Shambhu Tiwary
Profession: School bus driver
Resident of: Duttabad
Works for: Joy Travels, that provides school buses for Hariyana Vidya Mandir
Has life returned to pre-Covid days: Hardly. Schools have been calling students once in a while over the last two years but no one signs up for a school bus when you have just two days of school a week. The authorities are trying to restart daily classes from April 12 but I’ll believe them the day I drive my bus again. As of now, all the big yellow buses are parked behind the school, locked up.
How were the last two years: As bad as it can get. We received rations but they were never enough. I had no work and it was very difficult sustaining my family of four. I withdrew my provident fund, sold off the family jewellery and took loans. And still, we had to fill half our stomachs with water.
A lesson you have learnt in these two years: I have decided to save up for a rainy day, even if it means eating half my fill from now on.
Puspa Biswas
Beautician Puspa Biswas applies make-up on a CK Block resident
Profession: Beautician
Resident of: Rajarhat
Works in: Houses in Sector II, Salt Lake
Has life returned to pre-Covid days: Not yet. Ladies have resumed calling me for facials, eyebrow threading and waxing but the chunk of my earnings used to be from bridal make-up and that is yet to take off.
How were the last two years: Very tough. I live alone and it became difficult to sustain. I fell back on paying rent but then managed somehow.
I’ve been working in this field for more than 30 years and it’s the only skill I have so I couldn’t get any other employment. But then customers were scared to let someone into their homes amidst a pandemic.
To ebb their fears, I started clubbing their work to common days and took app cabs to Salt Lake. Clients felt safer since I was at least not using public transport.
Before the pandemic I would get two or three bridal make-up assignments a season. Along with the bride, her mother, aunts and sisters would dress up too. But then weddings got called off, their budgets got slashed and we were out of work. The first bridal make-up job I got since the pandemic was as late as this month.
A lesson you have learnt in these two years: I have to see terrible times and don’t know how I’ll survive if we go into lockdown again.
Pawan Kumar
Pawan Kumar, a barber who sits on the footpath near Tank 12, trims a child’s hair. Pictures by Brinda Sarkar
Profession: Barber
Resident of: FE Block footpath under Tank 12
Works at: The roadside salon he runs
Has life returned to pre-Covid days: Now that offices are reopening, about 40 per cent customers have returned for shaves and haircuts. Others are still scared of availing services in the open.
How were the last two years: When the nationwide lockdown got called, I thought it would be for a week or so and stayed on at my rented home in Nayapatti. When it kept getting prolonged I returned to my village. But even there we have 12-13 mouths to feed at home. Cutting hair is all I know and so I started walking to nearby villages to offer my services but clearly I wasn’t welcome. Villagers started accusing me of spreading Covid — a city disease — among them.
I returned to Salt Lake in August 2020 but the market was abysmal. I couldn’t pay rent and had to move out. I now live in my footpath salon. But some customers and residents of the area helped me out in the tough times.
A lesson you have learnt in these two years: I pray for this nightmare to get over. It exposed me to a time I can never forget.
Gouranga Das
Tailor Gouranga Das stitches clothes opposite DL Block
Profession: Tailor
Resident of: New Town, near Sukhobrishti complex
Works on: The footpath of GSI complex, opposite DL Block
Has life returned to pre-Covid days: Business is way better than in the peak of the pandemic but things aren’t back to normal. I’m making about 20 per cent of what I would before 2020.
How were the last two years: It’s been a nightmare. My family of four was leading a hand-to-mouth life. I had considered selling vegetables since my tailoring shop was shut but I had no capital.
Even after the lockdown lifted, the nature of my work changed. Usually before the Pujas, we are swamped with orders to stitch blouses — five to seven customers a day. But all through the 2020 and 2021 Pujas, I didn’t get a single blouse order. Even customers are cash-strapped and are not buying that many new saris.
Most of my work now is alteration on existing clothes.
A lesson you have learnt in these two years: I’ll have to save every penny I can.
Santosh Kumar
Santosh Kumar irons a shirt at his stall in BE Block. (Brinda Sarkar)
Profession: Laundry man
Resident of: The BE Block stall he works in
Works for: Homes in and around BE Block
Has life returned to pre-Covid days: There has been a significant improvement since March 2022. Since offices are reopening people are wearing formal clothes again and handing them to me to press.
How were the last two years: I took off to my village in Bihar for some time but there people said we city folk were spreading coronavirus among them. When I returned to Salt Lake, there was no work. People were working from home in shorts that needed no ironing. Some had started pressing their shirts themselves.
So I took on odd jobs. I started helping elderly residents by doing their shopping and the like. Many customers helped me out with food items too. Other dhobis of the neighbourhood would come by to my stall and we would share the food together.
