How ‘essential’ is booze?

Some countries have banned alcohol, others say liquor shops are essential services, and one top official even suggested a tipple after another long day trapped at home can be a necessary restorative. The debate around alcohol and the coronavirus pandemic touches on issues of health, the economy, worker safety — and whether for some a glass of wine may indeed help cope with the stress of seeing their lives upended in the space of weeks. Police in South Africa are brutally enforcing a ban on all alcohol sales during the shutdown. But in North America and much of Europe, alcohol stores remain open, and busy — often protected under the same regulations that allow business such as supermarkets or pharmacies to operate. In Canada — where legal cannabis stores have also stayed open — Quebec’s premier Francois Legault justified the decision to keep alcohol sales flowing, a move welcomed by consumers but criticized by a trade union concerned for shop workers. “To reduce the stress, you have to do some exercise, so have a walk — but sometimes a glass of wine may help,” he said. Unlike much of the world Canadians are not under official lockdown, but they have been urged to stay home and practice social distancing — and that has been enough to send alcohol sales soaring. “Everyone feels like it is Friday or Saturday all the time,” said Catherine Paradis, an analyst at the Canadian Center on Addictions and Substance Use. Consumers are hitting stores like “in the weeks before Christmas” as well as buying at peak levels online, according to a spokesman for the Societe des alcools du Quebec (SAQ) — a government corporation which last year reported net earnings of CAN$1.146 billion. Nationwide, Paradis notes that closing stores selling alcohol would cut off a significant source of government revenue — estimated at about

To sweep or not to sweep

With around 10,000 descendants packing the ancestral shrine every Tomb Sweeping Day, the Yeh family’s grand affair made a bid for the Guiness Book of World Records in 2016. They won’t be coming even close on Saturday. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, less than 30 people will be attending and conducting the rituals. “We hope that our ancestors don’t take offense,” branch association head Yeh Lun-tsai (葉倫在) tells the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Tomb Sweeping Day activities can potentially aggravate the spread of the virus as large groups congregate in cemeteries and columbariums at the same time. It’s a deeply-rooted tradition that calls for an entire extended family affair, and many believe that it is disrespectful not to attend. Since early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has urged Taiwanese to begin visiting their ancestors’ tombs in advance in small groups, or do their worshipping online through both government and private Web sites as well as live-streamed ceremonies. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) set an example on Tuesday by saying that he had already completed his tomb sweeping rituals. But as Yeh’s sentiments suggest, a big concern seems to be whether the dead ancestors would actually mind. The Tainan City Government posted on its Facebook page a cartoon with spirits wearing face masks saying, “I hope my descendants don’t come! It’s safer to stay at home!” And CDC deputy chief Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) stressed in Tuesday’s press conference: “I believe that our ancestors all wish that their descendents are safe and healthy.” SPEAKING FOR THE DEAD Several doctors have publicly expressed their concerns over Tomb Sweeping Day and COVID-19, but instead of taking a medical standpoint, they tend to focus on the ancestor’s potential sentiments. Pediatrician Chen Mu-jung (陳木榮) writes on his Facebook

By Han Cheung

Mother of invention

Driving to work at his factory to the west of London last week, designer Steve Brooks had coronavirus on his mind. What could he make that would let him open a door without touching the handle? “Everyone has to use their little finger or find the bit of the door that nobody’s touched,” said the designer and owner at DDB Ltd, a company which makes office furniture. So he produced a hook to do the job. The so-called hygienehook is small enough to fit in a pocket and made from a non-porous material, which makes it easy to clean. It is one of hundreds of gadgets dreamt up in recent days and weeks to help prevent people from spreading the coronavirus. From furniture makers to AI software developers, companies around the world are adapting existing products or inventing new ones to help fight the pandemic or just make life easier for those working from home, in hospitals or stuck in quarantine. The flurry of innovation comes as companies from Ford and Airbus to luxury goods giant LVMH retool plants to make critical equipment like hand sanitizers, ventilators and masks. In years gone by it was large companies like these, with the financial clout and factories, who typically had to be relied upon to move rapidly from designing a prototype to manufacturing the product. A crucial difference now, though, is that 3D printing and high-tech software mean devices can be produced faster than ever by companies big and small. “There is definitely a ton of people with 3D resources very willing to help,” said MacKenzie Brown, founder of California-based product design company CAD Crowd. Two weeks ago, his company launched a month-long contest for practical devices for navigating the new coronavirus world. About 65 entries have poured in, including a wrist-mounted disinfectant sprayer, half gloves for knuckle-pushing of buttons and

