Dussehra at Salt Lake Central Park. Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Sindur Khela at Daw Bari, off Girish Park, in north Calcutta. Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Samyuktaa Sarkar was out pandal hopping for the first time on the last day of the puja because her father Subhashis, a techie with a Salt Lake Sector V firm, had not managed to get leave till now.

The family from Belghoria said they were trying to make the most of the day.

“We started around 11am and saw the Sealdah Athletic Club puja before heading south. We will visit Tridhara and Samaj Sebi Sangha before going to Ekdalia,” Subhashis Sarkar said.

Shuvro Chowdhury, who works in a stock broking firm, got leave only on Navami. His friend, Suman Das, who works in the back office for an e-tailer, managed an off only on Dashami.

The two were all smiles at the Ekdalia Evergreen puja.

Chowdhury said he spent a few hours in office on Friday morning before joining das and a common friend, Ankita Chakraborty, at Ekdalia.

On the agenda was a “sumptuous meal” at a restaurant during which they would chalk out the day’s “must-visits”.

Debol Banerjee, 62, said he went pandal hopping with wife Swati, 61, on Dashami because the crowd was considerably less than other days.

The Tollygunge resident said he had been following the practice for the past few years. “I like to take pictures of pandals... for me, Dashami means lesser pushing and shoving.”

Salt Lake resident Khusboo Badani had stepped out with daughter Chehal who studies in Class II in Sushila Birla Girls’ School and sister-in-law Sangeeta Saraf on Dashami to check out pandals with minimal queues.

“We wanted to avoid the trademark long queues... so, we stepped out today (Friday),” Badani said.

Time for a groupfie at the Bagbazar puja. Gautam Bose

Revellers hit the road on Dashami on Friday soaking in the last bit of the festive fervour.

There were serpentine queues outside pandals from noon, just as it has been the past few days.

Traffic was slow near the big-ticket pujas and parking a nightmare.

As the day wore on, Calcuttans came out in large numbers, showing no signs of fatigue as the waiting time to enter pandals increased.

Purnashish Dutta, a Beadon Street resident, was at the “Sita Haran-themed” puja in Salt Lake’s AK Block with his 10-month-old son Ehaan and wife Ekta.

He said he had been busy with his home puja since Sashthi and could step out only on Navami.

Dutta said he wanted to visit the pandals in the FD and BJ blocks. “We will visit the Chaltabagan pandal as well.”

For many, Dashami was about ticking off the pujas they had missed.

One of the busier hubs for puja-hoppers on Dashami morning was the area around Deshapriya Park and Tridhara Sammilani, where there were long queues and hardly any parking space.

At Sreebhumi, the waiting time was 45 minutes around 5pm.

A crowded Ekdalia pandal at 2.45pm on Friday. Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya