New Delhi, Sept. 20 -- I was not sure whether to be awestruck or bemused.

A yellow Kolkata taxi with interiors covered by Sabyasachi wallpapers and textiles! Sabyasachi Mukherjee, a designer famous for being lavish and ostentatious, and yellow Hindustan Ambassador taxis, infamous for wheezing and rattling, make for an odd couple. It could be seen as one Kolkata icon's salute to another. But it could also be seen as a delusion of grandeur.

The interior of a Kolkata taxi is special. There's no air-conditioning and on hot muggy days you can leave sweat stains on the seats. These days the seats look even sadder, sometimes ripped and patched together, the seams showing. But these taxis had rich Sabysachi wallpapers and furnishing fabrics wit...