By Josephine Mason, Peter Henderson and Luiza Ilie

US kids stuck at home embrace online exercise classes

Every afternoon since they started staying in their Texas home due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Canonico sisters — ages two, four and 10 — spend some time banging on the floor with kitchen utensils. It’s not just idle play: they are taking online classes from a local kids’ gym in Houston to burn up some of their pent-up energy — and to learn crucial motor and social skills at the same time. Kinley, Caylee and Riley had already attended baby fitness programs over the years at their local branch of The Little Gym, a chain focused on movement-based learning. When authorities in Houston — like many other jurisdictions around the US — issued a stay-at-home order last week, their mother Lauren Soliz said she was all-in for them to pick up some classes online. “We definitely want their mental health to equal their physical health,” Soliz said. “Yes, they can watch their iPads for a certain amount of time every day. But we’re also getting in our physical health too.” ‘FEELING THE STRESS’ Soliz, 37, works as a tax consultant. With three girls to take care of at home and random meetings by phone throughout the day, she says it’s virtually impossible to maintain a schedule. Nevertheless, she has figured out how to set up regular exercise breaks — bike rides around their neighborhood after breakfast, YouTube yoga classes. And now, several times a week, Soliz’s daughters — dressed in tank tops and shorts or their pastel-colored pajamas — follow along with a video class from The Little Gym. “The girls love it, and they think it’s playing,” she said. Riley, the 10-year-old, is just as enthusiastic about the classes as her little sisters, hopping in place or turning in circles. “I think it’s fun and it’s time-consuming so it helps because we’re just stuck inside,” she said. Soliz said the

Catching COVID-19 in Taiwan: A foreigner’s perspective

The chills were what first tipped me off that something was wrong. It was an early Thursday evening in late February and I was sitting in my office. I normally hit an energy low this time of the day but this was different, as I suddenly felt chilled, absolutely drained of energy, the lightest of achiness in my muscles and joints and a slight pain behind my eyeballs. I went home, took a long hot shower and went to bed early. After a full day of rest, I felt normal enough on Saturday to jump on my bike and enjoy a vigorous 50-60km ride. Happy that I had defeated perhaps some sort of 24-hour bug, I enjoyed the rest of the weekend. Nevertheless, in the week that followed, I continued to experience chills, especially in the evenings, sometimes accompanied by night sweats. It’s noteworthy that during these days, I passed several outside temperature checks with no issues. The dull pain behind my eyeballs persisted and around midweek I started a sporadic, dry cough. Just as aggravating, my sense of taste seemed to change so that I entirely lost my appetite and almost had to force myself to eat two meals a day. When I started noticing blood in the phlegm I was coughing up, I realized it was time to seek professional medical advice. At the back of my mind was the specter of the coronavirus that was steadily accumulating attention and cases in Taiwan and across Asia. TESTING POSITIVE I drove to a well-known Taichung hospital and walked into the Emergency Room. Feeling slightly silly, I told the receptionists that I hadn’t been feeling well and wanted a coronavirus test. After registration and a wait, I was given an x-ray, had blood drawn and later was ushered in to see a

By Douglas Habecker

COVID-19 tips and reminders for non-Taiwanese

1. If you go to the hospital for a check-up, plan for the worst-case scenario — having to stay there without returning home. Have a hospital “grab bag” to either take with you or have someone deliver. Recommended items include: T-shirts, shorts and sleeping clothes, socks and underwear, sweater/fleece, personal toiletries and medications, computer (and headphones) and phone plus charging cables, towel, slippers, nail clippers and reading material. Also, have a water bottle/container that nurses can fill up with drinking water. Remember that Taiwanese hospitals generally only provide the most basic of daily necessities. 2. If you test positive, anticipate a full accounting of your whereabouts and contacts over the past couple weeks. You can help authorities by starting to recall and record this, together with contact names and numbers. 3. If you speak little or no Chinese, strongly consider a hospital with special services for foreigners as communication about medical/non-medical issues can be challenging. If you think you may have symptoms of the coronavirus, call 1922. 4. Remember that National Health Insurance may not cover all expenses for an extended stay, with extra costs possibly well over NT$20,000. 5. Keep in mind that your three hospital meals per day will most likely be Taiwanese cuisine, quite basic and unvarying. 6. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. You will probably be relying on friends and family to bring additional items, from favorite foods to clothing. 7. There is a time to mute your phone and rest. Don’t get overwhelmed updating friends, family and colleagues. Consider a Facebook page or other online location where you can direct people for the latest updates on your condition. 8. Try to create a personal daily routine that includes, if you’re able, basic exercises. 9. Don’t dwell on feeling guilty about getting sick and those you may have

By Douglas Habecker

Why does Taiwan still criminalize adultery?

