Let me start with a confession. I am probably one of the least affected by the nationwide lockdown.
Having worked for the jet-set corporate world for a lifetime, mine is now a SOHO (small-office-home-office) and my work can be best described by the quote from the chimney sweep in Mary Poppins: “I do what I likes, and I likes what I do.”
Not only do I work from home, but I also take special pride in running the house, including cooking — which is one of my many passions. So staying indoors for three weeks is not a big challenge for me.
By now it is obvious to all that the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown would be huge. The daily wage earners are already feeling the heat. Small, medium and even large business houses will be impacted by this like never before. Experts have not dared to predict the quantum of damage.
But this sudden change will also bring about some major social changes, and all of them may not be totally undesirable.
The family unit
The urban middle class today is a combination of complicated sets of relationships. The man of the house is busy earning more to meet the growing demands of the family. He has very little time for home.
The erstwhile “housewife” is now a liberated working woman, yet struggling to balance work and home. Children, as it has been for generations, do not find much to talk about at home and are busy with their social life and social media. Conversations within the family are monosyllabic and eating together is rare. That is what life was before March 25, 2020.
Today, they are all confined within the four walls of the house and bump into each other more often than desired.
Meals are served together and though one has the option of looking at one’s smartphone while eating, stray conversations have started happening. Perhaps this may lead to an end to their obsession with mobile phones.
Who does what in the family was well defined. All undesirable and difficult household chores were delegated to the hired domestic help. It was a happy equilibrium. That has also changed now.
I called an old colleague the other day. He grudgingly said that he was washing utensils and would talk to me after some time. Another (male) friend shared his newly discovered knowledge that “you walk forward when you sweep and move backwards when you mop”.
The forgotten skills
I live in a condominium in Gurugram surrounded by millennials. Four or five such youths share a flat, spend most of their time looking at their laptop or smartphones while at home. Even the food is ordered using the same gadget, and is promptly delivered by the aggregators.
Those who are more health conscious have someone come in and cook for them. Unfortunately, all this has also changed.
With restaurants shut down and admission of helps banned in the condominium, the millennials have no option but to acquire some new skills.
I overheard a conversation between two boys in the elevator. One of them was taking telephonic lessons from his mother every day and said that he took 45 minutes to make one parantha the previous day.
Green working style
Working from home was never a bad idea for many professionals. Now people are realising that it is probably a more efficient one too.
Environmentalists have been shouting from the rooftops for many decades to do so.
For the first time in 15 years I could see stars from my 12th-floor balcony. The sky was clear blue, something I had never seen before in busy Gurugram.
They say human behaviour can change in just 21 days. Ironically, we have a 21-day lockdown to do things that people have not done in a long, long time. Some of these changes will certainly be in a positive direction.
Billy Chatterjee has worked as a market research professional for more than three decades. For the last three years, he has been producing Bengali feature films.