Makeover time for his storeroom

Working from home, an ad professional gives his flat the attention it deserved

This is what usually happens. The part of the house you’ve always wanted to convert into a sacrosanct space, where you could do the things you love, whether it is gym or reading, furnishing it with sports equipment or cozy cushions — well, it never happens. Instead, it turns into a storage space, with all the jumble that hasn’t found any place elsewhere.

And then the world turns upside down. And then the coronavirus epidemic happens. And Arjun Jetly finally turns his storeroom into what he intended it to be in the first place— his study.

“It’s the third day of working from home,” says the 31-year-old ad agency creative director in Gurugram’s Sector 49. This afternoon, Mr Jetly is talking on Whatsapp video from the isolation of his third-floor apartment — the pictures are taken through the screen that connects him to this reporter. As the contagion sparked concerns in India, his office in Cyber Hub business district asked its employees to set up work stations at home. Turning his phone camera towards the desktop, Mr Jetly explains that the computer was delivered to his residence the day after the directive.

He immediately set up sorting his so-called storeroom. Until now, it used to be home to his great collection of sneakers—25 pairs. Then there was the bicycle, “plus very many empty cardboard boxes that I thought would come handy, if someday I decided to shift.” The cardboards were given to the maid, and the sneakers were stacked up in the closet. He now turns the camera phone towards his footwear collection. They are all white. Mr Jetly’s shirt is white too. “But my car is blue steel,” he remarks amusedly.

Like many of us, Mr Jetly thought at first that the new virus’s epicentres would conveniently stay located in other places, and wouldn’t come to his part of the world. “But as I continued to follow the news on international media,” he says, “I realised that no country is safe... all are either a few weeks behind or ahead of the affected zones.”

Now, he rarely steps out except to get groceries. “At last, the flat is getting the attention it deserved... the plants are being regularly watered...” The fridge has been stocked with beer bottles, cola cans, almond milk bottles, canned beans, one red wine bottle, and three champagne bottles.

And then there’s the desk in the study, purchased two years ago from south Delhi’s Amar Colony. This is where Mr Jetly sits daily to work for his office — though he confesses he also hopes to start “some personal project related to writing, for internet or for films...” His time starts now.