Abhijit Pandit
Age: 48
Profession: Medical technologist, Bidhannagar Subdivisional Hospital
A year ago: I was involved in doing routine pathological tests — blood sugar, urea, creatinine etc. I would handle 50-60 patients in course of my duty hours from 9am to 3pm.
The lockdown and beyond: Our training to do the Covid sample collection and screening test took place over video conference from the district chief medical officer of health’s office. Later a colleague went to Chittanranjan National Cancer Institute in New Town to watch the test in person and taught us. We collect the swab ourselves and do the Rapid Antigen Test here (RAT). The RT-PCR samples have to be sent to Niced, SSKM, Calcutta Medical College or RG Kar Medical College, as instructed.
The first Covid positive case in my hand came in mid-April. It was a doctor at our hospital. I was very tense, thinking whether I would get it too as I had collected the sample myself. Since the start, I was staying separately at home. But once my wife, who is a technician in a private hospital, caught Covid in August, my fear subsided. Despite taking so much precaution, the virus had entered our home. I collected her sample myself and took it for the test to the hospital in an icebox. My sons, aged 15 and 12, had a tough time then as despite testing negative, I continued to stay separately from them.
As the number of tests piled up, from June till September I was collecting swabs of 150 to 200 people per day. While the steady supply of PPE right from the start gave us protection, the humidity made it impossible to work in them at a stretch. The swab may take a few seconds to collect but we have to complete the documentation beforehand which often takes time to register on the ICMR portal. So we would complete the filing of the entire queue together and then go down in PPE for the collection. On crowded days, collection would be done in three batches. We tried collecting from inside kiosks for some days for greater protection but gave up as our gloves would get torn if patients moved during collection. The maximum positive cases happened in August — about 40 per cent in RAT.
More challenges came with the commencement of testing of international flight passengers. There was an order to track and test 220-odd passengers who had landed in December from London. The job was divided and 60 names came to us. Through December 31 till midnight and again early on January 1, I was running about in Salt Lake, New Town and the airport area collecting samples from homes. We also had to go for home collections in case of VIPs, Sukanya Home in Sector V and Child Care Home in Sukantanagar. Thankfully, till September we got picked up and could avoid public transport.
Thoughts for tomorrow: We are testing 60-70 people per day now and positive findings are still low. But the new strains are a cause for worry. Masks are much less in use now. Half the people in the bus when I come don’t wear masks. When the maskless are coughing, I am reminded of the long hours and the fear and the inconvenience we went through when the infection had peaked. But what do they care!
Susanta Das
Susanta Das on traffic control duty. Picture by Debasmita Bhattacharjee
Age: 48
Profession: Police constable, Nabadiganta Traffic Guard
Resident of: Baisakhi Abasan
A year ago: We are used to doing eight-hour shifts on the road, manning the busy crossings of Sector V like College More, Loha Pool or Technopolis. When this virus was announced, we wondered how long it would be around.
Lockdown and beyond: When the lockdown was declared, many young people staying alone in the city were stranded as their companies shut and they wanted to go home. We gave them lifts in our vehicles till the end of our jurisdiction, forming chains with other traffic guards so that their vehicles picked them up from where we dropped them off.
Many locals, who were hard hit by the economic stalemate, asked for help. We raised money and helped many with rice, pulses and sugar.
We came across such terrible situations! When we were posted at Haj House in New Town — it was being used as a Covid safe house — there was this man in his 40s who begged us from the third floor window of his isolation room to let him go home as his mother had died. But there was no way that a Covid positive person could be let out. Then there was this colleague of mine who broke down one day. His wife was refusing to let him into their bedroom as he was doing duty outdoors. Night after night, after toiling all day, he was having to sleep on the drawing room floor. Colleagues who have families in far-away places could not go home for months as they would not be allowed into the house.
In the initial phase of the lockdown, we were mostly out on the streets, asking loiterers to go back home. We could make out that they were getting fed up staying indoors couped in their one or two-room accommodations. But still people mostly listened.
During our Haj House duty, we had social workers or even local residents come to serve us tea and snacks. That made us feel special. We were put up in a nearby school but I was lucky as I stayed close by and my family or neighbours did not mind me coming home. Two in our traffic guard did get Covid around that time but that was among those on traffic duty in Sector V. So I was not exposed.
During Puja, I was posted at Sreebhumi. The court order (declaring all pandals as containment zones) came as a relief. I asked my family if they wanted to go see the pandal one day since I was on duty there. But they refused to step out. Like them, people mostly abided by the order.
Thoughts for tomorrow: I got my second dose of the vaccine three days ago at Seba and am now at the stadium, waiting to board a bus to West Midnapore. I will be on poll duty but am not sure where.
Mohan Gupta
Mohan Gupta serves phuchka in AE Block. Picture by Brinda Sarkar
Age: 38 years
Profession: Phuchka seller at Kwality More, AE Block
A year ago: I had left for my village in Uttar Pradesh days before the lockdown was announced. People had started talking about coronavirus and my customers had stopped coming in fear. I figured it would be best to lie low at home till the scare died down. Little did I know I’d have to spend four months there.
