A trader from North 24-Parganas brought his family to Eco Park.

A couple in New Alipore who could not spend New Year’s Eve with their son took him out for shopping and dinner on Wednesday.

New Year revelry had many forms in and around Calcutta.

Around 2pm, Eco Park’s central walkway was teeming with people and many posed for selfies at the Rose Garden.

Among them was Naresh Rakshit, who came from Barrackpore with his wife and eight-year-old daughter.

“We have been coming to Eco Park on New Year’s Day for the past few years. It gets crowded but the park is so big that there is always space for everyone,” said Srabani,his wife.

Rakshit, who runs a footwear shop, keeps his store shut every New Year’s Day.

“The first day of the year is meant for family,” Rakshit said.

The family planned to take a toy train ride and sit on the greens for lunch.

Around the same time, Aminul Islam, a garment trader from Maheshtala, on the southwestern fringes of Calcutta, struggled to find a place to sit at the Alipore zoo.

Islam, 44, had come to the park with a large group offamily members. They were looking for a place to sit for lunch but the zoo was too crowded.

Islam and his son were eager to see Zeenat, the tigress captured in Bankura, at the Alipore zoo. They had “seen on WhatsApp” that the tigress was kept at the zoo after the capture. They were somewhat disheartened after beingtold by a guard that Zeenatwas never kept for publicdisplay and had been sent to Odisha.

Rahul Das and Prerna Sharma Das, who run an event management company, were busy organising a New Year’s Eve bash at a star hotel off EM Bypass on Tuesday. Their 10-year-old son, Reyaansh, stayed with his aunt at their New Alipore home.

Mom and dad made up for the absence by taking him out on Wednesday.

“We bought him new clothes and then went for his favourite biryani dinner,” said Rahul.

The Maidan was bustling with people as usual. Despite slices cordoned by theMetro construction boards,the acres of greens lookedlike one large carnival on Wednesday.

Sreyashi Basu Mallick, from Dum Dum, rode a horse carriage around the Maidan with her sister and three-year-old niece on Wednesday afternoon. Sreyashi lives in Minneapolis, US, with her husband. They are on vacation to her hometown. Her husband is now in Gopalpur, a sea resort in Odisha, with his college friends.

“I am spending winter in Calcutta after a few years. This ride turned the clock back,” she said.

Sarashi Sirkar, 27, waited an hour in front of Tandoor Park, a popular restaurant in Dhakuria, for a New Year lunch with friends.

“Lunch with friends on the first day of the year is like a ritual,” said Sirkar.

Arpan Mazumdar, wife Juthika and seven-year-old son Pratyay were at Forum Mall to watch the matinee show of Mufasa: The Lion King.

“I had promised to bring him for this film,” said Mazumdar, who works in a nationalised bank in central Calcutta.