new delhi standing in the middle of the desolate public plaza of nehru place district centre homemaker 37yearold ashima gupta frantically scanned the sprawling complex for some sign of life however except a lone stationary shop everything was shutteredgupta needed a printer for her sons school assignments and had heard that shops in the computer hub of the city had opened only to find they were rumours though classes are taking place online it helps to have a printer for some assignments there is a lot of study material being uploaded by teachers i want my son to read these on paper as the constant glare of the computer screen can harm him said the sheikh sarai resident who had gone there with her husbandthe guptas were not the only desperate ones jitesh verma 43 who works with a private firm was also hoping to find some shops open in the computer hardware and software market that attracts customers from faroff places my laptop is very old and not functional anymore i wanted to buy a new one as you cant do all your work on a smartphone working from home is a different ballgame im at my wits end working on excel sheets on my phone said the janakpuri residentthe computer shops in west delhi are closed and nehru place was my best bet i had heard offices can now open since this is also an office complex i expected a few shops to open said vermapraveen suri 55 a mayur vihar resident said my laptop is fine but the charger has stopped working im managing by borrowing my neighbours charger but he needs it too while people are working from home their children are busy with online classes computers and a good wifi connection have become an essential part of life i dont think any residential area in delhi has computer shops these markets and malls should be exemptedmaya shankar singh who runs lotus systems and services said im getting many calls from people who want to get their laptops repaired urgently with work from home and online classes demand has increased manifold there were rumours that some people had opened their shops but we are all sitting at homesachin kujreja of amritash infosol said even he had been receiving a huge number of inquiries despite his establishment only serving corporate clients from retail stores to suppliers and those who provide setups for companies nehru place caters to all types of computer work apart from the demand for desktops by students and laptops for those working from home many queries have been made for chargers he addedthe work at computer shops in nehru place is not labour intensive and most of the towers mainly have offices with negligible public interaction if allowed we can also courier goods anywhere in delhincr a new charger costs rs 800900 and the customer wont mind paying rs 50 extra as courier charges said kukreja