The novel coronavirus-induced pandemic has scarcely left any aspect of life untouched. Against the rabid virus, the home was suggested as the site of safety by the governments worldwide. This article by married partners studies the domestic space of their small-town North Indian home, employing an autoethnographic method. The authors ask, How has the COVID crisis shaped their domestic space? With the authority male figure of the susro/father-in-law dwelling at home round the clock during the lockdowns, the domestic space became more gendered. The COVID crisis resulted in reducing the spatial agency of the ‘wife’/daughter-in-law/bhu in the domestic space. However, it was also the time when she strived to make home-outside-home, thus allowing us a revisit to the idea of ‘home’.

The locals of Neemrana are perceived as kaamchor [slackers] and rude, and as dehatis entrenched in the ‘traditional culture’. To Gunnar Myrdal, the developed ‘modern man’ is the obverse—one who transcends tradition. Then, the locals need ‘development’ and ‘modernisation’ as they merely have ‘culture’. Thus, are the locals merely cultural beings? This article argues through the help of empirical data that the locals are not only ‘cultural beings’ but also ‘development beings’. This is shown through studying Jhunda (a tall shurb), which is simultaneously a part of both culture and economic development as well. Thus, it is argued that culture/development may not be separate entities as widely believed. Although, the dominant development machinery working through the instrumentalities of the state and private industry in the region have excluded the local culture and people, the researcher argues that the epistemic treatment of the locals and thus their inclusion has possibilities of offering value to the development process at large. But how do we situate and theorise the locals and local culture and their potential contributions in the larger development theory? To address the same, the locals and local culture are treated as a ‘diversity’ as in multiculturalism.