The deluge that the city woke up to on Tuesday left most residents confined to their homes, but the incessant overnight rain did not deter lifeline workers from being out on the streets to brave massive waterlogging.
Around 5.30am on Tuesday, when most Calcuttans were still peering out of their windows to gape at the waterlogged neighbourhood, Arun Sen, 55, a newspaper vendor from Duttapukur in North 24-Parganas, was already at Chiriamore, on the city's northern fringes, to pick up his stock of newspapers from the distributors.
“This is part and parcel of my job,” he said with a shrug, carefully balancing a bundle of newspapers wrapped in plastic on his bicycle.
Civic body staffer Taleswar Das walks on slush on a Paikpara bylane, Calcutta, with his cart to collect trash from residents on Tuesday morning
He found the cycle stand at Dum Dum station submerged and yet waded through waters to deliver newspaper right down to his last client. Forty of his newspapers got drenched in the rain and he had to arrange them from fellow vendors. “Readers expect their newspapers on time, come rain or shine," Sen said.
As the day progressed, the sky thundered and the water refused to recede. Taleswar Das, 55, a trash collector in Kolkata Municipal Corporation's ward 4, was seen going on his rounds as usual.
Wading through waterlogged lanes and bylanes, he shouted out to collect "janjal" (garbage).
Originally from Tilona village near Giridih in Jharkhand, Das said he had left his quarters at Paikpara around 4.30am on Tuesday.
“We can't afford to be late on such days. Because of the waterlogged lanes and streets, it took me longer, but I managed to collect waste from every home assigned to me,” he said, loading another bulging plastic bag onto his handcart.
At many places, residents were spotted throwing their garbage-filled packets from balconies or rooftops to avoid stepping into the waterlogged lanes.
“Kundubabu (one of the residents) shouted to me from the first floor, and I caught the plastic packet (of trash) midair!” Das grinned. After completing his rounds, as he headed for Gokhana near Chiriamore to dump the garbage.
“Yes, it’s tiring, but our households must stay clean, no matter what weather," Das said.
Information and hygiene taken care of, food essentials cannot be left out. The Ashu Babur Bazaar at Paikpara in north Calcutta refused to miss a beat despite being marooned and having fewer customers to cater to.
Fishseller Prabir Ghosh braved the rain and brought his stock from Patipukur wholesale fish market at daybreak. By the time the customers arrived, Ghosh had placed his stall on the footpath adjacent to Raja Manindra Road to keep his produce above water.
“If I don’t sell fish today, tomorrow’s meal will be unsure, not just for me but for my customers too,” said Ghosh, arranging his fresh catch and cutting a big fish into pieces with a boti like other vendors around him.
Fishseller Prabir Ghosh caters to a customer at the waterlogged Ashu Babur Bazaar in north Calcutta on Tuesday morning
The blinding rain that submerged Calcutta can be measured, but not the resilience and grit of these lifeline workers.
Carefully stepping over slush, a shopper at the Paikpara market said: “We complain about the rain, but these people are out here making sure that life is less inconvenient for us.”
On a day when domestic helps didn’t turn up, schools declared a rainy day, offices saw minimum attendance and news of electrocution deaths struck panic, these workers kept the city moving and its spirit waterproof.
An elderly Northern Avenue resident, Sunil Kumar Pal, said: “Rain dampened the Puja spirit, who says? Just look at them and you will find that the spirit works in many ways. Happy Puja to these bravehearts.”