Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Ep 4: Finding New Meanings To Life | The Family Affair:Together In A Pandemic | Full Episode
In this episode of "The Family Affair"...
Singapore gradually reopens.
But the new normal puts the three Su boys in a bind.
And in China,
Wang Bin's bid to make his mother rest...
causes a misunderstanding.
Asia is waking up to a new normal.
For the last two months,
we've asked families in four cities
badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic,
Wuhan,
Manila,
Delhi,
and Singapore,
to film their lives...
24/7.
Hello!
These are their stories...
filmed by them...
told by them.
"The Family Affair"...
like you've never seen it before.
Because we're all together in a pandemic.
In Singapore, it's been slightly more than a month
since Circuit Breaker was imposed.
Hello. Hello.
And the Su boys who have been cooped up at home
are showing clear signs of cabin fever.
But just as Lesley is about to run out of entertainment options,
there is some reprieve.
It's the first day that hair salons and barber shops
have been allowed to reopen
after being closed for the first three weeks.
The lifting of restrictions meant that
Lesley finally has a valid reason to legally bring the boys out.
It's their first haircut in weeks.
It's two weeks to the much-anticipated end of the circuit breaker.
But it's still not smooth sailing for Singapore.
Singapore has reported a record of 1,426 new COVID-19 cases...
Migrant worker dormitories continue to see new cases of COVID-19.
India, too, has been in lockdown for nearly two months,
but COVID-19 cases show no signs of abating.
Karan, the oldest son living with the Guptas,
has tightened house rules, much to everyone's chagrin.
Karan decrees that no one can enter or leave the house,
leaving Dolly pining for the stray dogs she feeds at a public park
called the Ridge, two kilometres away.
But, a few days ago,
Karan broke his own rules,
escaping to a party at a neighbour's house to de-stress.
-Cheers! -Cheers, guys!
Guilty for having broken the rules he set for his family,
Karan decides he will meet his mum halfway.
He won't allow Dolly her daily morning walks at the Ridge
for fear she might catch the virus.
But he will accompany her for a walk
just around the neighbourhood in the evenings.
One week on,
Dolly has found a new tribe of stray dogs to feed.
And partaking in this ritual,
has changed Karan's mind about Dolly's devotion
to the stray dogs at the Ridge.
But with COVID-19 infections still rising,
Karan does not want to risk his mum's life
just to feed the dogs at the Ridge.
The Guptas will need a more sustainable solution
to Dolly's predicament soon.
Over in Wuhan,
Madam Huang is also trying to come to terms with the rules
that her son, Wang Bin, has set.
Before the pandemic,
caring for her grandkids was Madam Huang's source of joy.
However,
despite recovering from COVID-19,
Madam Huang is choosing to keep her distance from the children.
The role of caring for the children has now been taken over by Grandma Han.
But little does Wang Bin know
that Madam Huang's anxiety
stems from a secret she's been hiding from the family.
June 1,
the day before Singapore enters Phase One,
the Sus are celebrating.
They've survived two months of HBL,
WFH,
and CB,
acronyms that are now on everyone's lips.
While most restrictions remain,
the Sus have found one big reason to celebrate,
because come June 2...
We will allow children to visit their parents or grandparents,
once a day.
Oh, my gosh!
In the Philippines,
the situation is also starting to look up for Charles Gama,
a nursing assistant at Far Eastern University Hospital.
In the last two weeks,
the shortage of medical grade personal protective equipment or PPE
has eased,
thanks in part to private donations.
Still, donations don't always include every single item needed.
Charles has also been pulled off
the task of screening COVID-19 patients at the door,
and assigned back to the Intensive Care Unit.
The risk here is lower
because in the Philippines, private hospitals like this one,
do not treat COVID-19 patients.
Cases once detected, are sent to designated public hospitals.
Despite the lower risks,
Charles intends to continue isolating himself at home.
But after being away from his family for three weeks,
to Charles' dismay, his children are no longer missing his absence.
Okay, we'll start with letter... What's this?
It's a cat.
And when Orion reaches yet another milestone without Charles,
Charles decides he has had enough.
Okay, okay.
Enough of being so near yet so far,
Charles has an idea.
Unable to resume her daily routine of feeding her stray dogs at the Ridge,
Dolly Gupta decides to channel her energies elsewhere.
She's setting up her home office,
so she can resume her work as a volunteer counsellor
for one of Delhi's oldest NGOs for mental health.
Since the lockdown,
the NGO has been trying to migrate its systems online,
so that volunteers can take calls at home safely,
and to be able to log their sessions.
So Dolly, with her limited IT skills,
has been struggling to get the hang of things.
