the goan I network
MAPUSA
The voluntary shutdown received an unprecedented response with people cutting across faiths chose to remain indoors in Mapsua and other parts of Bardez since early Sunday morning following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal for a ‘janata curfew’ to check the spread of the dreaded novel coronavirus.
Later, at the stroke of 5 in the evening many came out of their houses and those residing in high-rises on their balconies making a cacophony -- some clapping and others banging the ‘thalis’. As the public transport remained off the road even the dependable motorcycle pilot was out of sight on a day which will definitely go down in history as the largest self-quarantined shutdown.
The sprawling fish and vegetable market in Mapusa was completely shut with not a soul in the market. After 7 am, no bread or milk packets were available in any part of the city as all the big and small restaurants and even the ubiquitous gadda (kiosk) remained shut.
“Those who came in before 7 am could procure milk packets but bread was out of bounds for the public,” said Girish, a resident of Mapusa.
Most of the petrol pumps and pharmacies in the city also remained closed throughout the day. The doors of the Mapusa church which normally witness large number of faithful on Sundays remained closed following PM’s call for ‘janata curfew’. Such was the will of the nation that people refused to come out to collect their daily quota of newspapers. With most of the newspaper distributors remaining away, large number of dailies remained unsold.
“Normally, we sell around 16,000 newspapers including Marathi, English and Hindi every day, but today we managed to sell only around 2,000. Most of the paper distributors also stayed away,” said Shyam Naik, who is employed with Gorakhnath Naik one of the main newspaper distributors in Mapusa.
No untoward incidents were reported in the jurisdiction of the Mapusa Police Station.