When a man surnamed Chen discovered that his wife, surnamed Chang, was having an affair with a foreign national surnamed James, he hired private investigators to catch them having sex. Chen and three private investigators staked out James’ apartment and, when they heard moaning sounds coming from Chang, burst in and filmed the couple in flagrante delicto. A judge later found the pair guilty of adultery and sentenced them to four months in prison, and ordered the foreign national to be deported. Like anywhere, adultery is a daily occurrence in Taiwan, and rarely a day passes when an adulterous couple are not sentenced to jail time. According to Article 239 of Taiwan’s Criminal Code, “A married person who commits adultery with another shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than one year; the other party to the adultery shall be subject to the same punishment.” In practise, few people are jailed because the sentence can be commuted to a fine of about NT$900 per day of jail time. They are, however, stuck with a criminal record. Taiwan is the only developed nation in the world with such a law (South Korea struck down its adultery law in 2014). The law’s original purpose was to ensure harmony in the marriage and maintain social stability. And with divorce on the rise, marriages in decline, hostess bars dotting the cityscape and the ubiquitous availability of hook-up apps, it may seem that the continued criminalization of adultery might be more necessary than ever before. A 2013 poll showed that 82.2 percent of Taiwanese support the law. But legal scholars and human rights activists say that the law does nothing to deter adultery. “It’s a joke,” Wang Ping (王蘋), secretary general of the Gender/Sexuality Rights Association, tells the Taipei Times. “There’s a law here so I won’t commit

By Noah Buchan

‘Just cancel it’

Next to a countdown showing the number of days to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is scrawled “just cancel it.” Not a scene from real life but from Akira, a remarkably prescient cult Japanese manga series. With the announcement that the Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the coincidence has led to Akira trending on Japanese social media with fans hailing its mystic powers. Created by Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira first appeared in comic form, with thousands of pages produced between 1982 and 1990. An anime version came out in 1988 and became a global sci-fi hit. The action takes place in a dystopian 2019 set in a sinister megacity called “neo-Tokyo,” built after the old capital was destroyed in a mysterious explosion in 1982 that set off World War III. It tells the story of a boy called Akira, who acquired psychic superpowers from a secret military program but became so powerful he was disintegrated. His organs were buried deep underground in an iron box — on the construction site of the Olympic Stadium — only to be found later by another boy called Tetsuo who eventually inherits his powers. “The world of Akira can be summed up in one word: cyberpunk. A futuristic and high-tech world but with a huge gap between the rich and the downtrodden,” said Matthieu Pinon, a specialist on Japanese manga and anime. While the Olympics are not central to the plot, Tokyo 2020 appears several times in the story, with uncanny if coincidental similarities to the real Games, now postponed until next year. In an example of life imitating art, the real countdown clocks at Tokyo 2020 headquarters have now been replaced with a sign that reads “under consideration.” “The story unfolds in a way that suggests a cancellation or a postponement (of the Olympics) is inevitable,” Kaichiro Morikawa,

Smartify makes all museum audio tours free for rest of 2020

Stories behind art treasures such as Delacroix’s The Death of Sardanapalus in the Louvre and a 19th-century relief of Phaeton driving the Chariot of the Sun at the Royal Academy of Arts are to made free for the rest of the year by the world’s most downloaded museum app. Smartify is often known as the “Shazam for art” app in that it allows people to identify works of art by simply scanning them on a smartphone. It has about 2 million artworks from more than 120 venues. It also has audio and visual museum tours which are a mix of paid and free depending on the museum or exhibition. Because no one will be seeing the Mona Lisa in Paris or the Laughing Cavalier at the Wallace Collection in London any time soon, Smartify said it would make all its audio tours free for the rest of the year. Exhibitions that were due to open, but have been closed because of coronavirus, will also be launched on the app as audio and visual tours. The Smartify app was founded in the UK as a social enterprise by four friends in 2017. Anna Lowe, one of the co-founders, said the mission had always been about supporting museums and increasing access to art. “We started with around 30 museums, predominantly in the UK, and now we’re global with 2 million artworks and we are the world’s most downloaded museum app.” The job now was to help make sure museum collections were as accessible as possible, she said. “Obviously we have seen a change in the way the app is used,” she said. “We started the app from a love of visiting museums and galleries and seeing and connecting with art. At times like this, really strange times, people look to art and music and culture for inspiration, solace a

