crazy taxi drivers and old school rickshaws

So, after flying here there and everywhere in India with Anya (okay, only 2 places but we did take quite a few flights) I bid her farewell and 12 hours later hopped on another plane to...Calcutta, or as it is now called, Kolkata; I'll stick with the first version.
I had to go there for a meeting on Monday morning and if I hadn't had a visitor the weekend before I probably would have spent the weekend there to sight see, but instead I flew in on Sunday afternoon and back on Monday. Of all the places in India I had heard of before coming here I can say that Calcutta was definitely one that was not on my list of places to visit. All I knew about it was the Mother Theresa did a lot of her work there so I generally thought of it as very poor and very dirty. While my time there was very limited (my meeting went super long on Monday so I had zero time to see anything other than my hotel and the American Embassy), here are my general observations:

• It is definitely not a tourist destination, I was the only white person on the flight to and from Calcutta, the first time that has happened to me, and people looked at bit confused as to why I was there.
• It is HOT and HUMID!
• Flying in it looked super green and lush, mostly palm trees but they were everywhere, quite a pretty landing...although the rest of the flight was bumpy as could be both ways.
• Worst taxi drivers in India by far. Luckily the ride from my hotel to/from the Embassy was about 2 minutes but to/from the airport it was an hour. I had to ask both taxi drivers repeatedly to watch the road because they kept turning around to stare at me; and my driver back to the airport fully side-swiped another taxi ripping off half of the other taxi's front bumper and just kept on going. If I ever have to go back there for work I will insist that I get a hotel car because I will never step foot in a Calcutta taxi again.
• It was a smelly city, not horrible but not pleasant either, probably because it was so hot and humid; I definitely got a few whiffs of garbage.
• It was not as poor as I expected. Overall the population seemed less well off than people in Delhi; I saw probably 50 people bathing at public water pumps whereas here I'll see maybe 10 a week; but there wasn't total poverty like you see in Mumbai. It seemed that everyone was able to make a few rupees here and there.
• I didn't see even one animal in the street, not one cow or goat or anything, very odd.
• I did see lots of young boys working so I assume that education is quite a problem there.
• And finally, for the first time I saw old school rickshaws; meaning you sit and he pulls you by foot, not on a bike. I thought they were outlawed in India but apparently only in certain areas. And I thought the bicycle rickshaw guys had a tough life...although in that traffic these rickshaw guys were able to weave in and out quite well and were able to make some headway.

And those are my quick thoughts on Calcutta. I don't think I'll go back unless I have to, mostly because the heat and the humidity were extremely difficult (when we landed back in Delhi it was 34C or 93F but not humid and it seemed quite cool to me); apparently December and January are "nice", but, with the exception of the taxi drivers, it was nicer than I expected.