A lesson you have learnt in these two years: This has been the toughest period of my life but now that I survived it, I know I can take on anything life throws at me, that too with a smile. I’ve realised that there’s no point being sad.
Sukdeb Das Mahanta
Sukdeb Das Mahanta collects a blood sample at the laboratory
Profession: Phlebotomist
Age: 26
Resident of: Sukhobrishti
Works: At SP Diagnostics, Patharghata (near New Town)
Has life returned to pre-Covid days: Almost but not completely. Covid is still here and our lab is still open till midnight. I am collecting 10-12 samples per day, which are mostly for air travel, and I haven’t got a single positive case yet in March. Now the urgent cases are mostly for sodium potassium measurements which we check instantly in our laboratory.
How were the last two years: I was mostly involved in swab collection for RT-PCR tests. During the first wave, I used to man our stall at the New Town Fair Ground in the morning. In the evening, I’d collect as many as 100-150 samples from people’s houses. During the second wave, I was collecting 70-80 samples from 8pm to 2am, travelling from New Town to Birati, Tollygunge, Barrackpore... In January, I did about 70 collections by day and 40-45 at night. That month alone, about 1,000 samples I collected came positive.
A lesson I learnt in these two years: That I can stay away so long from my family. I stay alone in Calcutta! I have not been home in Bankura since November 2019 for fear that I’d infect my sick mother or my brother’s little son. I did not attend his rice-eating ceremony also. They do not know I collect Covid samples. Ma would get scared and cry if she heard.
The second lesson I learnt is if one follows Covid protocol, it is possible to keep the disease at bay. I have not caught the infection so far as I never get close to people without PPE and use gloves and sanitiser rigorously.
Partha Somadder
Partha Somadder
Profession: Chess and drawing tutor
Resident of: Beleghata
Works in: Salt Lake, Kestopur, Bangur and Lake Town
Has life returned to pre-Covid days: Some months ago, students started coming back for classes but there are still some who haven’t joined back.
How were the last two years: The pandemic caused a lot of trouble for me. Since I went to the homes of the students to teach once a week, all my classes suddenly came to a stop when the lockdown was announced. No students came to my house and I was forbidden to go to theirs. My finances took a dip and I didn’t know how to keep the kitchen fire going. I have been a private tutor since 1991 but in this profession one doesn’t have a fixed income. Some former students and their parents came forward to extended financial help. I am very grateful to them for that.
A lesson you have learnt in these two years: I have learnt that money needs to be saved as a habit. Also time that once goes by never comes back. The pandemic was a bitter experience and I don’t want to be caught in a similar situation again.
Tarun Saha
Tarun Saha in front of the reception counter of the guest house in Bangur Avenue. Picture by Showli Chakraborty
Profession: Guest house manager
Resident of: Bangur Avenue
Works in: Atithi Guest House, Bangur Avenue
Has life returned to pre-Covid days: No. Our business is down by almost 70 per cent and there aren't many guests coming in. We are only getting some bookings during the wedding season. Otherwise corporate bookings or tourism from neighbouring countries, like Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, are not happening anymore.
How were the last two years: There were hardly any guests coming in. The tourism sector was hit hard by the pandemic. We also had to let go of some of our staff as we couldn’t afford to pay their salaries. Before the pandemic, we had a regular set of guests coming in every year apart from floating customers. They would usually come for business deals. But that stopped completely.
A lesson you learnt in these two years: I’ve learnt not to depend on just one profession. One should have two or three backup options so that if one is affected there is something to fall back on. This is why we have started renting out a portion of our guest house to a chain store selling waffles. That way there is a fixed income even if the guest count is low.
Kartik Mondal
Profession: Masseur
Resident of: Amtala
Works: Across blocks in Salt Lake and New Town
Has life returned to pre-Covid days: Almost. I’d say things are 80 per cent back to normal. Everyone is just very particular now about Covid protocol.
How were the last two years: There were days when my family ate rice with salt. There were times when the electricity office workers came to disconnect our line. I had to take loans to pay off the bills in installments.
I considered doing other work but where would I find employment in a pandemic that was shutting down companies all around us? I didn’t take up vegetable-selling as everyone was doing it. There was too much competition in the market.
But my clients helped me financially. Some transferred money to my account, one of them paid my son’s tuition fees for six to seven months.
Eight to nine months into the pandemic, I got a call from a client. He started calling me for massage two or three times a week. But others were still scared and to compensate my two-and-half-hour travel, he would pay me extra. One client who called me got jittery at the last minute and instead asked me to help with some heavy lifting around the house. I obliged.
A lesson you have learnt in these two years: I’m praying for coronavirus to be eradicated so the market bounces back completely.
What lesson have you learnt in these past two years ? Write to The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001 or email to saltlake@abp.in