the rushtobefirst has gone into hiding masked visitors and establishment owners appear extremely patient from entry points to washrooms and from escalators to food courts hygiene takes the front seatmalls reopened in august after remaining shut for over four months because of the covid19induced lockdown traditional test cricket appears to be in play at the city malls since then batting legend sachin tendulkar had prescribed the test cricket approach towards battling the covid19 earlier this yeartill diwali malls were extra cautious like batsmen in the first hour of the opening day of a test match setu app was mandatory for visitorsugc vicechairperson bhushan patwardhan visited the pavilion mall on senapati bapat road before diwali during his visit to the city i was impressed when the guard at the entry point insisted on checking my health status on the setu appbefore christmas the second hour of the prelunch session of the first day of a test match seems to be in play at malls from extra cautious they are now cautious thermal checking and other health scanning measures are intact but the insistence on checking the setu app has considerably reduced says sebastian lopes at the basement of kumar pacific mall on shankarsheth roadas lopes proceeds towards the upper floor with his wife and son after getting their shopping bags disinfected in the uv technologyenabled box the fiveyearold presses the pedal of the sanitizer beside the escalator the kid also knows this quips the middleaged guard carrying a handheld metal detector and thermometer the boy sporting a colourful mask misses the thrill of sitting in the batteryoperated bus on level1 though it is still under cover so is the childrens play zone as also in other mallsthe ball rolling on the turf in the playing arenas for adults in most of the malls hints at kids day out there in the second session of the testhand sanitizers complemented packaged drinking water bottles on almost every occupied table in the malls toi visited over the week the missing melee at food counters came as a pleasant surprise at the royal heritage mall in undriduring his visit to westend mall in aundh last sunday corporate director of several companies pradeep bhargava found people to be extremely cautious at food courts visitors themselves chose to sit at alternate tables to maintain social distance says bhargava most people were wearing masks and came to the mall purposefully not many were there for window shopping or loitering around he saysthe cautious approach is palpable in washrooms of malls too only alternate washbasins are available for visitorsthe hygieneconscious mall visitors are a healthy sign for society after the pandemic we have become a more disciplined and patient nation it reflected in the pune mall recalls patwardhanassured of hygiene after a conversation with toi air marshal bhushan gokhale retired said he would visit a mall with his wife this weekend we thought senior citizens are still not allowed and we did not want to face refusal gokhale saysthe