My name is Kinjal J Tanna. I have been working as a Producer/Director over the past 20 years, and I believe shooting around the globe has taught me so much with the exposure to so many different cultures. I run two production companies: Whacky Films in Mumbai and KKDD Films in Dubai.

I am stuck in Mumbai! Yes that’s correct – my wife and kids came back on March 3rd from Dubai on a quick family holiday, and I was supposed to travel back on the 13th to Dubai for work… and then travel restrictions came into place – compulsory hospital if you had tested positive and a two week home quarantine if you had traveled back – so I decided to hang back here. I am looking at going back to Dubai once international flight restrictions are lifted. 

Life in Mumbai is usually super busy – traffic and noise pollution is arguably the craziest in the world – and all of a sudden it’s a surreal city. The roads and streets are really quiet and empty! Being one of the most populated cities in the world, the people rely on trains, metros, buses, taxis and rickshaws (tuk tuk) – – from around March 22nd, all of these have been shut down. They have a few buses to assist emergency travel only. I mean to give you an example, the distance from my home to office is 2.5 kilometres (roughly 1.5 miles) – which would take me anywhere between 20 minutes to 50 minutes daily – now it’s literally 5 minutes. I have been living here for ten years and have never seen Mumbai this way – a city that never sleeps. I don’t think my parents or grandparents have ever witnessed a lockdown of this kind ever. 

India is under a six week lockdown and it’s expected to increase another two weeks – we are closer to 17,000 cases in India approximately.  My state – Maharashtra – has the highest number of cases in the country. 

The problem in India is there are a lot of daily wage workers plus a lot of slums – unfortunately these people do not listen to the police and government warnings. The government is trying very hard to ensure all daily wage workers get three meals and temporary accommodation – and they are managing that – but people are still going out of their houses and mixing with crowds. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra has been managing the situation with a lot of support, as we have one of the largest populations in the country. 

Let me tell you about the building I live in. We have 260 apartments and we have not been allowed any external people – no maids, no drivers  – so all the wives are pretty upset because most people in our complex have up to three maids plus drivers. I mean that is life in middle class India – we do have a lot of luxuries to ease the stress, but we are highly dependent on domestic help. But now, we are all doing our share of housework and actually we do realize how much we should appreciate all of them. 

My building is also arranging for vegetable vendors to come once or twice a week and collectively ensure we get our supplies, so no one has to leave the apartment complex, which is collectively around 16 buildings – each one is doing their own. To run such a large building, we have several housekeeping staff. They have been arranged for temporary accommodation for them within the complex and three meals a day, with social distancing. This is because if these workers leave the building, the police will not allow them to come back due to the lockdown. 

All deliveries are to be picked up from outside the building from security – so they are trying their best to ensure we try to isolate as much as possible. Online deliveries are available, but you have to wait up to four days for them to arrive. 

This lockdown has made us all realize that life can be lived without leaving your apartment… yes it’s true.  

I have not seen my parents, who are in Dubai, and don’t have any maid or help for them, but luckily we have amazing neighbors who are ensuring they are well taken care off…  I am eternally grateful to them. 

I mean honestly, the harsh reality is I was moving back to Dubai after ten long years in Mumbai. We were all so excited about moving back – the cargo left around the second week of March, and then the lockdown happened, so all of that is in some warehouse in Mumbai. With regards to excess weight, I had planned two trips to Dubai and back to ensure work went on, and plus I got to carry all of the extra weight back. But the lockdown has put life in a standstill. Some of my friends had even thrown me a going away party! 

Well back home in Dubai – where I have lived most of my life (moved there in 1980) – it is pretty much under a nationwide “sterilization drive”. They have been sterilizing all public areas. Initially the sterilization drive was 8PM to 6AM and now it’s 24 hours. There are around 7,500 cases in the United Arab Emirates. The local metro was partially open initially but then it was shut down, while taxis are available but with passenger restrictions. The buses are available for emergency travel. The Dubai government is managing very well with the restrictions imposed and people are adhering to them. The quality of medical treatment is also very good there. The government has introduced an online permit – so if anyone needs to go out of the house to get essentials, people there have to apply for one, which is easily issued. It wants to ensure that everyone has basic necessities to continue their lives as normal as possible. The government has been testing heavily there and it has several drive-through testing centers for COVID-19. A few days ago, health officials visited my apartment in Dubai and checked on my parents to ensure they were safe, asked if they had any medical issues, and urged them to wear a mask when stepping out of the home. They are going door to door to ensure their well-being.  