Lockdown and beyond: I had started farming in the village. Meanwhile I would hear of other migrant labourers walking to their villages from the cities and thanked my lucky stars that I was home.
No doubt I was apprehensive returning to Salt Lake after four months. I didn’t know if customers would come. But I got a huge moral boost when, on the very first day, Bablooda of the medicine shop that I sell phuchkas in front of, came and ordered a parcel of Rs 151 for his family. It was an auspicious reopening.
Post Covid, the behaviour of customers has altered somewhat. While previously it was usual for crowds of six to hover around me eating, now no more than three want to gather. Some stay in their cars waiting for the crowd to thin out.
Others ask for car-delivery or bring utensils to pack the phuchkas home.
Some customers are careful about wearing masks now, but others laugh at me for wearing mine, saying the Covid scare is exaggerated. Nonetheless I still wear it and a use sanitiser too.
Thoughts for tomorrow: I’m praying for an end to the pandemic even as I read about cases multiplying in Mahashtra. Another lockdown would be terrible. I won’t be voting as my permanent address is in UP and won’t be playing Holi either as my neighbours here in Golaghata play among themselves. I’ll come to work on Holi as usual, from 4pm.
Amit Kumar Shaw
Amit Kumar Shaw weighs old newspaper bundles in BF Block. Brinda Sarkar
Age: 32
Profession: Scrap dealer of Sabitri Old Paper Purchase shop, BF Block
A year ago: I was hearing about this virus but never bothered much. I thought it was China’s problem. Initially I was shocked at news of the lockdown but then I came to enjoy, even relish it. I lived the time of my life last year.
Never before and never again will I get a two month long holiday. Yes, my savings got drained out but I got to spend time with my family and eat lots of fruits that were available at cheap rates as their export had been hampered due to movement restrictions. In fact I put on weight! My elderly colleague says all the sitting home idle has made him lose the stamina required in our line of work.
Back to work: Old newspapers are the mainstay of our business but many people are still scared to let us into their houses to sell them. Some are bring out scraps to the street and ask us to weigh them. As for old books and copies, we can’t expect much as schools are in a limbo. Demand for old paper is high but since supply has fallen, the rate we pay to residents for paper has risen from about Rs 12 a kilo to almost Rs 19.
Thoughts now: I’m looking forward to Holi and nothing can come between my favourite festival and me. I shall play in Ultadanga with at least 40 friends and family members. We even build human pyramids to break pots filled with things like curd, cowdung, colour. I shall go to vote too without any worries.
Gopi Agarwal
Gopi Agarwal, Salt Lake’s first Covid patient
Age: 52
Profession: Businessman
Resident of: AD Block
A year ago: On March 22 - the day of the junta curfew last year - I got a fever that later to be Covid, making me the first Covid patient of Salt Lake.
Back then there was almost no medical infrastructure in place and I had a harrowing experience in the hospital. Doctors and nurses were scared to enter my room, I had no access to a toilet… The only saving grace is that I made a full recovery.
Back to work: Even before the lockdown my routine was simply home to office and back and I still don’t know who I got Covid from. Nonetheless when we returned to office, we started providing pick-up and drop facility to our staff.
Thoughts for tomorrow: I am busy with office work as the financial year-end is approaching but shall take the vaccine thereafter, in April. I’ll go to vote and partake in Holika dahan and a puja at home, without playing with colours.
Chandra Sarkar
Chandra Sarkar cooks in her shanty home by Kestopur Canal that got ravaged by Cyclone Amphan. Debasmita Bhattacharjee
Age: 42
Profession: Cook
Lockdown and beyond: I left for my district home in Duttaphulia, on Nadia-North 24 Parganas border, immediately on hearing of the lockdown announcement. My son is studying in college there. There was fear about the unknown disease that was being talked of and we wanted to stay together. The next seven-eight months were very tough as we had little to survive on except the rice and atta we got from the ration shop. Many of us got beaten up for venturing out of home by the police. Those of us who had stayed back in Salt Lake got sacked but some were given salaries though they were told not to come to work. Since I left, none of the houses I worked for offered me anything. Then Cyclone Amphan came and destroyed the tent we have here as home. We came back two months ago and found the tent torn and our bed soaking wet. We still have not managed to repair it.
I got one cooking job back of the four I had and joined two new ones.
My husband pulls rickshaw at Baisakhi. He has not been getting as many passengers to ferry as he used to as schools and offices have not reopened. We just make ends meet.
In one house, I have to change from sari into nightie which I wash before leaving. The boudis have excused me from wearing a mask as it gets so hot in the kitchen.
Thoughts for tomorrow: We are hearing rumours of another lockdown after the election. We won’t survive if it happens. Our savings are wiped out.
Additional reporting by Debasmita Bhattacharjee
