The highs and lows of grocery runs
PEOPLE ARE COMFORTBUYING MORE, TAKING HOME BOXES OF CHOCOLATE, ICE-CREAM
Heading to the market to stock up on essentials has become anxiety-inducing, time-consuming, and also the only outing most of us get.
There’s all the sanitising, the numbered squares on the ground, the queues.
“Still, going to the market feels like a whiff of fresh air in an exhausting routine of housework and work-from-home that just continues on an unbroken loop,” says Baisakhi Chakraborty, 30, a marketing officer in Mumbai.
Many have started looking forward to it with anticipation. “If nothing else, we just walk across the street to pick up milk and bread every few days,” says Ghaziabad homemaker Piyali Dhar, 49, who is spending the lockdown with her cousin, whom she was visiting when it was enforced.
“We’re both using the buying of essentials as an excuse to go out, dress up a little, take a walk,” Dhar says.
STOCKING UP
Manishita Ghosh, 45, an advertising executive from Kolkata, goes to the market once a week.
There is an undeniable tension in the markets, she and her husband Kaniska Chakraborty, 54, a brand consultant, agree. Nerves are frayed, shoppers anxious to get their turn before stores close. But it is also a chance for responsible socialising, even if it is with strangers.
Some people help each other out with advice on purchases, given that in many cases familiar brands are now missing from the shelves. Others swap recipes, discuss who’s delivering ice cream and where one can find some mutton.
“At the van that comes to our colony, I’ve heard people discussing prices, what’s available where... and these are people who never talked to each other before,” Kaniska says.
Another change is coming home with things you rarely ate, often because you’re comfortbuying.
For many, it’s ice-cream, biscuits and chips. For Baisakhi, it’s chocolate. Kaniska remembers buying 36 eggs at the start of the lockdown. “And we don’t even eat eggs regularly,” he says.
STRESS TRIGGERS
Techie Arijit Nag, 37, is among those who just find the whole thing stressful. He heads out as early as 6.45 am, to avoid queues. “First there’s the stress of waking up at crack of dawn. Then I put on mask, gloves, full pants and a full-sleeved shirt, regardless of the weather,” he says. “Once out of the house, there’s the stress of distancing, not touching my face.”
Back home, it’s then time to sanitise everything one has bought. “The provisions are put in a tub to disinfect. The money that left the house is kept in a box for several days to ensure that it’s well clear of germs before it goes into my wallet. I immediately head for a bath,” says Nag. Often, the post-market ritual takes longer than the shopping. Still, after a few days in front of a laptop and staring at screens, many look forward to the next outing, even if with trepidation.