We are now almost open, and Community spread is not far away.

Most businesses are now open in our place with guidelines to follow the new norms of social distancing and using masks. But in a country like India, you cannot police every person. And since everything is open, it will be hard to do contact tracing. That is the phase when community spread happens and we are not far away from that. In fact few states in India are already there. We will have to watch, how it goes at my place.

So almost after two and half months, we went out as a family for the first time, because I had promised my daughter to buy some sports goods. We had to prepare for it, as now its not advisable to eat anything outside, though there are some options, where you can take away foods. Especially, we are trying to be cautious as much as we can. In the current situations, the key is to protect yourself. So we finished all the household works ( Yes, that's true !! For the first time We are paying full salary to our maid, but doing everything on our own ). And we planned to visit couple of stores , not just roaming everywhere, as we used to do earlier. We had to come back by 3-4 hours, for the kids to eat at home.

The first point was a nearby Reliance trends footwear store, where we were trying to get a sports shoes. As you can see, they have put a big board to let people know that they are open😁. But we did not get what we wanted, so we decided to visit Decathlon, which is a little far. But we knew, we will get most of the stuffs there. Before going, I called them to ensure, they are open.

The stores was maintaining all the standard norms of checking for temperature, asking people to sanitize their hands and only five people at a time. So we had to stand in a long queue, it almost took more than a hour in the queue, before our turn came in. But once we got in, it was quite easy to find things, because less people were allowed. The staffs also assisted to get my daughter a skating shoes along with all the accessories. And we got several other stuffs including a fold-able trekking chair, that I was looking for since long time for my gardening needs. They have a contact less billing process, we had to download the app, and scan the items and pay in the app.

All these were not normal shopping, kids got exhausted by staying for so much time with wearing a mask. Especially its very hot here, so putting a mask, makes it a bit hard, but as I said , we have to protect ourselves.

Probably this was the last family shopping before Corona is entirely gone. Kids also agree to that, as they realize the difficulties. At this point, Its only me who goes out and follows all protocol. Once I come home, everything is quarantined in the drawing room for couple of days, with all proper sanitation process followed. I cannot guarantee, that this will prevent me and my family, in the current situation, but I must at least do what I can.

The highway is not as busy as it used to be. Some buildings on our way back. The outside environment is quite clear, may be because of less population because of Lock down, but we are again going back to the same stage soon.

The last time, I saw the above building in structures, never thought, how it would look like ( do you see a different style ?) . Now after finished, its looking good. By the time we came back it was a little late, but I never saw our kids so eager to eat their lunch 😀 The good part in this lock down is that, they are now completely on home made food,and they are now liking it as well. Of course, they are preparing many stuffs at home, and its a bit more work for my wife and me, but that is also fun.

Now we have allowed the kids to play inside our apartment area, so they have at least some sort of enjoyment. And they are quite happy with that - something we need to learn from the kids.

Given that we are the country with the second largest population after China ( where its almost over), It will be definitely challenging to fight over Corona. But at least looks like , everyone is now without fear. Though, the govt is repeatedly following up to remind the protocols (even enforcing it as best as it can), there are lot of people who do not take it seriously. So need to watch, how things are going in next few weeks. Let's try our best to follow protocols as a responsible citizen.