The ongoing lockdown has forced many of us to alter the way we go about our daily routine. Chennaites share tales of the changes they have made to adapt to the new ‘normal’ of living and working with limited interaction
Vinay Lodha (31),Lawyer and director of construction firm
Chennai:
The pace of life has slowed down. My life used to revolve around work earlier. It’s amazing to have had a break from that. It was the time of the year we would take a vacation, and it coincided. In our industry, with the advent of technology, we get day-to-day updates on progress at sites. Tech has helped a lot. But, yes, there are issues with labour. They are going back to their hometowns and that’s a tougher aspect. We had to replace with a local workforce, which was tough to get. My wife is also active in one of our businesses. Both of us work and the kids don’t get too much time. It’s a controversial statement, but we call ourselves part-time parents. I used to almost never see them. After the lockdown, I got to spent a lot of time with our kids.
Snack parties, karaoke, anything. Amazon Music lets you have these features. We sing aloud and have fun. I’ve always wanted to read books to them, and now I can. Children also ask weird questions, and you’re always on your toes. We’ve also been playing a lot of board games. We play Ludo and chess with them besides going for walks. I have an old coin collection. I cleaned them up and showed it to my kids. Some coins are from my grandfather. We spent a lovely evening showing him the anna coins and the old one and two rupee coins. We follow infinitheism, where come what may, you must accept change. When you can’t change a circumstance, you need to live through it with happiness. There were glitches, but we stayed positive because it is all a passing phase.