There is complete shutdown in Punjab since March 23. HT spoke with people from different segments, encapsulating their daily routine, challenges they faced and the worries they have. Excerpts:
YOUNG COP BALANCING IT BETWEEN DUTY, SAFETY
(By Anil Sharma)
AMRITSAR: For the last six weeks, he’s been waking up at 5am and going to the bed around 11pm. A 12-hour shift is not the only hardship, once back home, he has to isolate himself from the family members — mother, brother and sister.
Punjab Police constable Shivjit Singh, 21, joined the force in July 2018 after his father, a police head-constable, died. He is among the eight cops deputed on rotation basis outside the isolation ward of Amritsar’s Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where Covid-19 patients are being treated.
Wearing a mask and surgical gloves, Shivjit notes down the details of the patients in the ward and also ensures that no one except doctors and nurses cross the ward’s threshold.
{{/usCountry}}Wearing a mask and surgical gloves, Shivjit notes down the details of the patients in the ward and also ensures that no one except doctors and nurses cross the ward’s threshold.
{{/usCountry}}“My duty hours are from 8am to 8pm, but that gets stretched often due to emergency admission of patients. I mostly reach home between 9pm and 10pm,” he says.
“As soon as I reach home, I take a bath in the courtyard after sanitising my uniform. I sanitise my body before entering the house. I have been living in a separate room since March 10,” said Singh, who lives in Verka village, around 8km from the hospital.
PADDY SEASON COMING, LABOUR PANGS BOTHER THIS FARMER
(By Vishal Joshi)
BATHINDA: After a good wheat harvest this season, Balwinder Singh, 55, a small farmer from Bathinda’s Deon village, is worried about the paddy season two months later.
Ever since the curfew was imposed, arranging labour for the paddy season has been keeping him worried. The migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh are nowhere to be seen.
“Every year I used to hire 6-8 migrants to prepare paddy fields and sowing. I contacted them telephonically a week ago, but they say it is not feasible and as well as safe. I have no idea what to do no,” he says.
“The curfew came when wheat was near ready for harvesting. My two sons completed the harvesting on five-acre land on Monday and got a token to sell the produce,” he adds.
With no other source of income, Balwinder is now apprehensive on taking another five-acres on lease for paddy cultivation. Balwinder is relieved that no one in his seven-member family required any medical help during the curfew. “Till now there has been no shortage of fodder or food,” he says.
Balwinder, too, advises his family members to stay indoors, but then there is no work from for a farmer.
HOMESICKNESS SEEPED IN FOR STUDENT FROM SOUTH SUDAN
(By Deepa Sharma Sood)
LUDHIANA: For Jambu Lukudu, 22, from South Sudan, staying away from family was normal. However, last six weeks in the hostel were different and he has started feeling homesick. A commerce student at Bhutta Group of Colleges, Lukudu has been residing in the hostel for two years. Now, he misses his parents and video calls them daily.
“On March 16, the classes were suspended and then came the curfew. But cases in India are on the rise and we are concerned now,” he says.
“Teachers are taking classes online. There’s no clarity on the exams which were due in May?” He says the lockdown has changed his daily routine. “I used to attend classes from 9am to 2pm and then would work in the college call centre from 3pm to 8pm to earn some money. Now, if I am not making a call or attending online class, I am sleeping. Also, baking is my new hobby,” he says.
“I am not able to step out of the college to get money which I will run out in the next ten days. I am worried. Hostel administration arranges a doctor for check-ups every week and we are taking all precautions,” he said.
DOCTOR CUT OFF FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS
(By Vishal Rambani)
PATIALA: Life was going smooth for Dr Nitin Chhabra, 34, an ENT specialist, till mid-February when the ICMR asked the medical colleges to train doctors to take samples of Covid-19 patients. Dr Chhabra was among the first batch of such trainees. And, life is not the same since.
“As I would get exposed to Covid-19 patients, I shifted my wife and two-year-old son to my in-laws’ place in Amritsar. I haven’t met them since the first week of March. Video calls are the only solace,” says Dr Chhabra, who was in the team that took samples from Covid-19 hotspot Nawanshahr.
His doctor wife was having a good private practice in Patiala before Dr Chhabra moved her to Amritsar for the safety of their son. “I am happy that I am a Covid warrior,” he says. “Hopefully, I will meet them by June-end.”
“Not only family, I am cut off from friends, relatives except those from the fraternity,” he says.
For six weeks, he is having meals at the medical college canteen. “Initially, people used to avoid me. But, slowly now they are understanding,” he said.
BIZMAN BUSY WITH FAMILY AS FISCAL CONCERNS LOOM
(By Harsimran Singh Batra)
LUDHIANA: The industry has been among the worst hit due to the curfew. For 44-year-old Rahul Verma, the owner of a dyeing unit in Ludhiana, the pandemic has brought about an unprecedented change in his life.
Verma’s highly active life has undergone a sea change in the last 30 days. His regular day prior to the curfew used to be hectic. Verma confesses he never got this much time to spend with his near and dear ones in the last many years.
“I have been spending time with my family for the last one month and I am also concerned about my daughter who is studying in Australia,” he says, adding that he spends most of his time watching movies.
Even as he is managing, the rising burden of bank interest and stress to pay salaries of workers is a major cause of worry. He has a workforce of 250, including labour. Verma says he has planned that from now on he will putting a system in place to provide labourers a healthy diet on the factory premises.
HAIR DRESSER’S SAVINGS ARE VANISHING FAST
(By Gagandeep Singh)
JALANDHAR: The life of Liaquat Ali, 48, a hair dresser from Kabir Nagar, has come to a standstill since the curfew was enforced amid the Covid-19 outbreak. With no earnings, he has the responsibility to also pay his two helpers who are sitting at home, besides paying the shop rent and meeting his own family expenses. Ali has five daughters and wife. Savings are vanishing fast and he is concerned about the pending fee and other education expenses of his daughters.
Ali says he would get around 100 customers daily at his shop before the curfew and life was comfortable. “I have to pay around ₹5,000 rent for the shop and salary of ₹15,000 each to my two helpers,” he says. Since there are no earnings now, Ali is spending from his savings to run everyday affairs.
He has been receiving more than 30 to 40 calls daily from customers, asking him to come to their houses for haircut or shave. “I am declining all such requests. There is a risk to my customers as well as me. You never know who may contract the virus from whom.”