone in the car. He does not carry his office laptop during his commute. He occassionally talks on his cell phone with his colleagues during his commute. If he leaves early from work then he finishes his meetings through the cell phone while he is in the car. 

Technology

Mullick started using mobile phone about four years back, a relatively latecomer in comparison with his peers, but for him mobile phone is useful and time-saving.  He plans to replace his mobile phone handset with an improved one that would facilitate access to internet, digital photography and music. He has a land phone at home that is shared for use by the family members. Telephone bills for both the mobile and the land phone are paid by his office. He has a desktop PC and a laptop computer. He also carries the laptop computer on office trips, but mainly for listening to music on the go. He has internet access at his office but not at home. The office internet connection is a leased line that is faster and hassle free. He has been using internet primarily for official email purposes for more than eight years now. As a professional statistician, Mallick also works with software development activities pertaining to data processing activities.