It’s official, the Lockdown 4.0 is declared till 31 May. There are however some relaxations and opening of standalone shops that can maintain the social distancing norms is one.

The shops have marked squares three feet apart from each other, designating where you have to wait for your turn to enter the shop. Cash is not accepted. Your temperature is tested before you are allowed into the shop. Imagine if you are standing in the sun🌞 and your body temperature reads high😅…you have to wait till you cool down and record normal temperature to enter !!

The face mask is compulsory to be let into shops. Also you are not allowed to touch and feel things before buying. The sales people are all wearing masks and gloves; the cashier gets an additional head gear in the form of a face shield.

After probably two months I ventured to the outer ring road (ORR) in Bangalore. There were private vehicles plying but no public transport. Cabs and autos were not seen either. A new addition seen on the roads were the orange dividers shielding the bus lane.

Before the lockdown began, the bus lane was demarcated by a yellow line on the road and cops were standing by to fine other vehicles entering the bus lane. But now we have the dividers. The lockdown seemed to be the ideal time to catch up on all the pending road works😃. But the remaining two lanes are woefully inadequate for Bangalore traffic.

I visited two shops – Fabindia and Sapna book house. The shelves at the book shop were empty. The textbooks for the new academic year starting in June 20 have not yet arrived and there are lot of pending exams yet to take place.

Fabindia had customers; not crowded as the book shop though. While on the road, Croma, an electronics shop seemed to be the only place where people were seen in queue outside.

I had a few gift vouchers to redeem from Fabindia. They also had a sale on their old stock. It is one of those shops that sell lot of pretty stuff, it feels good to just browse !! Here’s few stuff from the modest shopping trip – table mats – the pastel blue shade is lovely 😘.

The ceramic cups were on 50% discount, I planned to use them for keeping potpourri. They look simple and elegant 😘.

And finally some curtains – there were a couple of shoppers for curtains.

There were no eateries seen open; though when we reached back home by lunchtime, there were plenty of home deliveries from restaurants kept by the main gate of the apartment. As part of the Lockdown 4.0, restaurants are to be open only for home deliveries.

So was the shopping necessary ? We wanted to get the books; considering the uncertainty over the beginning of the new academic year, it is good for the kid to do some reading at home. The books are considered non-essential items, so Amazon and Flipkart have excluded them from the home deliverable item’s list. The Fabindia visit was a feel good shopping trip. It was a break from the routine.

The COVID 19 situation is not showing any signs of going away anytime soon. I guess we are going to have to live with the virus for sometime.

Till next post, take care !!