Once the panic subsided, the picnic started.

On Wednesday afternoon, if the tremor — and the word about the tremor spread by cellphone and breaking news on TV— triggered a rush from highrises, adda about tsunami and the sip-and-bite options on the streets kept the office crowd busy for hours after.

The twitterati summed up the mid-week, mid-afternoon mood.

First: “Earthquake evacuation at Theatre Road!!!” Uploaded by Chandreyi Das Sharma @Miss_Frodo

Then: “Crowds loitering outside even an hour after the earthquake tremors in Kolkata.” Uploaded by Dibyojyoti Pal @DibyojyotiPal

Metro paused at some of the points of “evacuation” and “loitering”.

After the ‘cracks’, phuchkas rule in front of AC Market

At 2.20pm, the Theatre Road-Lord Sinha Road crossing looked as if Shah Rukh Khan had just entered AC Market. Hundreds of office-goers had gathered, staring up at the building, some pointing at “cracks”, others holding forth on the “tsunami threat”.

By 3pm, the crowd remained but it was too busy gulping down phuchkas and bhelpuri, guzzling cold drinks and chai to bother about the world coming to an end in 2012.

“Sales have shot up in the past hour and at this rate I can go home really early,” smiled a vendor, fast running out of phuchkas.

Momo the pop pick outside Chatterjee International

The panic caused by the quake sent those inside what used to be Calcutta’s tallest building, at 24 storeys, scurrying down to street level. And once the initial fears of cracks and collapse evaporated, it was feast time on the pavements. The pop pick among light bites? Momo.

An hour later, while a few went back up, most remained below, “I am waiting to know if we need to go back to office or leave for the day,” said Avijit Goswami, who works on the 21st floor.

Take a break at the Zilla Parishad office

While the district magistrate and other officials went around inspecting the administrative building of the South 24-Parganas Zilla Parishad office in Alipore, many employees, evacuated after a false ceiling on the second floor developed a crack, downed tea and samosa.

“The weather is conducive to such a break,” smiled an employee.

Adda outside Insurance Building on Lyons Range

Several state government offices located in the six-storey India Insurance Building on Lyons Range behind Writers’ Buildings were vacated. Some employees were smart enough to bring their bags along. Once at ground level, the adda ranged from tsunami to Sourav Ganguly. “Some of us were about to call it a day when we were told by our superiors that everything was fine and so we must return to office,” said an employee of the state finance department’s directorate of treasuries.

High above in Hiland Park

Hear it from Vivek Singh, who stays on the 19th floor of Cape Tower: “I was lying on my bed and I suddenly felt dizzy. I went to the other room and my wife also said that she was feeling dizzy. When we came out, we saw the chandelier shaking and that confirmed an earthquake. Then we ran down the stairs. We saw a lot of people had gathered below and were staring up at the building. Everyone was calling their family members.... There was also an after-shock but it was not as bad as the first.” And from Vivek Banerjee, a resident of the ninth floor of Bay tower: “I was working on my laptop when I suddenly felt my couch shaking. Before I could get up and rush out of my apartment, the tremor stopped... People were petrified.”

Higher above in South City

Compared to the September 18 tremors, Wednesday’s quake was just a mild shake-up for the residents of the South City towers, the tallest highrise in Calcutta.
“I was at home with my ailing mother and my wife but we hardly felt anything. We have that scary memory of running for safety, thanks to the last tremors, but this time nothing like that happened,” said Tapan Kumar Ghosh, from the 28th floor in South City’s Tower 4.

Do you have a tremor tale from Wednesday to share? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com