By Mark Brown

Taiwan in Time: The visitor from outer space

Over a million people flooded Kenting National Park over two weeks in 1986 to see Halley’s Comet, massively boosting the area’s tourism industry

March 30 to April 5 About 30,000 disappointed visitors lingered on the streets of Kenting National Park on the evening of March 28, 1986. Established just two years earlier, Taiwan’s first national park had never seen so many visitors — all hotels were full, hundreds of tents cramped the campgrounds and the latecomers slept in their cars. Most had traveled here just to catch a glimpse of Halley’s Comet, which only passes by the Earth every 76 years or so. That year, the comet was more visible the further to the south, and Kenting’s location at Taiwan’s southernmost tip made it the ideal viewing location. But that night, thick clouds dashed everyone’s hopes. People were prepared for another letdown the next evening as the weather still hadn’t let up. Around 3am, however, the comet suddenly appeared in the sky. It remained visible for almost an hour. Over the next two weeks, comet chasers continued to flood into sleepy Kenting. While only an estimated 2 percent of those who tried to get a glimpse of the comet saw it, they took the time to enjoy the area’s offerings, kickstarting Kenting’s rapid transformation into a tourist hotspot. The Minsheng Daily (民生報) reports on a cloudy day in early April: “People are swimming and playing in the sand, and the water is dotted with sailboats and pedal boats … most visitors seem to have forgotten the regret of not being able to see Halley’s Comet.” BAD OMEN? Records on the previous time Halley’s Comet came by in 1910 can be found in the Japanese-language Taiwan Daily News (台灣日日新報). According to space.com, that year’s arrival was particularly spectacular as it flew by just 22.4 million kilometers from Earth, compared to 62.7 million kilometers in 1986. In December 1909, the newspaper announced that the comet was near, noting

By Han Cheung

Asia’s 50 best restaurants

Singapore’s Odette has held on to the title of Asia’s best restaurant for the second year running, as top chefs grapple with city lockdowns, temporary closures of their restaurants or food-supply interruptions during the coronavirus pandemic. Cantonese restaurant The Chairman in Hong Kong, Tokyo kaiseki eatery Den, neo-Parisian bistro Belon in Hong Kong and Singapore-based barbecue restaurant Burnt Ends rounded out the top five. The winners were announced in a video livestream, in place of a ceremony originally planned for Saga prefecture, Japan, during cherry blossom season. Odette chef Julien Royer said his three-Michelin-starred restaurant has been “working hard to support guests who have had to delay their visits and change travel plans.” “In unpredictable times food can be a source of comfort,” Royer said in an e-mail interview. “And now more than ever we wish to offer our guests the comfort of a beautiful and thoughtful meal above all else.” Over the past year, Royer has experimented with ingredients like zesty Buddha’s hands fruit and pickled ginger flowers, with the latter adding acidity to Odette’s “flower” of cured hamachi, a fish that’s very popular in Japan. “Ginger … helps fight coughs and colds, which is especially helpful during this time,” he said. Royer used kampot pepper to spice up Odette’s signature pigeon recipes, and added Asian flavors like wasabi and Nashi pear to his Normandy brown crab dish. He also sought fresh produce from the city’s few farms, including jicama, baby beets and blue peas alongside tarragon flowers grown by Odette’s chef de cuisine, Adam Wan. New entries included Inua in Tokyo; Bukhara in New Delhi (which makes a return after dropping off the list in 2017); Macau’s Sichuan Moon (closed until further notice); JL Studio, serving Singaporean cuisine in Taichung, Taiwan; and one-Michelin-starred Hansikgonggan in Seoul, whose chef and owner, Cho

