Airline Pilot — Resident of Greenwood Sonata, New Town

Winter woes: I am brought up in Mumbai where 24-25°C is high winter. Last year, the minimum I had faced in Calcutta was 12°C. This is the coldest winter I have faced in my five years in this city.

Today (Tuesday) when I went for morning walk at 5am, it was 9°C and because of the chilling wind that was blowing at a speed of around 9-10kmph, it felt like 6°C. We are used to reporting for work in such weather. Yesterday, for instance, my reporting time at the airport was 4am and I left my New Town home at 3.30am.

The biggest challenge for us, aviators, in this season is the abrupt change in temperature that we face at a gap of barely two-and-a-half to three hours. That makes us prone to viral fever.

Today, for instance, I will be flying out of Calcutta in this bitter cold and landing in Pune at 27°C. We are used to erratic hours of work round the year but this temperature fluctuation plays havoc with our body’s circadian rhythm.

The other challenge of the season is fog. This year, however, despite the chill, visibility has been good at Calcutta airport. The fog is not settling because of the wind. In other years, fog becomes an issue for five-six days every winter. In order to land, in airports equipped for Cat III landing, like Calcutta, we need a minimum of 50-55m visibility for Boeing flights and 75m for Airbus for all three scopograph readings along the 3km runway. And for taking off, we need at least 125m visibility for all makes of aircraft. In Delhi, sometimes visibility can even drop to zero. If Delhi is hampered, that disrupts the entire national network due to incoming flights getting delayed.

Winter is not our favourite season because of the operational challenges it throws up.

Singer — Sriradha Bandyopadhyay (Resident of CE Block)

Winter woes: This is peak season for us. There are back-to-back concerts every day. I have started the week with a performance at Sangeet Mela at the Rabindra Sadan complex; on Tuesday, there is a show at Bhadreswar, the day after in Ichhapur, followed by Midnapore.

Every winter, it feels like it is the coldest. Even then, Monday felt especially chilly. Thankfully, Ektara Mancha, despite being styled a mukta mancha, was covered. So was it at Poush Parbon Christmas Utsav on the service road in Sreebhumi where I sang on December 27. I usually go prepared with headgear in case there is no shade. I have learnt my lesson after several shows where I have caught a cold.

Sometimes, though, I am caught unawares. Then I have to depend on the kindness of my musicians in case they have brought extra woollens. Last year, for instance, I had a show at Durgapur which turned out to be less cold than expected. So I had taken it easy with Bally. But Bally turned out to be so cold that I had to borrow a hat from a musician to get on stage. It was the first time that I was coupling a sari with a hat. But the audience was very kind. When I said that I had no choice but to keep the hat on, some people commented: “Didi bhalo lagchhe,” some said. Even the organiser brought me a shawl and forced me to wrap that too. Amar extra jotno hoye gyalo.

My secret shield is taking steam vapour, both in the morning and at night. That helps clear all nasal congestions.

Delivery Boy — Uttam Pradhan (Blinkit Dark Store, CK Block)

Winter woes: I live in Kestopur and leave home at 4.30am to get to work. I wear a cap, muffler, gloves and the jacket our company has given us. But it’s still too cold. My fingers feel so numb and stiff that it’s tough to press the bike’s clutch or break early in the morning. Visibility is low too due to fog.

I reach our dark store and go for hot tea at a stall nearby that opens early. There are some 150 of us delivery boys assigned to our CK Block dark store so that we can work 24x7. Each of us gets 30 to 50 orders a day, peak hours being 9am to noon and again 5pm to 10pm. To make ends meet, we have to work about 15 hours a day, sometimes from before dawn, and sometimes till dawn.

A few customers call us within seconds of placing an order, asking how long we will take, so irrespective of whether we feel cold or sleepy, we think of their need, put on gloves and head out.

A colleague of mine, Rakesh Mondal, fell sick in the cold a few days ago. He got fever but had to return to work as soon as his temperature normalised. He’s still suffering from a bad cold.

Hawker — Firoza Sardar (Sector V, Wipro Footpath)

Winter woes: Except for Sundays, our tea and snack shop is open 24 hours day. My family of four lives in the shop itself and we take turns manning the counter. When my husband feels drowsy at around 3am, I wake up and take over. It’s extremely cold then – I have to wear two sweaters and use a shawl to cover my ears. My fingers feel numb touching the water but much of our work, like cooking and washing utensils, has me dealing with water.

Our stall has been here for over 25 years and it feels like this winter is the coldest at least in the last five years or so.

Another downside of this weather is that customers are reluctant to come over. Sector V feels more awake at night than in the morning but if it’s this cold, IT sector employees don’t want to brave the chill and walk up to us. We sell tea, biscuits, cigarettes, bread and noodles and people come up to our stall for some adda too. If it’s too cold at night, footfall is lower.

I also work as a domestic help at EE Block’s Natyo Sodh Sansthan. I go there at 10am but luckily I don’t have to deal with much water there as I use a mopping stick instead of a cloth.

School Gatekeeper — Tanusree Mitra (Salt Lake School, CA Block)

Winter woes: I have to reach school by 6.30am and since I live in Howrah, I have to leave home at 4.50am. I take a warm shower before stepping out, but it’s still a shivery half-hour walk to the bus stop. Due to the fog, even the bus isn’t able to reach on time. I don a sweater, jacket, and shawl over my uniform and the windows of the bus are all rolled up.

We have another security staff, Ramjas Kashyap, who stays in school itself and opens the gates for the rest of us from 6am. But he hails from Uttar Pradesh, where it is 5°C now, so the Calcutta chill is quite pleasant for him. I, however, vouch that this winter is much colder than other years.

Construction Worker — Angad Kumar Singh (Airport–New Garia Metro Site, Sector V)

Winter woes: I hail from Bihar where it is much colder than this but still working in winter in such climes isn’t a cakewalk, especially at night.

There are some 150 of us working here and I operate building hoists, which are construction elevators that move workers and materials vertically on sites. Most of our work takes place during the day but sometimes we need to work overnight, when traffic is less and it is more peaceful. In winter, we put on layers of clothing, our safety shoes and hoodie jackets under our helmets. We also keep guzzling adrakwali chai from our mess to warm up.

Last winter, I was working on the Metro site around Sukantanagar but it wasn’t as cold.

Newspaper Boy — Prosenjit Biswas (New Town Action Area 1)

Winter woes: I start my shift before sunrise, delivering newspapers first and move on to delivering Blinkit orders. Riding a bike makes it worse; my hands get so cold and numb that sometimes I can barely hold the phone. Moreover, my fingers turn stiff on the handlebars. I rub them together every few minutes but I have to keep going because if I stop, I lose the day’s earnings. Moreover, there’s a strict time limit for each delivery which makes it even harder to handle. It’s a bit too cold this winter, though I’m slowly getting accustomed to it.

Additional reporting by Sudeshna Banerjee and Srijita Talukdar