Kolkata, a resident told me, "has difficulty letting go." One day a city official handed me a report from the municipal government laying out options for how rickshaw pullers might be rehabilitated.

加尔各答的一位居民告诉我：“很难放手。”一天，一位市政府官员给了我一份市政府的报告，上面列出了如何改造人力车夫的方案。