Kundu Special
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Kundu Special is a Kolkata based Bengali family owned Indian tour operator company that organizes railway-based tours all over India. It was established in 1933. Its clientèle is primarily middle class and upper middle class Bengali Hindus. It is currently administered by the third generation of the Kundu family.
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[edit] Origins
It began its operations in 1933 when Sripati Kundu reserved a full train and undertook a 56-day all-India tour. He was the pioneer of tourism in India
[edit] Customer Care
From reserving a full train in the 1930s, Kundus took to reserving entire bogies in the 1960s. They would carry the “Dunlopillows” to fit into the train seats for comfort. Instead of checking into hotels (there weren’t that many in those days), the tourists would stay on in the bogey that would be stationed on the side tracks, somewhere in a railway station in India. The mornings would start with hot ghee-soaked luchis and dhonkar dalna along with a steaming cup of tea. That would lead to khichudi and begun bhaja in the afternoon. The khichudi may have given way to fried rice in the 80s and to chowmien and biryani in the 21st Century, and the stationed bogey to hotel rooms, but even in the days of Cox and Kings and fancy packages and low-cost airfares, Kundu Special holds its own as a traditional Bengali bastion.
At Kundu, each tourist group is still accompanied by two tour experts, two cooks and four service boys, all of who are Bengali.
[edit] Tourist Profile
Kundu Special reports that 99 per cent of the tourists remain Bengali, too. Their social profile remains unchanged too: they come from the middle-class and upper middle-class. Many clients have been touring with them over generations. There are also the rich who often fly and put up at star restaurants but join the group for sightseeing.
Bengali single women, widows and divorced usually go on Kundu Special tours.
[edit] Itinerary
Over the years, their itinerary has changed a bit. As it is no longer viable to have all-India tours, the tours have been broken into zone specific north India, south India, west India tours and so on. The duration of the trips has also been considerably reduced, bordering on 10 or 12-day vacations which are more shorter and frequent.
The Kundus have also added tours to Sikkim and Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the last two years. But they have dropped tours to Puri or Darjeeling, which are traditional Bengali tourist haunts.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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