Like Mukherjee, Hazra doesn’t entirely buy into the argument that Kolkata has a low cost of living.
“So Kolkata is cheap in the street food aspect. I get rice for ₹20 a plate. But what about life beyond that? We have a general life in that a basic expenditure takes place. Like, you need to take cabs, you need to go to restaurants, you need to have a busy social life. These are equally expensive in Bombay and Bangalore, I see no difference.”
Sometimes, the “low-cost city” notion that is attributed to Kolkata translates into lawyers believing that juniors need not be paid well, which Hazra finds problematic.
“Like saying ‘you’re from Kolkata, you can be paid less’. No. My level of work is the same. How could I be paid less in Kolkata? These things are there, and especially with courts, it is too much. And I have heard people saying, seniors saying ‘you must be paying us because we are teaching you the work’.”
Source: Barandbench
