pune markets across the city remained closed on the auspicious occasion of gudi pawda for the first time in decades the festival which fell on the first day of the national lockdown was celebrated by families in pune by hoisting the gudi and with traditional foodkothrud resident siddharth date said though gudi padwa celebrations were lowkey many families in my area celebrated it with zeal my mother is not in the city and so my wife and i did all the preparations when i stepped out to buy fruits and other essentials i saw the roads were deserted but gudis had been installed outside several householdshe added that at their home they installed a gudi and made a sumptuous meal i helped my wife with the cooking she rolled the palak puris and i fried them as part of gudi padwa celebrations social visits to seek blessings of elders is common but we refrained from doing so i believe nobody stepped out for social visits this gudi padwa date said an obstetrician and gynaecologist from the city manasi naralkar said we had a lovely family meal at home on the occasion of gudi padwa cooked by my motherinlaw vidya my husband helped clean the house for the festivities while i helped in the meal preps and washed the utensils we also wished our family and friends virtually this yearroads across the city were empty and the shutters of shops were down an auspicious occasion to purchase gold valuables vehicles and white goods this gudi padwa recorded no sales as traders refused to open stores even for the festival a dhayari resident sachin jadhav said it was a strange feeling this year empty roads and everything shut our prayers this year are for the entire world we performed a small puja with immediate family on gudi padwa and prayed for this outbreak to stop it was a very different gudi padwa this yearprominent jeweller fatehchand ranka said i got several calls and enquiries from punekars wanting to buy gold today many even told me to open the back door of the store so that they could make purchases however lives are more precious and i had to turn them down i requested everyone to make a double purchase during the next festival if it was so important but told them that the shop will not open on wednesday