‘We need to strike a balance between life and lifestyle’

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 21

Sonu Nilibar is the owner of Nilibar Store that deals in designer wear for women and is also the general secretary of the Punjab Cloth Merchants Association. He says that it is time that in addition to paying attention towards lifestyle accessories, people start taking care of themselves too and start returning to basics, which the lockdown has forced all of us to do.

How has the lockdown impacted your business?

Since our business is largely dependent on weddings, festive season as well as on our NRI customer base, the lockdown left us in a slump of sorts. With no functions or occasions being celebrated, no inflow of NRIs, our business has been impacted largely but I am confident that our business will gradually bounce back.

How are you dealing with wages and labour issue?

We tried to do our best for our employees by transferring appropriate funds to their accounts on time, without waiting for anybody to ask for it. Our workforce is our asset and we cannot think about ignoring them at this difficult time. All their needs are being taken care of.

How you plan to restart your operations?

We are all geared up with all necessary precautions and in accordance with the mandatory protocol laid out by the administration. We are also giving away free masks to every customer visiting our store. All shoppers with a receipt are awarded free 100 ml sanitiser. Work must go on, but not at the cost of health so we are taking every precaution for our workforce and customers.

How you keep calm during this situation?

I believe in always staying positive and believing that this too shall pass.

What are the lessons learnt from lockdown?

My biggest realisation is that we don’t realise the cost of life, but instead keep spending money on lifestyle. We need to find a new balance between ‘life and lifestyle’. Return to basics which the lockdown has forced us to do, but we shall continue practising it and make our lives simple and easy.