Mourners strike a pose on Assembly greens. (Rith Basu)

Tapas Sinha, a schoolteacher from Haldia, arrived at the Assembly south gate early on Tuesday and by 11.30am, he was done paying homage to Jyoti Basu. Coming out of the west gate, he headed straight for Esplanade Metro station.

“I have come all the way from Haldia as I respect Jyoti Basu. Now I intend to take my family to the museum and the zoo and then have dinner at Aminia,” Sinha told Metro.

Sinha was not alone. For the thousands thronging the Assembly to see Basu one last time, the occasion doubled as a day out in the city.

“My son has been insisting on going to Nicco Park. I thought since we are coming to Calcutta I must take him there,” said Shyamal Das, a DYFI member from Uttarpara.

With a bright sun emerging after two days of chill, the scene on the Assembly premises mirrored the Victoria Memorial lawns on a winter afternoon. A sea of visitors milled around the campus or sprawled on the greens, the repeated pleas by CPM leaders to clear the grounds falling on deaf ears. “Make sure the fountain comes in the frame,” yelled a young girl as she posed for a friend wielding a camera phone.

The biggest buzz was, however, among those for whom the country’s most popular communist leader is said to have toiled relentlessly. The working class made a fast buck as visitors sipped on endless cups of tea and munched on muri-chanachur in queue.

Flower sellers were a particularly happy lot. “Because of Basu, today I made Rs 5,000 — something I earn in a month,” said Tapas Dutta, a flower vendor from Howrah.

Sweet seller Sheikh Bhadur had a sweet day too. “People lapped up my mowas. I made around Rs 1,500,” said the Baruipur resident.