Living History – Shambhavi Solanki’s Chapter, Sector 40, Gurgaon
Life during Corona.
[By Mayank Austen Soofi]
The Delhi Walla is trying to prepare a part of the Coronavirus pandemic’s first draft by putting a set of questions about ‘daily life these times’ to people from diverse backgrounds.
Today, it’s Shambhavi Solanki. In her 30s, she works in the Human Resources of a tech company in Gurgaon in the Greater Delhi Region. In fact, this Wednesday was the first time she went to office since the first lockdown began in late March.
Ms Solanki lives in Sector 40 with husband, Arpit, and three “furry babies” Aisha the Terrier, Glaeder the Dane and Lara the Mastiff. The family shares an independent house, where the garden has proportionally greater space than that of rooms “so that Aisha, Glaeder and Lara can have more open area to go about.”
Ms Solanki had a cat too “who was best friends with the dogs.” Fifty passed away two years ago. In the lockdown, the lady resurrected her Fifty by finishing a book about him that she had been trying to write since some time. “It’s about a hundred pages,” she says–see the book’s cover in the photo section below.
The photos were taken through the phone screen that connected her to The Delhi Walla.
5 outdoorsy things you’ll do after the pandemic is over.
Make a trip to Sundar Nursery and grab some churned kulfi and artisan cheese.
Drive down to my home town in Himachal with all three of my furry babies and husband.
Overeat at the Big Chill Cakery, especially the Chocolate strawberry mousse cake!
Take that overdue trip to Lakshadweep for snorkeling and diving.
Spend a whole day at a luxurious spa.
The view outside your window at the moment.
A wide patch of green grass, a purposefully dismantled hammock and a gazebo – owing to this unpredictable May weather, a few baby palm trees and a few bunches of geraniums.
What’s going on in your mind right now?
A lot really. The answer to this question would have been different yesterday since today my office opened its operations after so many days of lockdown. I’m happy I saw a bunch of familiar faces today but I suddenly miss the pyjamas and worn out t-shirts which I won’t get to wear in the day time. I’m worrying about whether the children will think it’s their fault that we’re leaving them on their own again and disappearing for full days. I’m sad thinking that the self-cooked, leisurely breakfasts with the husband which marked the start of our days are already a thing of the past. I’m anxious about project timelines and to-dos, but at at least that has been a constant throughout the lockdown too.
Objects in your house that give you solace in self-isolation.
There are many though not all of them may have been put to use in the time of this lockdown. The small patch of kitchen garden. My wide variety of coloring and drawing pens. The PS4. Two picture collages, both gifted by the husband, capturing the periods of our courtship till wedding, and the ten years after the wedding respectively. The high piles of mostly unread books. Strangely, one particular knife in the kitchen which has been my best friend as I cooked away through these times of isolation.
Her slice of the pandemic
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