Vloggers are sharing unfiltered videos of everything from being tested for

to tips for being productive during the lockdown

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Delhi-based pilot couple Gaurav and Ritu Taneja have been sharing videos of their flights and destinations on YouTube for the last two years. But recently, when Gaurav suddenly got a fever within two weeks of his last domestic flight, he decided to train the camera on himself. His videos showed the family’s emotional turmoil trying to get tested, being distanced from their two-year-old daughter, coping with high fever, the uncertainty of waiting for test results and the relief afterwards.Each video has clocked over 2 million views. “Viewers messaged that they ‘felt so connected with your family’ that they started crying when the result was negative,” says Taneja. He would edit the videos when his fever ebbed, which “kept me sane during the quarantine,” he adds. Since the recovery, the couple continues to make home videos of how they’re spending time together, cooking and playing games in the evening.With the pandemic throwing a spanner in the carefully curated lives of influencers, there is a demand for content that’s more real and raw. Enter the new genre of quarantine vlogs that give tips on things to do and being productive during quarantine, along with house tours, grocery hauls and live Q&A sessions.YouTuber Prajakta Koli, whose channel MostlySane has 5 million subscribers, is posting a mix of comic and introspective videos. “If I put out content that has nothing to do with the reality, it would be insensitive,” she says. On Instagram, ‘her self-quarantine diaries’ chronicles what she’s doing at home: from eavesdropping on a neighbour’s call to playing stone-paper-scissors. She also asked her followers what they’d like to see, and did a video on mental health during the lockdown. “So many people said I’m glad you’re feeling this, I thought there’s something wrong with me,” she says. “It’s like coming out of a test being worried that you’ve got half the answers wrong but you find another friend who has too and feel glad that you’re not alone in the struggle.”In early March, Kerala-based YouTuber Shakir Subhan aka Mallu Traveller’s videos of his stay in an isolation ward in Kannur after returning from a biking trip Azerbaijan and Iran went viral. Subhan, 30, chronicled his journey from landing at the airport to the hospital and being discharged, all the while highlighting the importance of being honest about one’s travel history. “Earlier, there was a lot of fake information and nobody wanted to go to a hospital and stay in an isolation ward because they didn’t know what was going on inside,” says Subhan, who gained 2 lakh followers in the last month. “After watching the videos, people got the courage to get themselves tested.” More recently, YouTubers such as Dhruv Rathee and Mumbaiker Nikhil have also shared videos of how they got tested and shared the results.Bengaluru-based TV presenter, RJ and actor Danish Sait is providing comic relief to soothe frayed nerves. Sait has been putting out short sketches around relatable quarantine situations in a quintessential Bengaluru accentrunning out of alcohol, convincing a grocery store to do home delivery, or asking mom for cooking instructions on a video call. “It all started the moment I finished cooking, laundry and dishes and had nothing to do. I sat down, wrote a bunch of lines and sent it to friends who found it funny,” says Sait, who has added 40,000 followers during the lockdown. “It strikes a chord because everybody is finding themselves in the same situations.”For many, such videos provide a sense of normalcy in a time of anxiety. YouTuber Scherezade Shroff is using her channel to raise money for NGOs feeding the hungry. She's also been sharing videos showing the deserted streets near her south Mumbai home to tips for shaving your face when you can’t go to a salon. “We are all sharing personal experiences of how crazy the situation is," she says. "The world has come to a standstill and that makes everyone connected.”