We are in a standstill renewed twice over. India was ordered frozen on March 24 at painfully short notice. No buses, no trains, no flights. Many were stuck away from home. We spoke to some of them.
Gourav Pratap Singh, 31
From: Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh
In Bengal since: March 19
I am a consultant. I arrived in Calcutta for a project, a company expansion in east and northeast India. The day I reached, the rumours of a nationwide lockdown had started. Post the Janata Curfew on March 22, I could sense something big was coming, but I did not imagine it would be anything like this.
I tried to go back home but I couldn’t. The project also got stalled. I had taken up accommodation as a paying guest in Kidderpore in central-west Calcutta. All the boarders left after the lockdown announcement. A distant relation offered to help me. I have been staying with them since, in Howrah’s Shibpur area.
Financially I haven’t faced any difficulties but mentally this is very exhausting. Neither is work happening, nor am I able to go home, and my one-year-old daughter is ailing. I tried to arrange a travel pass by showing her prescription to the relevant authorities but I didn’t get permission. I tried to book train tickets too, whenever the rail authorities opened online bookings. I had a Kalka Mail booking for April 15, but that too got cancelled.
My father travelled from Uttar Pradesh to the Bengal border to take me home but at Chirkunda check-post in Jharkhand, the police stopped him. My father waited at the checkpost for 24 hours and requested the authorities to let him enter the state but he was not permitted. He came this close to me and then had to return alone.
These days, I keep watching news all day on my phone — in the hope that some option will be made available for me and I will be able to go home.
Khadim Yaseen, 26
From: Srinagar, J&K
In Bengal since: November 2019
My father has been coming to Calcutta to sell pashmina shawls for the last 30 years. He comes in early winter and usually leaves by March-end. Typically, every family rents a room here in Domjur, Howrah. Some family members come too. This time, I accompanied my father. There are other families from Srinagar stuck with us as well. There are 27 of us including the elderly, children and women.
This time things are difficult. First, there is no business. Second, we are running out of money. We have to pay Rs 7,000 a month as rent. Thankfully the landlord hasn’t asked yet, but there are other expenses too. We are buying rations on credit. We are managing somehow, but for how long? We just want to go back home.
We heard the government has issued an order to help stranded people go back home. We were told one just has to get in touch with the nodal officer of the area. But when we went to the nodal office, they said they had not been intimated about any such order. They asked us for photocopies of our identity cards. How can we get photocopies done when everything is shut?
I am missing my mother the most and I am very worried for her. She suffers from depression and is continuously worrying about us. I hope her health doesn’t deteriorate amidst all this. We have been keeping roza and all that we wish for is to celebrate Id with our families.
Vivek Chandra Khare, 45
From: Faridabad, Haryana
In Bengal since: March 12
I came to Calcutta after Holi. I had just joined Khadim India Ltd, a footwear company as assistant vice-president, sales. The company provided me accommodation for a month at The LaLit Great Eastern, a five-star facility in central Calcutta. According to the contract, I was to use this time to arrange for my accommodation. But after the lockdown was announced, the company decided to extend my stay and has continued to pay for my expenses.
I am comfortable here and everyone is very co-operative. Nobody from outside has come since the lockdown. The staff stayed back in the hotel.
I have started watching television — something I haven’t been able to do for the last five years.
But I am missing my family. I have never been away from them for so long. However, I have no complaints. I am just glad that they are safe and so am I. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be for me if I was not at a hotel, managing everything in a new city at a time like this.
I booked my tickets twice since the lockdown; the airlines were accepting reservations. Both times my tickets were cancelled two to three days ahead of my departure. I am just waiting for normalcy to return so I can go back home.
Ashish Majumdar, 62
From: Ranchi, Jharkhand
In Bengal since: March 24
My wife and I had gone to Chennai on March 13. Our elder daughter, who works there, had been diagnosed with typhoid. When we took her to the doctor, we were told she had to be hospitalised immediately.
We decided to take her back to Ranchi, which is where our home is. We booked her a flight for March 20 — Chennai to Ranchi via Calcutta. Our return train tickets were already booked for March 19. But when we reached the station that day, the train was chock-a-block. There were thousands of labourers, workers, families, not only in the sleeper coaches but also in the air-conditioned ones. Apparently, there was a rumour in Chennai that trains would stop running and no one was taking any chances.
