Terraces a threat to social distancing

Vadodara: With policemen prowling the streets, ‘adda’ has chosen a new hideout — terraces. However, while gossiping is fun, the gathering of people on terraces of the buildings pose threat to social distancing, thereby greater exposure to virus risks.No Barodians don’t head downstairs for a stroll, they climb up literally, onto the terraces for some opportunity to catch up on clean air and a good chat. Terraces are turning the favourite hangout zones in the Banayan City, especially in the old city area, where the houses are closeby, and neighbours spend their evenings chatting, playing games or sharing recipes.“I never used to come on terraces before lockdown. But now there is no other place to go as police are keeping watch on people using drone cameras so I come to terrace to spend the evenings,” said Nitin Chavada, a footwear designer living in Wadi. Chavada said that he spends time talking with his friends in neighbourhood and flying kites.A homemaker, Aarti Rajput, spends her entire day doing household work but as the day comes to end, she starts getting bored. That is when she and several other women of her apartment gather on the terrace. “Evenings are very difficult to spend in our 1BHK home so we all women of the building sit on the terrace chit-chatting about our day or cutting and chopping vegetables, Rajput said.Rajput claims that they try to maintain physical distance on the terrace but it becomes difficult when children and sometimes men too gather on the small space.“This behaviour is very similar to health belief model of psychology where people are “othering” the disease — a complex psychological strategy to undermine something. People would not have seen any close kin suffering from the disease so they do not feel threatened or vulnerable while gathering on the terraces,” said professor Urmi Biswas of MS University’s psychology department. She added that since people are going through crisis situation they want to reassert themselves by talking to their close-ones, including their neighbours.