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| A full Flurys on Friday evening. Picture by Rashbehari Das |
The customer count at Flurys went from a handful to full house as the clock struck six on Friday evening. The spurt in footfall as the 12-hour bandh ended was an indicator of how the city was waiting for the day of disruption to end.
“It was so boring at home,” said 12-year-old Anoushka between mouthfuls at the Park Street eatery. She left her New Alipore home with parents and younger brother Sahil at 5.30pm to have some “nice food” before catching a show of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at INOX Forum.
The impact was also felt at malls and multiplexes across town. At Pantaloons South City, the end of season sale drew people eager for retail therapy after several hours of forced detention. “Lots of customers booked items yesterday to be picked up today after we opened shop at six. The footfall has been impressive in the evening,” said a spokesperson of the store.
“I usually go around the city on bandhs but today was different as there was fear of violence. My mother didn’t allow me to go out for a spin on my bike this afternoon,” said a young marketing executive.
Though fear of violence forced cancellations of scheduled events — from university examinations to Confederation of Indian Industry’s brand conclave — on Friday, the evening roster remained unaffected.
The first anniversary of Calcutta Wine Club saw at least 100 guests cheer as the cake was cut around 9pm at Roxy. “Calcuttans do not stop for anything,” said t2 columnist Rita Bhimani, who was present on the occasion along with author Amitav Ghosh and actors Parambrata Chatterjee and Swastika Mukherjee and designer duo Dev r Nil.
Subhasish Banerjee, a young executive with a foreign bank, didn’t mind the day’s inconvenience as it gave him the opportunity to start his weekend partying at least three hours in advance.
“I start partying from 9pm on Fridays after leaving office. But because of the bandh, I got the opportunity to start partying early,” said Banerjee while heading for Someplace Else on Friday evening.
