Self-help is the best help, is what the people of Assam have realised during the 21-day lockdown in Assam.

From trimming hair to polishing shoes, from washing vessels to de-cluttering their wardrobes, people are taking matters in their own hands.

“The barber and the shoe shops are closed. The domestic help is not coming either. We are doing all our work and household chores. Never have all these household chores looked so respectful in the eye of people,” Sarvesh Tripathi, a local resident, told The Telegraph.

Govind and Hudson Gomes, brothers and students of graduation in management, are at home these days observing the lockdown.

Hudson said, “Trimming hair was always among one of my hobbies. This hobby is coming handy these days.”

Govind’s hobby is household work and cooking and he is these days assisting their mother in the kitchen.

“In the northeastern culture, men and women command equal respect and are treated as equals yet in parts of India, the kitchen is associated with females. During the lockdown, such social concepts are fading. It’s a social change, which can change the entire country afterwards. More and more people are becoming allrounders. Gender discrimination and aristocratic behaviour are coming to an end.”

The people are using their productivity and uploading videos on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

They are also indulging in self-care by doing yoga, meditation, painting, craft, poems or fiction, photography and learning camera skills, gardening, dancing, reading books, listening to music and taking extra care of pets.