An air-conditioned train from New Delhi chugged into Howrah around 12.20pm on Thursday with a little over 950 passengers.

The passengers, after getting off the train, got their body temperature checked by thermal scanners before they were allowed to proceed further.

The government had arranged buses for the people headed to districts. Some had family members and friends waiting in cars and taxis outside the station.

The passengers were all stranded at various places because of the lockdown. The Telegraph shares two accounts.

Stitching a struggle

Akhtar Hossain, a 24-year-old tailor from Malda, works at a stitching unit in Seelampur in northeast Delhi. Hossain has been working there for seven years.

The production unit has remained shut since the lockdown started on March 25. Hossain’s salary is “a little over Rs 8,000 per month”.

“Since the lockdown started, I did not get any money,” said Hossain, who lives in Delhi at a rented accommodation with four colleagues. “The landlord had not asked for any rent in April but as the lockdown got extended, he started pressuring us for rent,” said Hossain.

Hossain sends most of his earnings home, where lives his parents and two younger sisters. His father is a cardiac patient.

“All my roommates sent most of their earnings home. There was very little cash left with us. We survived on flattened rice and water, which we had twice a day. On certain days, an NGO gave us khichdi,” said Hossain.

When he heard about partial resumption of passenger train services, he requested a cousin in Malda to book tickets, for himself as well as five other stranded co-workers. “I could not have left them behind. We will repay the ticket fares once we start working again,” said Hossain.

Trip cut short

Kamlesh Sharma, who owns a footwear store in Kestopur, had gone ahead with a planned trip to Shimla despite warnings by friends.

Kamlesh Sharma (right) with his wife and parents at a hotel in Kalka

He had boarded the Kalka Mail on March 19, along with his parents and wife. “Our return tickets were booked for March 31. I had no idea that the coronavirus crisis would be this bad,” said Sharma, who lives in Dankuni.

The family reached Kalka on March 21. They sensed trouble when the toy train to Shimla was cancelled the same day. The Janta Curfew took place on March 22. The family could not hire any private car, neither for Shimla nor for Delhi.

“We came in contact with some other stranded tourists and contacted the SDM office. An officer arranged for our stay at a hotel,” said Sharma.

The hotel did not charge anything for accommodation. They got food from the SDM office and some local NGOs. But on April 14, when the lockdown was extended, the hotelier said he could not sustain their free stay any longer. The Sharmas had to shift to a night shelter.

Just when Sharma was thinking of booking a private vehicle at an “exorbitant price” to come back, he read about the train services. Sharma was lucky in getting the tickets at one go.

The family came to Delhi in a hired car on Thursday morning and took the Howrah-bound train. “I should not have embarked on the trip. It was a big lesson,” said Sharma.