Highways and Byways: Pingtung’s back country by bike

Within 10 minutes of the train pulling into Chaojhou (潮州) in Pingtung County, I’d retrieved my bike from a paid-parking compound and initiated the fitness tracking app on my phone. Just one thing bothered me: The color of the sky. I cycled southeast, passing the shuttered Dashun General Hospital (大順醫院). Given everything that’s going on in the world, I couldn’t help but think: If the government needs extra facilities to handle the COVID-19 epidemic, this sizable building could perhaps be brought back into service. After crossing Highway 1 (台1線), I skirted a settlement established after 2009’s Typhoon Morakot disaster, during which mountain villages throughout the south were devastated by floods and landslides. Whereas most of Chaojhou’s residents are Hakka, the families who’ve moved into New Laiyi (新來義部落) in Sinpi Township (新埤鄉) since 2012 are indigenous. Taking Road 185, I headed southeast across the Linbian River (林邊溪) and into Siangtan (餉潭). I kept going through the heart of the village — which is big enough to have its own elementary school and police station — to Longtan Temple (龍潭寺). I felt a few drops of rain when I paused by the pond in front of the shrine. Judging by the trash around the water, people often come here to engage in the secular pursuits of smoking and drinking. I didn’t expect much of the temple, so I wasn’t disappointed. There’s nothing remarkable about the building or its hilly backdrop. Proceeding north on County Road 113 (屏113), I hadn’t got more than 1km when a spatter of rain developed into a heavy shower. Rather than stop and throw on my anorak, I decided to keep going in the hope I’d find shelter just around the corner. Wet through at the shoulders and knees, I trespassed onto a hillside farm where tarpaulins kept a table

By Steven Crook

Shakespeare in lockdown

While those of us stuck in self-isolation or working from home watch TikTok videos and refresh liveblogs, a meme has been going around that claims Shakespeare made use of being quarantined during the plague to write King Lear. The Bard supposedly took advantage of the Globe’s lengthy closure to get on top of his writing in-tray — coming up with Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra to boot. If you weren’t panicky enough about how little you’ve achieved recently, this is surely a way to feel worse. Why aren’t you finally dusting off that novel or screenplay you’ve been itching to write? It’s what the Bard would do, surely. Yet, is it actually true, the bit about Shakespeare? Well, maybe. Certainly it’s fair to say that, like all Elizabethans, the playwright’s career was affected by the bubonic plague in ways that are all but impossible to conceive now, even in the midst of COVID-19. As an infant, he was lucky to survive the disease: Stratford-upon-Avon was ravaged by a huge outbreak in the summer of 1564, a few months after he was born, and up to a quarter of the town’s population died. Growing up, Shakespeare would have heard endless stories about this apocalyptic event and kneeled in church in solemn remembrance of townsfolk who were lost. His father, John, was closely involved in relief efforts and attended a meeting to help Stratford’s poorest. It was held outdoors because of the risk. THE PLAGUE When Shakespeare became a professional actor, then a playwright and shareholder in a London company, plague presented both a professional and existential threat. Elizabethan doctors had no inkling that the disease was transmitted by rat fleas, and the moment an outbreak flared up — often during the spring or summer months, peak seasons for theatres — the authorities scrabbled to ban mass

By Andrew Dickson

Cleaner hands, bluer skies

Deaths, economic meltdown and a planet on lockdown: the coronavirus pandemic has brought us waves of bad news, but squint and you might just see a few bright spots. From better hygiene that has reduced other infectious diseases to people reaching out as they self-isolate, here are some slivers of silver linings during a bleak moment. WASH YOUR HANDS! The message from health professionals has been clear from the start of the outbreak: wash your hands. Everyone from celebrities to politicians has had a go at demonstrating correct technique — including singing Happy Birthday twice through to make sure you scrub long enough, and hand sanitizer has flown off the shelves. All that extra hygiene appears to be paying off, at least in some countries, including Japan, where the number of flu cases appears to be sharply down. Japan recorded 7.21 million cases by early March — usually around the peak of the flu season that runs until May. That was far below figures for previous years, including the 21.04 million infections seen during the 2017/18 season. “We estimate that one of the reasons behind it is that people are now much more aware about the need to wash hands... given the spread of the new coronavirus,” Japanese health ministry official Daisha Inoue said. CARBON CURBS Factory shutdowns, travel bans and a squeeze on demand spell economic disaster, but it isn’t all bad news for the environment. In the four weeks to March 1, China’s CO2 emissions fell 200 million tonnes, or 25 percent, compared to the same period last year, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. That’s a decline equivalent to annual CO2 emissions from Argentina, Egypt or Vietnam. The slowdown in China also saw coal consumption at power plants there down 36 percent, and the use of oil at refineries drop by nearly as much. Air

