?There is no need to worry? Things are quite all right for tourists in Kathmandu.?

Reassuring words from American Bill Buffum, who landed in Calcutta on Wednesday with wife Tracey and two-year-old daughter Iona, from the Nepal capital.

The Indian Airlines (IA) flight to Kathmandu left Calcutta at 2.30 pm with 55 passengers, and the flight from Kathmandu landed with 112 passengers at 6 pm.

?We had 100 bookings for our flight to Kathmandu, but ultimately, only 55 passengers boarded the 145-seat aircraft,? said an IA official.

Among those touching down in Calcutta ? albeit briefly ? from Kathmandu were the Buffums.

?We did not leave Nepal because of the emergency. We?re on an extended vacation and are now headed for Andhra Pradesh,? clarified Tracey.

?There is no telephone or e-mail facility, and the international news channels are off the air, but apart from that, there is no way to know that an emergency has been declared in Nepal,? observed Bill.

?There was no restriction on movement in Kathmandu after the emergency was announced,? he added.

Also arriving with his family at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport from Kathmandu was Chandernagore resident Pradeep Ghosh.

?I had gone there with my wife Sujata and son Sudip for a four-day trip. The emergency made the vacation an even more memorable one,? claimed Ghosh.

?Normal life has not been affected in Nepal at all. The only noticeable change was the presence of more military personnel around, a few michhils, and the fact that all communication channels were down?

?So many residents lit lamps at their windows in the evening to show solidarity with the pro-democracy movement,? added wife Sujata.

Emerging from the exit of the international terminal, T. Sundervelu and M. Elango, along with their families, were more excited than exhausted.

The six-member ?travel team? from Salem had arrived on schedule.

?There are lots of Indian tourists in Kathmandu right now, but there is no panic on account of the emergency or any move to cut short their trips,? said Sundervelu.

Back at Writers? Buildings, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee made it clear that the state government would not step in to ensure the return of tourists from Bengal stranded in the Himalayan kingdom, unless there was a ?specific? request.