But after two weeks, she's finally ready to take the next step.
And Dolly couldn't have jumped back into counselling at a better time.
Hello?
Initial investigations by the Mumbai...
Amid headlines dominated by COVID-19
comes news of a high-profile suicide.
Mourning the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput
who was found dead at his home.
The suicide triggers a debate in India about depression
and how the pandemic might worsen the condition among sufferers.
It also raises awareness about counselling helplines,
including the one that Dolly volunteers for.
The nationwide lockdown is pushing unemployment levels beyond the 25% mark,
with more than 120 million people losing their jobs,
and over a third of self-employed individuals shutting their businesses.
And while Dolly is now gainfully employed,
Niyoshi, the newest addition to the Gupta family,
is hitting a dead end with her job.
Niyoshi used to run a successful interior design studio in Mumbai,
specialising in offices.
In December,
she married the Gupta's youngest son Arjun and moved to Delhi.
At that time, COVID-19 was still a distant problem.
And Niyoshi thought she could easily expand her business
to the Indian capital.
So instead of competing for new project bids,
Niyoshi finds herself struggling for space in her mother-in-law's kitchen.
It doesn't help that Niyoshi's husband, Arjun, is busier than ever before.
His tech start-up is into cutting energy waste.
He has been pulling late nights in his home office,
leaving Niyoshi alone...
and bored.
In China,
Wang Bin's mother, Madam Huang has also been cooped up at home.
Her days were once filled with household chores and child minding.
Now, they are empty.
But it's been a week since Wuhan is declared virus-free.
And Wang Bin is hoping a walk with the kids
would boost his mother's spirits.
Madam Huang had assumed that Wang Bin was afraid she is still infectious.
Realising that it was just a misunderstanding,
Madam Huang relents.
Over in Wuhan,
despite being cleared of COVID-19,
Madam Huang remains reluctant to be seen in public.
But with Wang Bin's constant prodding,
she's been taking baby steps to venture out with her son.
With some time alone with her son,
Madam Huang finally decides to reveal what's troubling her,
since the both of them were stricken with COVID-19 in January.
Madam Huang thinks Wang Bin contracted COVID-19
when he accompanied her to the hospital for her osteoporosis treatment.
And she's been feeling guilty ever since.
It's Phase One for the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in Singapore.
And for the Sus, a reunion is in store.
The Sus are making a beeline for Grandma Margaret's home.
The government announced that...
preschool will commence
and it will only start with K1 and K2.
So Tyrell went to school first.
And it was also the day that we could visit my mum.
With community spread not completely ruled out,
it's been a cautious lifting of restrictions.
While visits to parents and grandparents are now allowed,
only two visitors are permitted at a time.
So with Tyrell conveniently in school,
Lesley takes the opportunity to bring the other two boys.
We can't go, all three of us.
Therefore, I only brought Tilden and Tristan.
I was so tempted to tell Tilden,
"Hey, Tilden, you'll stay at home with Auntie Nia.
Mummy's going to go with Kor Kor somewhere."
I can't bring myself to lie to him.
It was a difficult decision to make, I have to say. Yes.
So, not being able to go there and hang out with them...
We really played by the book.
I think it would have been much better
if maybe they allow a family of four to visit.
Because if we are married with kids,
we already exceed the two-person limit, right?
Over in the Philippines,
a reunion is also about to take place.
The couple's children,
Orion, Zion, and Gibeon,
are unaware of their parents' plan.
Charles is making a poster to present to his wife, Jaja.
The celebration is scheduled at lunchtime.
And for the first time in a month,
Charles is going to step into the house...
fully geared up in a mask, gloves, and gown...
to protect his family.
Can I borrow this for a while?
Jeremie?
Hello!
At the Guptas,
anniversary celebrations are also about to get underway.
What's this? We're ready!
It's good.
At the Guptas, dad and mum, Jagatpal and Dolly
are marking their 42nd year as a married couple.
And thanks to the pandemic,
for the first time in many years,
the entire family are at home celebrating with them under one roof.
The kids have a surprise in store for Dolly,
her favourite snack, jalebi.
I’m a mother of three.
I think it is important to acknowledge that we make time...
to be yourself, to be on your own,
to enjoy the things that you like to do.
Jog, jog, jog...
Joel is putting in as many hours as he can
to help Lesley out at home.
Hey!
Next, in "The Family Affair" reunion special.
We revisit the families we've grown to love...
nearly two months on...
to see how things have changed for them.
As more restrictions are lifted...
even while the COVID-19 pandemic drags on.
Captions: IYUNO Media Group
