Wake up, log in to work, read new details about the appalling state of the country, do chores, watch the healthcare system collapse in real time, look for vaccine slots — this is the work-from-home rut many urban Indians are caught in during the second wave. And even though they have been working from home since March 2020, 2021 somehow seems more difficult. 

Working from home was very different in 2020 “because it had a certain ‘novelty factor,’” explains Samriti Makkar Midha, a Bombay-based psychotherapist. It gave people a chance to bake, paint, read — activities their busy lives had never given them a chance to indulge in before.