We requested the ticket examiner to help us as we had reservations but he told us he couldn’t do anything. He also said if we could manage to squeeze ourselves in, we should. This was beyond us. We returned to the hotel and, in the meantime, called up our younger daughter who is studying in Dehradun and told her to get to Ranchi so she could look after her elder sister till we got home.
By this time we had run out of cash, so we asked our daughter to book us a flight from Chennai to Bhubaneswar and a train ticket from Bhubaneswar to Ranchi. We reached Bhubaneswar on March 23, but when we got to the hotel we were told there was no food available for guests given the circumstances. For the next 48 hours we survived on the chanachur and muri we were carrying with us. And then it was declared that all trains stood cancelled.
Next, my daughter booked us a flight to Ranchi via Calcutta. When we reached the airport on the noon of March 24, the first flight was delayed. We knew then that we would miss the connecting flight.
Mind you, we are both high blood pressure patients. When the flight finally landed in Calcutta at 9 pm, we came to know of the national lockdown. Now we had no choice but to stay back in Calcutta. The taxi that ferried us from the airport to my sister’s house, which is barely 10 minutes away, charged us Rs 800 for the ride.
We have been staying at my sister’s place since then. In the past six weeks, my daughter has not even been tested for typhoid as no doctors are available and the pathology labs are shut. When we check on them, the two girls tell us they are fine but we know they are not. God forbid, if something happens to my daughter, who will take the responsibility?
Swejal Garodia, 24
From: Guwahati, Assam
In Bengal since: March 6
I got married in mid-December. Since then I have been staying with my husband and in-laws in Guwahati. I am also from Guwahati but my parents shifted to Sonarpur in Bengal’s South 24-Parganas two years ago.
I came to Sonarpur end-February to celebrate Gangaur, a festival for married women to pray for the prosperity and well-being of their husbands. I was scheduled to return to Guwahati on March 27, the day the festival ends. One is not supposed to travel in the interim. But then, because of the lockdown, the flights were cancelled.
My husband has been repeatedly tweeting to different government authorities to help me get back to Guwahati. Although I am comfortable here, I don’t feel at home because I was born and brought up in Guwahati. Even our wedding happened under unusual circumstances — there were anti-CAA protests in Guwahati and we had to limit it to the immediate family.
Since we shifted here recently, we don’t know anybody. It feels like we have been caged in our house.
I miss my husband. We try to video call each other every day so that we can at least see each other. We try to play online games together, not only to keep ourselves busy and our minds off what is happening but also to feel connected.
Andre Oliveira, 37
From: Portugal
In Bengal since: February end
I am a travel blogger and I have always been excited at the prospect of visiting India. I had heard stories and seen pictures. Finally, after a lot of planning, I got here.
I was keen on exploring Calcutta and I scoured the city to my heart’s content once I got here. I went to the Sunderbans as well. I returned to Calcutta and left for Bangladesh next. My initial plan was to take a train and return to Calcutta after a few days. But when I went to buy a ticket, I was told that the train service had been suspended. I remember feeling a lot of emotions. I felt tired, confused, stuck. Finally, I had to take one of the last night buses from Bangladesh to Calcutta. The wait at the border was very long, but at last I was back.
This was a week before the big announcement. I remember, no lockdown had been declared officially in the country, but there were rumours. I decided to go to Bhubaneswar and then to Puri. The plan was, if there was a lockdown, I’d want to be near a beach!
When I reached Bhubaneswar, the hotel staff was not willing to let me stay. I managed nevertheless and thereafter took a bus to Puri. But the bus was stopped midway and we, the passengers, were asked to go back to Bhubaneswar. Later I learnt that Odisha had registered its first Covid-19 case that day, so they were starting to seal everything.
I decided I would return to Calcutta. I got back and the lockdown happened and I have been here since. I am staying at the Backpackers Park, a hostel on Park Street.
My original plan was to tour more places and trek to the Himalayas sometime end-April. My return flight was booked for June 1, but it has now been cancelled. I keep following the news and the situation back home is not really good. I had several opportunities to leave but I did not. There is no reason for me to be in Europe right now. At least I am safe here and so is my family back home.
I spend the day writing and watching movies. I was mentally and financially prepared anyway, as I was going to travel till June and my budget was set. All that I am spending on right now is accommodation and the supermarket which is just a minute’s walk from the hostel.