It has been two months now and everything around us is changing in a way. Our lifestyle, food habits, working pattern, and whatnot. The whole world is on hold but the reality is that by holding we hardly get any benefits. The reason why I’m saying this is if we hold everything for too long we’ll have to face many other crises regarding resources that are essential. That I’m sure none of us want.
CITY AND BUSINESS
It has been two months now and everything around us is changing in a way. Our lifestyle, food habits, working pattern and whatnot. The whole world is on hold but the reality is that by holding we hardly get any benefits.
Let us just see the businesses around us. In some way or another, we are all into some sort of work. But as the government announced a nationwide lockdown everything literally everything came to standstill. At the beginning of the lockdown, we thought that everything will be back to normal like it was, but things changed entirely. Let’s just talk about business in our city.
Our city is full of local businesses and various startups. At the early stage, we thought that it will come to an end after a few weeks. The thing none of us was prepared for and none of us knew was that it will go for so long and we have to go through major changes about how we work.
Earlier everything was at run so the market here was running quite good but now we have to make extra efforts to get it back on track. But after the relaxation was announced many shopkeepers started opening their shops in the hope that they can make some profit.
The fact is that now this is our NEW NORMAL. What I mean is that during these 2 months we evolved with the situation. Like earlier, we did not use to work from home but now we efficiently can. My point is that with the pandemic the businesses also evolved in a way, their working style, their pattern but they tried to earn something and keep their work going.
Lots of shop owners, use to stand outside their shop so that if someone comes to buy something they would sell and make some profit. Others take orders on their phones and then get the product delivered as per the requirement. We all are witnessing the crisis right now and so are the owner of these businesses.
An automobile showroom owner states that “ Ever since the relaxation is given we are opening our shop but we hardly encounter any customer, the company already have a back log of undone work and I think it will take more than 6 months to get back to it as there is no money flow so people could hardly buy anything.”
When I talked to them I got to know that without even an income they have to pay rents, pay their employees, pay for the maintenance without any income.
Different business owners are coming up with different ideas to cope with the crisis and get their work started. Some started selling products from their home and some from just standing outside their shops with the shutter closed so they connate get caught.
Many business are already in the loss. I’m talking about the ones which are seasonal or are confined to a particular month or period of time. Let’s just take the example of tent houses, public gathering places, banquet halls. Here in our city, we have plenty of them, and marriages are something that in our culture means large public gatherings, and what makes it worse is that it takes place only in a few particular months. So now the thing is that their only source of income is blocked and the reason we all know.
A banquet hall owner says that “ May is the month when we have all the wedding and our earnings but now we are left with nothing and for the next few months or years we can’t even work because no public gathering, we are in deep trouble .”
Though there are few owners who have found some alternatives to work and are continuously working on it to make things better currently there is a lot going on and people are still trying to figure out. I would say that it’s the NEW NORMAL and we have to act accordingly. No matter what everyone is trying to find some way to restart their services either by home deliveries or work from home or visiting door to door services. I hope things get better with time as most of the shops are opening on alternate days.
