Sreemoyee has had enough. After months of near-house arrest, she broke free for her birthday last weekend. “My husband and I picked up three friends and we drove off to Deulti, a good two-hours away. We didn’t do much there, just enjoyed the sunset, but even that felt so rejuvenating,” says the teacher who lives behind City Centre 2.

Ditto with Ajay K. Das. “One fine morning, my wife and I hopped into the car and drove wherever the wind took us,” says the CK Block resident. They drifted into Bantala, relished fresh khjurer rosh from the villagers and stumbled upon a resort in Sundargram. “It was a lovely trip and has given us the confidence to do more of these from now on.”

Das and Sreemoyee Kaushiki Basak Dey are not alone. Tired of staying home, residents are now taking off on holidays, mostly by car. “And why not,” asks Anandita Banerjee of AD Block. “If we maintain protocol we shall be safe. The other evening I went to Park Street and the crowd there would put Saptami evenings to shame. The crowd at Sector V’s Decathalon was long enough to make me contemplate leaving without buying too. If people have started going around the city without worries, what’s the harm in vacations?”

Darjeeling, if not Alaska

Our neighbours are crying copious tears at their 2020 travel plans having evaporated in thin air. Bhaswati Sengupta of DB Block was to visit Alaska, Shiksha Jha of Kankurgachhi Leh-Ladakh and Naina Maheshwari was to ‘remarry’ her husband in Goa for their 10th anniversary in November.

“When we got married destination weddings hadn’t come into vogue so we wanted a ‘white wedding’ this year where I would walk down the aisle in a gown,” sighs Naina, a resident of Panache, in Mahisbathan. While she’s upset, she made the best of the situation by driving the extended family down to Puri.

Others are doing the same, hopping over to Puri and Purulia, Digha and Darjeeling.

Somek Choudhury, a food blogger from Lake Town, was to take clients on food trails to Lucknow, Ladakh and Puducherry this year but when it all fell through, he conducted tours to Tajpur, Purulia and Santiniketan instead. “We started going out in August. Back then, these spots were deserted and one was actually safer there than in the city,” says Somek, who is taking another group to Darjeeling for a week-long trail on Christmas Eve.

This time, however, he’s sure it won’t be deserted. “The hotels there have been hounding me to confirm bookings as their rooms are filling up fast.”

There are also those like Shekhar Bajaj who are planning ‘work-ations’. “Work from home can be work from anywhere. I don’t need to go to office for the next six months so have opted for a work-ation in north Bengal for a fortnight. I can work during office hours and enjoy the place afterwards,” says the IT sector employee from GC Block.

Planes, trains, automobiles

“Public transportation cannot be trusted at this time, especially if you have elderly people travelling with you,” says Sanchita Sarkar of Baisakhi Abasan. So for their group of 23 people, they hired a bus. They visited Udaipur, Tajpur and finally Mandarmani. “We might visit relatives in Dinajpur in January. If that happens we’ll do Pelling and Darjeeling too and once again shall prefer bus over train.”

Jhumpa Karmakar visited Purulia with 11 relatives and they too hired a bus. “Since we had the entire bus to ourselves we sanitised it ourselves to be sure of safety,” says the DA Block resident.

But Anandita preferred to fly to Darjeeling. “A bus would have meant 12 hours with strangers, besides pit stops at dhabas that could be crowded. Compared to that, a 45-minute flight seemed safer,” says the IT sector employee.

Covid protocols

Those taking off are taking all sorts of precautions to ensure safety. When Bhaswati visited Bawali rajbari during Diwali, everyone with her carried their own towels and blankets.

Karmakar had to stop her kids from jumping into the pool at the Purulia resort they put up in.

“We saw other tourists swimming but we thought it would be risky,” she says.

Shiksha only mustered courage to visit Darjeeling after some relatives made the trip and assured her of the hill station’s safety.

When Avinaba Mukherjee drove to Kolaghata with a couple of friends they checked sanitisation procedures thoroughly before checking in.

“We even visited the kitchen,” says the Ultadanga resident.

But when they visited Tajpur some weeks later, they found tourists roaming without masks.

“We headed to the farthest shack on the beach and partied in seclusion,” he says.