Smelling a rat

Like people, rats cooperate with one another and give food to those in need, but how can they be sure that other rats are being truthful about how hungry they are? The answer may lie in smell-based cues that signal a rat’s appetite more reliably than its begging gestures and squeaks, a study said Tuesday. The paper’s lead author, Karin Schneeberger of the University of Potsdam in Germany, said that she was interested in learning more about how social animals identify “cheaters” and freeloaders. She and her colleagues studied Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus), publishing their findings in the journal PLOS Biology. Previous work has shown the rats share their food reciprocally, with the donation of what they deem high value food items, like bananas, more likely to elicit a gift in return than low value items, like carrots. But the scientists believed the calls and gestures used by rats to solicit food might not always reflect their actual needs, allowing dishonest rodents to trick givers out of their hard earned gains. To test out the idea, they took rats that were either hungry from fasting overnight, or well-fed, and placed them in a separate room from the “focal” rat whose generosity they wanted to test. Air from the rooms of the hungry or well-fed rats was pumped into the chamber of the focal rat. They found that the focal rats were much quicker to provide help — by pulling a food tray within reaching distance of another rat — when the air was pumped from a hungry rat’s room. It took 16 focal rats an average of 29 seconds to provide help for hungry rats, compared to an average of 85 seconds to give help to the well-fed. The authors then analyzed the air around the rats and found seven different organic compounds that

A concrete problem

Hundreds of luxury apartments overlooking Tokyo Bay that were due to be converted from the Athletes’ Village have already been sold — just one of the many headaches caused by the historic postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. Touted by developers as a “flagship neighbourhood for urban lifestyles”, the buildings housing the 11,000 competitors were to be hastily repurposed into more than 4,000 condos with stunning city views, some carrying a price tag of 170 million yen (US$1.5 million). The decision to postpone the Games by up to a year has pitched buyers into uncertainty, according to Zoe Ward, director of Tokyo Property Central, with close to 900 units already snapped up. “Even if it’s not a financial hit, it’s going to be a big inconvenience to them,” Ward said. She added that buyers would now be scouring the small print of their contracts to see if they can pull out without losing their deposits — usually around five percent. “The wording they put in the contract is pretty vague, it normally says natural disasters or anything outside the sellers’ control so it might fall under that category,” said the property expert. One buyer, a man in his 30s, had been planning to move into the development in March 2023 with his wife and children and said there were “many, many scenarios” that could now arise. However, he was relatively zen about the delay given the unprecedented coronavirus situation. “I’m not so stupid as to see the coronavirus effect as being a problem on the same level as a construction defect. I would say it can’t be helped. I’m sure the selling side is facing a hard time,” said the man, who declined to be named. ‘DOUBLE WHAMMY’ Tomohiro Makino, CEO of consulting firm Oraga Research and an expert on Japanese real estate, said that developers faced a “double whammy” of

Praying for wealth

Indian shopkeeper Purab Gathani should be gearing up for his busiest time of year selling incense for the spring festival season, when crowds of worshippers usually throng Hindu temples. Instead Gathani, whose family has sold Hindu prayer items for three generations, is looking at major losses as the coronavirus outbreak forces the country of 1.3 billion people into lockdown and places of worship shut down. “I never imagined we would close our shop on the eve of a festival,” said Gathani, owner of a store in the western city of Mumbai, which on Wednesday celebrates the Gudi Padwa festival that marks the start of the Hindu year in the area. “For the first time, there will be no rush at my store before Gudi Padwa and I am so shocked that I have not been able to even comprehend how it will impact my business in the coming months.” Tens of thousands of people work at the bottom of India’s so-called temple economy, which is worth an estimated US$40 billion and includes people selling everything from flowers to oil lamps to images of Hindu gods. The vast majority form part of the informal sector that makes up about 90 percent of India’s total workforce, meaning they are not protected by labour laws. Their livelihoods are at risk from a complete three-week shutdown imposed by the government on Tuesday to stem the spread of the coronavirus after the deaths of nine people. Pradeep Chakravarthi conducts heritage tours in the southern India state of Tamil Nadu, home to 44,000 temples, many of them centuries old and at the heart of local communities. He said the economies that surround them had grown in recent decades, warning of a major hit to people’s livelihoods as they were closed. “Even the number of flower sellers have increased, besides more eateries, hotels offering rooms

By Anuradha Nagaraj