MUMBAI: The nationwide lockdown completes two weeks on Tuesday and will soon enter the prescribed final week. The sudden enforcement brought the maximum city to a standstill and left Mumbaikars (known for leading a fast track lifestyle quite similar to the city's suburban railways) in a pensive state.
With the lockdown in place, people were forced to look for ways to keep themselves occupied in the confines of their home. The digital world (mobile phones, television sets, and computers) was an easy escape route, but it failed to keep them glued long enough.
As the air felt cleaner and the sound of birds chirping became clearer, Mumbaikars followed suit and started spending time on their balconies and terraces to initiate a conversation and breaking the boredom of their daily plight.
As dusk fell, terraces were seen filled with children playing cricket and badminton. From their balconies, one could hear middle aged men discussing politics and COVID-19 for hours.
"I came to Mumbai three years back and I had no friends, as I was busy earning my daily bread," says Ashish More, 39, a Goregaon-based IT engineer, who claims he barely socialised with anyone before.
"Now, it seems like I have learned the joy of socialising, which was indeed missing from our fast-paced lives," he added. Some have used this time for community building.
"In our housing society, we have been doing a lot of activities to help out the less privileged. Seems this virus outbreak has united us in some way," said Vineet Saxena, a marketing professional and resident of the same complex.
For women like Radha Iyer and Vandana Saini, the lockdown period has given them ample time to polish their long-lost hobbies of dancing. Both Iyer and Saini, along with 10 enthusiastic women of their residential society, have started dance classes that is coordinated online.
"There are women in our building who are enthusiastic about classical dance. Thus, we have started this online dance show, where we rehearse at our homes, but can see each other through video conferencing" Saini says. "We were all professionals from the corporate world. Due to our fast-paced lives, we hardly got time to polish our skills," said Iyer.
Meanwhile, experts and researchers say these three weeks will result in a change in the lifestyles of people. "This is a three-week long lockdown. The human body gets used to a pattern within 21 days. So, if someone immediately joins his work after this long gap, then he or she may find it difficult initially," said Dr Anshul Pareekh, researcher of psychology.
