Different people are reacting in different ways to the talk of a lockdown being reintroduced in Hyderabad. As the panic buying returns and supermarket shelves and vegetable shops are almost running out stock, Hyderabadis are also making frantic calls to their electricians, plumbers and home visit beauticians. The lockdown has taught us all a lot of things. So learning from our mistakes of not attending to essential pending works at home, people are on their toes.
Working from home with a laptop that needed repair in the network drive made Avantika Kumar dash to an electronic store to buy one that supports their office software. Avantika said “Nothing fancy, just a functional laptop to make things less stressful for me. For emergency’s sake, I also got an ethernet cable made, just in case anything happens to my wifi again.”
Rakesh Kumar* a hairdresser is suddenly busy since Monday morning. Calls for home visits are making him work even on his off day too. “Not working or being out of work is very unsettling. Thankfully my employer is kind and saved our jobs without pay cuts. We were also asked to do our own freelance work when at home if we desired to. The lockdown was a tough time. We were uncertain about the future and after a week to 10 days of rest, it started to bother me. After hearing about the return of a lockdown, I called some of my clients to tell them I am open for a home visit if there are more than three jobs at a place. Or else it doesn’t serve the purpose of travelling far for one client,” says Rakesh.
ADVERTISEMENT
Nagamani M, a rag-picker, understood from the earlier lockdown experience that things won’t be easy. She wants to take up any job, if hired. As a proactive measure, she started going home to home asking for things that she can collect and sell, to supplement the income her son-in-law earns from driving an auto trolley.
‘Calls pouring in’
On Monday morning by 11 am, Ramesh Bahadur, an electrician, has already done four home visits for various electrical works. Bahadur says, “I sat idle for a long during the earlier lockdown, expecting work to pour in immediately after it was lifted. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Not many calls came for home visits. But with the news of another lockdown, calls are pouring in now. Some want their inverter repaired, some called for generator repair, some to fix and service fans or add and change plug points for laptops. In some homes, there are more than two people who are need of good wifi accessibility for speed. In some cases, extension boxes work fine.”
ADVERTISEMENT
In one day, Bahadur has fixed fans for more than 10 households. “During summer, the air conditioner came handy. Now that it’s cooled down, people want just fans. High electricity bills are also making everyone think twice before reaching out to the air conditioner remote,” Bahadur laughs.
Fitness freaks too are busy procuring weights that will help them workout at home. A lot of DMs on Instagram and Facebook are enquiries on where to buy dumbells, kettlebells and barbells that are not very expensive.
Looks like the city is prepared for another lockdown.
*Name changed to protect identity