The balcony becomes a portal for the transaction of goods. Because of the rule that condemns delivery agents and non-residents from entering a society, the balcony has turned out to serve a purpose. The space provides a new possibility for transactions, especially for residents on the higher floors or the elderly. It is a new way of transactions which are contactless. People use ropes, chains, and even electrical cables as pulleys for transactions.

Going to the market meant coming in direct contact with people from all over, hence this system of fruits and vegetable trucks were started, which delivered across various apartment complexes. People could form a queue and buy whatever they pleased.

The idea of markets changes from earlier when people would visit the vegetable vendor street, walk across all of them to find farm fresh vegetables, negotiating with the sellers for the same, simultaneously talking to the people living in the neighborhood street and houses, buying a few more things that came across their way while returning home. Now a market space has emerged where you just have to get out of your house, using the staircase and the market is already set up in the building compound, where no negotiations happen, just buying what is available and some even fear to start a conversation.

“Can you draw the curtains? Can you please reduce the volume? My head is aching, please!” These sentences have been echoed by different voices and have increased in the frequency in the last 3 months. While the nature of work and learning has primarily shifted to screens of mobile phones or laptops, these instances of ‘migraines seem to have become commonplace. A short visit to the ophthalmologist in a commercial complex in Khar, opened up this situation further. The three room clinic had now expanded and fragmented. The ophthalmologist in his hazmat suit has now leased another ‘gala’ on the second floor. He trudges up and down every 30 minutes. The original clinic could not hold the patients along with the ‘social distancing norms’. Moreover the patients have increased and so has the need for space and the rooms get occupied on shifts, where after each patient is vacated, processes on sanitizing and preparing for the next patient are put into place. Advice of less screen time, drops for dry eyes are common prescription each individual coming out of the clinic is handed and to return after a month. While these are long term habits that one has to instill, larger companies provide quick fixes. ‘Blu’ Kart lenses with 50% off on frames are sold like hot cakes. Conversations within households emerge to read up on the usefulness of these glasses, while relatives beyond the household choose to discuss this extensively. One brave and adventurous family member decides to try them on rather perplexed by the recurring migraine and thus news spreads like wildfire. Most with complaints choose to order, either not sure. The Ophthalmologist and the Company continue to come up with newer and sometimes questionable schemes. Mother complains of an unusual time, ‘Our ancestors have had such good eyesight, now look at you kids! This pandemic has really done it this time.’

The market practices have reduced to interactions only on the basis of visibility of the products. The counter becomes a zone of contactless transaction, making the role of the shopkeeper reduced to that of a cash collector. The spatiality of the shop is reduced to only the front. The customers prefer this type in the scenario of a pandemic, considering they don't have to be in contact with anyone. Such type also allows for window shopping, as the spatiality diagram is similar to that of a vending machine.

My chacha has a shop in the Janta market in Dadar. The building is called the Hawker’s Plaza, where it is a different kind of a mall, a mall where hawkers come to buy goods, which they then sell on the streets. As obvious as it might seem, the business has been in a slow decline since a while now, but during covid, it has experienced a massive shock. But the interesting thing that is happening is that the areas around the major markets in Dadar have experienced a new rental demand by men, who, since the shutdown of the railway, have rented beds in small chaalis around the area, where they could come and sleep, and keep their shops open for any small opportunities that they might have, to sell.

As the lockdown kept on extending, people were stuck economically. To cope up with the situation people started claiming spaces on the footpaths and their neighbourhood to sell vegetables from their villages,while some made bags and masks. Some houses were altered to become food stalls. As people had a fear to eat from outside, people started selling faral, cakes and other dishes made at home. We used to exchange dishes in our society as our society gates were locked and no outsiders where allowed to come in.

Lasting for a very short time. At the very beginning of the COVID-19 people assumed that the virus was ephemeral. Eventually, everything and everyone would resume their regular mundane lives, instead, the virus is still with us and has made the so-called ‘Lockdown’ life a mundane life. The temporality of the virus has shifted its medium and entered into our lives and spaces around us. The virus calls for everything around us now to be ephemeral. It is known for sure that pandemics are going to happen and stay with us for a long time which is now driving us into a ‘pandemic preparedness’ development. There are temporary spaces set up not only as quarantine centers but also as a place to meet or spend time. For example, A car turning into a hangout and game center for a couple of friends, which in an ideal case would be some cafe or at someone's home.