Suicide watch

Apart from a staff crunch and the decrepit condition of coaches, Kolkata Metro has earned a bad name for another reason. Metro stations have become the preferred spot for committing suicide. According to official records, there were 24 suicide attempts in 2011 and seven so far in the current year. Director of the upcoming Bollywood thriller Kahaani, Sujoy Ghosh might be aware of this statistic since one of the promotional clips of his movie has the lead character (played by Vidya Balan) pushed in front of a speeding train in a Kolkata metro station. This has not gone down well with the Kolkata Metro authorities, who wrote to the film director objecting that the scene was damaging the image of the country’s first metro. So the clip has been finally taken off air but the scene will remain in the movie.