Lockdown blues: Fresh insights into what’s essential and what’s not ....... What do you do if your car doesn’t start or laptop needs service? .... What if your kid needs exercise books for online classes?

Staying indoors may not be that tough if you have a comfortable home but sooner or later something is going to breakdown: Shutterstock

Smita Tripathi, TT, 21.04.20, New Delhi: It’s the small things that can turn into gigantic dilemmas after four weeks in lockdown. Ask Ranjana Singh, a Calcutta-based financial planner: “Our toilet flush jammed. We managed to get a plumber to take a look but he needed a particular part and since the shops are all closed, he couldn’t do much.” Luckily, the family has a second bathroom but it’s not the happiest of situations.

You could call it Lockdown Blues. Malfunctioning PCs, internet connections, refrigerators and particularly air-conditioners, now that the mercury’s rising. Staying indoors may not be that tough if you have a comfortable home but sooner or later something is going to breakdown.

The situation’s particularly dire for people who have to put in a full day’s work from home. Says a senior executive at an MNC: “Three of my juniors are facing problems with their laptops because their batteries are overheating. They cannot be serviced during the lockdown, so we have asked them to remove the batteries and work without power back up.”

With more people working from home and studying from home, the list of what is considered essential has increased exponentially. That’s a major reason why the government decreed on April 15 that e-commerce sites could deliver items like electronic devices and parts, readymade garments and stationery for schoolchildren from April 20.

But it backed down after small retailers protested vociferously and piled on the pressure, saying the e-commerce sites were being given an unfair advantage when they were being forced to stay closed. Says Amazon India: “The new guideline will disappoint not only the consumers whose list of essentials had expanded to work-from-home and study-from-home products but also the thousands of small businesses, sellers and manufacturers across the country who had geared up in the last 48 hours to provide millions of people with safe access to products.”

While most schools have started online classes and NCERT has made school books available on its website for free download, there’s still the question of stationary. “I use my father’s phone to attend online classes. I have managed to get books also from one of the neighbours, but I don’t have any notebooks,” says Neha Kumar, a class 12 student at a government school in Delhi.

Being a new mom is a challenge at any given point of time but having a baby during the lockdown obviously presents additional difficulties. Ria Batra, 27, delivered a baby girl nearly two weeks ago. Batra has faced a double blow because of the lockdown. First, her mother who lives in Kanpur and who was supposed to come and stay in Delhi for a few months, hasn’t been able to come. “It’s just the two of us looking after the baby and with no help it is quite a task,” says Batra.

Then, there’s a slightly different issue because the young couple didn’t buy many clothes for the baby. “We didn’t buy too many clothes earlier as we thought we would buy once the baby was born and we knew it was a boy or a girl.” She has enough diapers but often the baby is wrapped up in towels and dupattas. “When I was discharged we bought enough diapers to last us a month.”

While garages and repair shops on highways have opened up to aid movement of trucks, those in the cities are still closed. So if your car breaks down, there is little that can be done. “My car was due for servicing in the beginning of March. But I delayed it and now it just wouldn’t start. I need to take it to a garage but all are closed,” says a general practitioner working for one of the leading hospitals in Bangalore. She is now taking a lift with another colleague.

With rising temperatures, coolers, fans and air conditioners are also becoming essential. While one can’t purchase a new one, even getting the existing air conditioners serviced is a problem.

Servicing of water purifiers and RO devices is also a problem. “Our RO needs to be serviced. We have been buying drinking water for the last three weeks,” says Anjali Prasad Sharma, a Noida-based advertising executive.

As we move into week five of the lockdown, the number of nagging problems and irritations will only increase. The one thing most people are thankful for is that their Wi-Fi is working fine.

“My BSNL network is down but I have a Jio dongle that is working,” says Sunil Mathew, a Kochi resident.