Week 2 – March 16th
Sunday we announce everyone to work from home and not report to office. Office will still be open to come and collect anything they will need.
I go to office today and bring my stuff – Decathalon party table which I use as standing desk, my external monitor and keyboard. Also pick up San’s laptop charger.
I take my mother and son to Star Bazaar. It is closed. Govt has ordered closure of all Malls and movie theatres. Star Bazaar does not qualify as a Mall but still they were closed. We went to Big Bazaar. It was crowded as usual. Saw lot of people wearing masks. I got a doubt, perhaps its not a good idea to bring my mother and son.
Monday, in my team half had come to office. We do the standup – some online, some physical. Around 11:30 AM I go to office to discuss a few things and also tell my team mates to not come to office from tomorrow.
Also meet a few from Sales team – they argued cannot work from home, how can we not meet customers. Valid point – but no other choice.
Tuesday – in Tech we all meet online. Try Zoho Conference, Prime time – and then settle on Zoho meeting. It worked pretty well.
San meanwhile is still in quarantine. She gives a scare saying she is having headache. I quickly check and its not one of the symptoms of Covid. She is glued to her phone all the time – in umpteen whatsapp groups. All the news we read is also very depressing. And also overdose of facts. She loves plodding through such information overdose. It’s over use of her phone.
I ask her to stop using phone for a few hours and headache goes off. I don’t let her touch the phone for extended periods of time. Phoo – close call.
Wednesday morning I feel a bit sore in my throat. Previous night had eaten a guava. Or could be all the news I keep reading. Mind can do wonders. Damn you.
Feeling went off after a while.
Work from home is tiring. I keep getting ping after ping – from all the teams. At office also I constantly get pings – but its not this bad – I sometimes go into meetings and I cant be reached that time. Here they all know I am available and pings keep coming.
Had just put this last Friday. Things got overwhelming.
Prithvi is having the time of his life. First couple of days we let him out – then we realised its a bad idea. Lockdown for him started from Wednesday. He plays this online game – Roblox – with his friends. He chats with them on whatsapp and plays some 5 – 6 hours. Evenings he starts drawing something.
His mom has hung a thread and has started collecting his artwork.
On Saturday I setup Xbox – and stop all online games. Prithvi loves Minecraft – its purely offline. We come up with 4 to 7PM game time.
Rest of the time he listens to music, or reads comics – All Amar Chitra Katha comics are available for 1 month free.
Prime Minister Modi announces Janatha Curfew on Sunday. It’s a brilliant idea. It might temporarily pause the spread of the virus. 7AM to 10PM. 5PM we have to make lot of noise.
Sunday we do just that. It is lot of fun at 5pm. I take out my djumbe and beat the hell out of it. I was afraid Sufi will be scared but she was fine.
