The city was painted red as tens of thousands of people mostly in red thronged Kolkata’s restaurants and entertainment hotspots to celebrate Christmas.
Santa caps, twinkling headbands and reindeer horns were the choicest accessories for Christmas revellers this year. The Telegraph went around the city’s hotspots:
Alipore zoo
Alipore zoo on Sunday
Inside was a sea of red. The main attraction was the Royal Bengal Tiger enclosure.
Children climbed on their parents’ shoulders to catch a clear glimpse of the tiger while mobile phones went click, click. In the afternoon, visitors were seen struggling for space to have lunch.
Other top draws were the white tiger enclosure, the giraffe pen and the one housing the elephants.
The zoo stayed open till 5pm at least 30 minutes more than usual, keeping in mind that many had travelled from far off districts. Shyamal Jana, a resident of Jhargram, was at the zoo with his 12-year-old daughter Patralekha.
“We came to Kolkata last night and have put up at a guest house in Sealdah. I work in the city and had promised to bring my daughter to the zoo,” Jana who works at a restaurant said.
Till 2pm on Sunday the zoo recorded 87,373 visitors a senior official of the Alipore Zoo said.
Victoria Memorial
The greens of the Victoria Memorial were where many chose to spread out bed sheets and newspapers to have lunch.
On Sunday, the crowd count at Victoria Memorial stood at 38,247.
Many were seen taking selfies against Victoria’s majestic backdrop.
Aditi Shil, a first-year student at a city college who stays in Khardah in North 24 Parganas district, said that this was her first visit and termed the experience as mind-blowing.
“We are headed to St Paul’s Cathedral next,” Shil said.
Eco Park
There was bumper-to-bumper traffic in New Town from the morning as thousands of vehicles, including buses and private cars, made their way towards Eco Park. Till 7.30pm the park had 91,136 visitors.
There were serpentine queues at all the gates of the park and all four parking lots were full by 2pm.
Aditi Chakraborty and her son Subhranil who studies in Class IV were spotted waiting patiently in a queue in front of Eco Park’s gate number 2.
“We have been waiting for almost an hour to get our tickets. My son wanted to be here for Christmas,” Aditi who hails from Katwa in Bardhaman said.
The Mother’s Wax Museum, Aircraft Museum and the Harinalaya Mini Zoo too got a steady stream of visitors throughout the day.
Nicco Park
Salt Lake resident Neil Sen Chaudhuri went to Nicco Park with 6-year-old son Aryan. They reached the park 11.30am and could enter the park 25 minutes later because of the long queue at the ticket counter. “This is our yearly Christmas ritual and we don’t give it a miss,” Chaudhari said.
A park official said that Nicco Park had a footfall of nearly 8,300 on Christmas.
The official said they had made arrangements like placing hand sanitisers at all entry points, near the rides and at the food court.
Maidan zone
Many chose to visit St Paul’s Cathedral and light candles on Sunday. The Maidan wore a festive look with children riding horses and ponies while.
Entire families were here enjoying picnic lunches as well as going on joyrides on horse-drawn carriages.
Indian Museum had 11,000 visitors today.
