A ride through some of the busiest city roads a little after 9pm used to give a deserted midnight vibe till a month ago. Not anymore.

The traffic snarls are back at night and the parking lots busy. People are waiting outside restaurants and Gariahat stalls are open till at least 8pm.

The festive season is a big pull, according to small and big business owners. Many people have accepted that the coronavirus is here to stay and decided to live with it, they said.

The Telegraph toured two iconic places in Calcutta to gauge the night mood:

Diners wait outside Peter Cat on Park Street around 9.30pm Pradip Sanyal

Welcome back

“Ekhon kotha bola jabe na, bhir achhe dokaane (Cannot talk now. The store is crowded),” Manabendra Saha, the co-owner of Traders Assembly — a sari shop almost synonymous with the Gariahat crossing — said when Metro called on Saturday afternoon.

The evening before, Metro had seen at least 20 people inside the store.

On a Sunday afternoon in the middle of August, the only people Metro had seen inside the store were a handful of employees.

Around 8.30pm on Friday, the footpaths near the Gariahat crossing had hundreds of buyers at stalls that sold everything from trinkets to melamine plates.

In the past years, a Friday evening at Gariahat in the run-up to the festive season used to be chaotic. All one could see was black heads. Swarms of people would be at the crossing waiting for the signal to turn green for pedestrians.

On Friday, Gariahat was busy but not chaotic.

Around 9.15pm, scores of people waited for buses on the road. At least 30 autos waited for passengers. The familiar “Chetla-New Alipore-Taratala” shouts from drivers came constantly.

A fast-food outlet, popular for kathi rolls, had more than 10 people at the counter around 8.45pm.

But for shopkeepers — who have had their backs pushed to the wall in the absence of shoppers because of the pandemic — it was a welcome sight.

“Thank god for the festive season,” Debasish Dey, who sells handbags at the Gariahat crossing said. He had hardly sold anything from June to the middle of August. Hawkers were allowed to resume business from May 27.

From end of August, shops and stalls started registering higher footfall. By the middle of September, Dey was back to being busy. On Friday, he had sold more than a dozen bags till 8pm.

Under the flyover, the kings, knights and bishops were back to fighting each other. Chess boards had been laid out on at least five tables. “We are asking senior citizens not to come. But other than that, people are coming regularly,” Abhijit Saha, the secretary of the Gariahat Chess Club, said.

Shoppers in Gariahat around 8.30pm on Friday night Pradip Sanyal

Fear to acceptance

“Ektu egiye dekhun, ekhane hobe na (There is no space here; go a bit ahead and check out),” an attendant at the parking lot on the road in front of Silver Grill kept telling people around 9.10pm on Friday.

At least 20 cars were parked in the lot.

Outside Peter Cat, at least 20 diners were seen waiting to get in. Not everyone stood on the white circles drawn on the road outside to maintain distance.

At 9.30pm, the waiting time at Bar-B-Q was “over 20 minutes”.

Children selling balloons and candys were back, doing rounds of the footpaths on either side of the road.

“We see good footfall on weekdays. On weekends, there are many people waiting outside,” a Peter Cat employee said.

Pratap Daryanani, the owner of Oasis, spotted the return of an old trend. “Many people have been coming after a day of shopping, suggesting the festive season has lifted their spirits.”

Almost all restaurant owners Metro spoke to said the permission to serve liquor at restaurants had led to higher footfall.

The time of the last order at many places has now been extended to 10.45pm. A month ago, when the lid on bottles was still in force, it was 9.30pm. “People have realised that Covid-19 is not going anywhere anytime soon. They are prepared to lead life normally, acknowledging its presence. There has been a shift — from fear to acceptance,” Nitin Kothari, the owner of Mocambo and Peter Cat, said.