So here goes a look into daily life in Mumbai… 

The initial first week of the lockdown, I worked from home and had lots of virtual online calls.  The second week I was kind of fed up sitting around, and I could also understand from the virtual work calls that my clients were also in the same frame of mind:  what are we doing at home?!? 

The third week I have not done any real “work”.  Instead, I am physically working everyday helping around the house with sweeping , dusting and mopping followed by laundry. Since the lockdown, we don’t have a maid who used to do all of this.  It’s just me pretending to do all of the work and then my wife actually does it properly! 

The fourth and fifth week, I went into rediscovering my skills – looking at a lot of online learning (Masterclass, etc.). What’s also happened being at home is my wife has gone on cooking overtime… all the recipes are being cooked with a lot of joy on the front – but I know in the back of her mind she is thinking: how many new dishes can one cook!?!

As of April 1st, my daughters aged 15 (Grade 10) and 11 (Grade 7) started online classes for their school in Dubai, which has been very understanding, since they don’t have the textbooks – all the students and teachers are sharing copies of the books to ensure they don’t face any issues studying. That happens 9AM – 4PM everyday, which means I don’t have a laptop to work on.  So I kind of start at 4:30PM to catch up on client emails and correspondences. 

Most evenings, my wife and Ilike to have a quick hookah (Middle Eastern smoking device)before we get to bed because that’s the “WE” time or “OUR” time. The early days of the lockdown were wonderful. We could have a chilled Kingfisher Ultra beer or a nice Lagavulin 16 whisky to enjoy an extremely quiet evening. But the lack of planning or ability to predict the future led to finishing all of the alcohol too soon. Yes so no alcohol shops right now are open, which has actually caused quite a panic! The wives are happy though. Weeks two through six have been the longest time I have not had a drink – it’s a forced detox! Not that I am an alcoholic, but most normal weekends we do drink, meet up with friends at each other’s apartments and have a good laugh. 

All jokes apart: I have learned to appreciate my friends and family who we have been in touch with regularly. All the wonderful friends and neighbors have now become our immediate family, and we depend on each other for our coexistence. And when we do the occasional trip to the supermarket fully loaded with mask and gloves (see picture), we do end up calling each other and ask if they need anything. I always used to wonder: whenever you watch a movie based in the future, you would see people wearing masks… strange but true that’s what we do now. 

I have used this time to connect with a lot of people I have not spoken to in a long time. Three days a week, it’s Zoom or FaceTime with some wonderful friends. I connected with school friends that I have not seen in over 15 years! 

Emirates airline has been very kind to extend our ticket validity for 24 months – I have been a Silver tier member for the past three years and Emirates has even extended the validity as well for everyone across all tiers to ensure we don’t lose the status. I know it’s nothing much other than the occasional lounge access, and the extra luggage does come in handy since I travel for shoots a lot. But it certainly helps. I do around 25 flights a year. My work has come to a complete standstill. I do have staff in two cities. I have ensured my workers that they will get their salaries, since they have stood by me in good times and bad. I know they also have families to take care of. Hopefully the clients and agencies who have supported me over the years will continue to do so and we can get back to a normal life. I also have a small aquarium in the office in Dubaiand before the lockdown was imposed, I ensured that the fish were taken care of at a nearby pet shop.

By the way: we were all supposed to move back to Dubai this week! But I guess whatever happens, happens for the best, and we treasure these moments with our friends and family. 

Anyways… I can go on and on, but I am well, I am safe and I am staying at home for 99% of the time, and I know we can all get through this weird time. Mother Nature and Planet Earth are on “Reset Mode” – so let’s encourage everyone to follow social distancing and PLEASE BE SAFE AND STAY AT HOME.