Colour or Grayscale?

The question becomes almost impossible to answer at times! The same shot emotes really differently in the two styles. The images below present a classic case, where I am till date unable to decide which one I prefer.

The colour image has a very retro feel to it; which I would attribute to the old couple and the colour of the scooter and the helmet. It represents an era gone by; created by this couple and their scooter in the foreground and the architecture of the building in the backdrop. The modern cars add a little context in terms of the generation that the image was shot in.

But what it really fails to capture are the emotions of the old couple. This in fact caught my eye when I converted the image to black and white. The extremely strong eye-connect, the lady's expression. Almost poetic. Its a completely different shot in monochrome!!

I ran the two shots past a lot of people; and I was not surprised when I never got a straight answer to my question. Is this a shot for colour or grayscale? What's your take? I shot this image with my Nikon D3100