A tea-and-snack stall in Lake Market usually bustles with customers in the morning, with toast and omelettes flying off the shelves.
On Sunday, morning walkers and other regulars had to be satisfied with only tea. Because the cook and kitchen staff, who had gone home for the panchayat elections, were yet to return.
Minati Dhara, who works as a caregiver to an elderly couple in Lake Gardens, went home to a village in Sonarpur in South 24-Parganas on Friday night. She is due to return on Monday. The septuagenarian couple are being looked after by another ayah sent by the same centre where Minati is enrolled.
A sizeable section of the workforce that keeps Kolkata moving was unavailable on Saturday because of the panchayat polls. Many of them are yet to return to work.
A popular sweet shop opposite Bhowanipore police station, known for its kochuri, was shut on Saturday because most of the kitchen employees had gone home to cast their votes.
The shop was open on Sunday but operated with a curtailed staff. “We have reduced the quantity of the stuff, both kochuri and regular sweets, that we usually make every day,” said a man at the counter.
There were fewer buses on the roads than the usual Sunday count.
Around 80 per cent of the private and minibuses were requisitioned for ferrying poll personnel and security forces. They are yet to resume operations.
Among those that were not requisitioned, many buses that originate from places like Amtala, Pailan, Bhangar and parts of New Town have gone off the road.
“The drivers did not report for duty on Saturday. Many of them have taken an extended leave and will come back on Monday,” a member of the Joint Council of Bus Syndicate said on Sunday.
The manager of a facility management company that supplies workers to IT offices, e-commerce companies and other offices said around “10 per cent” of the workers on the company’s payroll were yet to resume work.
“Their absence has not affected our operations because it is a Sunday and many offices are shut,” the official said.
Several cooks in restaurants who went back home in districts are yet to return.
Pratap Daryanani, owner of Oasis, a bar-cum-restaurant on Park Street, said around 15 per cent of his staff were absent on Sunday.
“We are adjusting accordingly. There are some dishes on the menu that the waiters are not suggesting to guests,” he said.
The absence of domestic workers and caregivers continued across the city on Sunday.
The absence of cooks prompted many Kolkatans to order food from home delivery platforms and online food aggregators.
“I usually have around 50 orders for lunch on a Sunday. Today, I had more than 80,” said Arati Mukherjee, who runs a cloud kitchen and supplies food in Tollygunge and adjoining areas.
Owners of several ayah and nurse centres said they had replaced the existing caregivers with new ones for some of their old clients.
“Many families were reluctant to accept new faces because they had gotten used to one caregiver. Some of them managed on their own through the weekend,” said the owner of a centre inBehala.