Flight travel has its own stringent protocol. “The airhostesses were in PPEs and passengers sitting in the middle seat had to wear them too,” says AE Block’s Sayan Munshi, who flew to Jaipur with his wife recently. “The two of us sat on adjacent aisle seats and wore face shields throughout the flight.”

Highs and lows

Given the slump in the tourism industry, FC Block’s Nilanjan Brahma said they got lucrative deals for the hotel they booked in Mandarmani.

Naina enjoyed the beach at Puri but says the pandemic robbed her of the Jagannath temple visit.

Sayan, however, says there has never been a better time to visit the Taj Mahal. “My wife Sanjukta has visited the monument twice before, when it got tens of thousands of visitors a day. Now the number of visitors is capped at 5,000 and so it was as if we had the massive premises all to ourselves,” he smiles.

When Covid catches up

When Brahma flew to north Bengal for work, he came down with Covid. “Three of my associates had flown back and all of us got it,” he says. “Thereafter when my kids were hankering us to take them to Mandarmani, we decided to take our own car. No more public transport for us,” he says.

Sengupta speaks of a friend who went to Tajpur in a group of 15. “Each and every one of them returned with Covid-19,” says the lady, who herself is a doctor.

Another Sector II family was all set to fly to the Maldives but their plans were marred when they went in for the mandatory Covid tests before taking off. “My primary school-going son tested positive,” says his mother, still in isolation. “We cancelled the trip altogether. What if we test again and someone ends up positive?”

Naina was keen to have her white wedding in the Maldives too but cancelled when she heard they would need to be tested before returning to India. “In case we test positive, we will have to stay in the Maldives for a fortnight at our own expense. We can’t take that risk,” she says.

Propa Chakravartty was all set to cook biriyani with her friends and head to any empty patch in New Town for a picnic last month.

“But then my friend came in contact with someone who tested positive.

He went into isolation and our picnic went into the backburner,” sighs the BL Block resident.“I’m now trying to arrange a trip to Simlipal forest which is absolutely desolate.”

Then again, some are taking the plunge post-Covid. “My parents got Covid but once they recovered I took them to Tajpur,” Anandita says.

Sayan, his wife and two children have all recovered from Covid too. “So when my father received an invitation to a wedding in Agra, he suggested Sanjukta and I go instead, since we had already recovered and were hopefully immune,” he says.

Industry speak

The tourism industry is grateful for the turn of fate. “We have been severely hit by the pandemic but things are finally picking up,” says a spokesperson for Das Travels in GC Block. “More people are venturing out now that train services have resumed and our packages are all booked from mid-December till January end.”

But the most popular options are self-driven road trips within 300km and with close-knit groups. “We are booked right through January. Hotel bookings, flight bookings and cab bookings are also on. A lot of enquiries are happening over phone and social media. People want to know if we are taking bookings. This is a good sign,” says Shabari Debnath of Cyrus Tourism in Baguiati.

The Camellia Group has hotels in Santiniketan and Puri, and Rupa Datta, director, hospitality division, says booking are picking up gradually. “September onwards is usually peak season in both places but this year is different. Corporate conferences have also started,” said the CL Block resident, who herself visited the Simlipal forest area a while back.

Pulak Bhadra, the vice-president of the Tour Operators’ Welfare Association of Bengal, said he had predicted that business would significantly improve in winter. “People were getting fed up at home.” But lesser known spots are drawing more footfall. “Tourists are avoiding congested places,” he said.

Debashis Sen Roy, a resident of Midland Park, happens to be vice- president of The Supreme hotel in Visakhapatnam. He says 60 per cent of their guests come from Bengal.

“We are getting many enquiries but conversion rate is low, restricted to those who are driving down. Trains have resumed but the train with the most suitable timings, Yesvantpur Express, is not running yet. There’s only one direct flight now too,” he says.

And finally the resort within our twin townships — Eco Island in Eco Park — is fast filing up too. “We take bookings up to a month in advance and December is nearly choc-a-block,” says Snehasis Sinha, assistant general manager, tourism, Hidco that looks after the property.

“People take heart from the fact that it is a government property and hence sanitisation will be thorough. They don’t have to drive too far and know that social distancing can be maintained since it’s such a sprawling area.”

Additional reporting by Showli Chakraborty and Sudeshna Banerjee