Delhi’s Alaknanda turns to digital artis, meditation to stay connected

The participants of this group, however, have not met each other physically ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown last month.

At 5pm daily, a small group of residents of Mandakini Enclave in south Delhi’s Alaknanda meditate and then later share their experiences with each other. This has been their routine for over a week now.

Spread over an area of nearly 1 square kilometre, Alaknanda has over 12 residential apartments, mostly DDA flats and is surrounded by Chittaranjan Park, Greater Kailash-II and Govindpuri. (Amal KS/HT)

The participants of this group, however, have not met each other physically ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown last month.

Anshu Bhandari, president of Mandakini Enclave residents’ welfare association, says he started this group on WhatsApp to help people stay calm in “these tough times”.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

“We share an audio or video clip related to meditation on the WhatsApp group and listen to it together while sitting at our homes. We then share our experience in the group. This has been really helpful, as most of us have not stepped out of the house or the block.”

Almost 500 metres away, in Aravali Apartments, one of the 12 residential societies in Alaknanda, which largely has DDA flats, Poonam Arora has been connecting with people while practising social distancing.

Taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative asking people to come out in their balconies to clap and clang utensils to thank doctors, nurses and those at the frontline on the battle against COVID-19, Poonam organised an aarti (a prayer) on the third day of Navratri. “I have a loudspeaker, so I called people to their balconies and we sang the aarti at 7pm,” she said.

On Ram Navami (last day of the Navratras), Arora and her 10-odd friends participated in a joint celebration online. “We all downloaded a mobile application and sang bhajans. This is helping us stay connected and most importantly, stay calm,” said Arora.

Spread over an area of nearly 1 square kilometre, Alaknanda has over 12 residential apartments, mostly DDA flats and is surrounded by Chittaranjan Park, Greater Kailash-II and Govindpuri.

As the number of Covid-19 cases began to increase in the national capital and after the lockdown was announced, the RWAs in the area decided to stop entry of vendors, domestic helps, online delivery and courier service people; banned evening and morning walks and even restricted the number of entry gates that are open.

“We have got arterial roads barricaded to ensure minimum movement in the area. The entry to all residential societies is restricted. Also, we have been coordinating with the local councillor to get disinfectant sprayed in all the societies,” said Saurabh Mishra, president of the federation of Alaknanda RWAs and a resident of Shivalik Apartments.

Several societies have procured thermal scanners to screen those entering the society, including their sanitation and security staff. As for guards and sanitation staff coming to the residential neighbourhood, the RWAs have provided sanitizers and facility to wash hands at the gates.

The restriction on entry of domestic helps, residents admit, has posed a problem for some senior citizens. Bhandari said that the RWAs are in constant touch with the elderly people living in their localities. After the lockdown, Mandakini Enclave, which has 600-plus flats, has formed a ward-wise or block-wise WhatsApp group. “Though we have common WhatsApp group for all the residents, a ward-wise group was formed after the lockdown was announced.. Each block member looks after senior citizens in their ward or block,” she said.

Most societies have just kept one or two gates open and temporarily suspended door-to-door collection of waste. In some societies, waste is collected from homes of elderly people while others have to come down and hand over their waste to the garbage trucks. “This has been done to minimise the chances of spread of the infection. So far, there are no positive cases from Alaknanda, though there were a few people in home quarantine,” said Ajay Kumar Lal, a resident of the area.