“Why is Everyone Baking?”

We get psychologist Saliha Afridi to answer this and other pressing questions about the world’s weird lockdown behaviour!

- Saliha Afridi

'Social distancing’ and ‘self-isolation’ have become part of the daily lexicon by now. And so have terms like ‘banana bread’, ‘Dalgona coffee’, ‘All dressed up but nowhere to go’, and more. Agree? Since we went into lockdown last year, all kinds of weird (‘new normal’) behaviours have taken over Instagram—from the incessant baking to the countless challenges.

And we want to know why! So we asked Saliha Afridi, a Dubai-based clinical psychologist, to shed light on the reasons the pandemic is affecting our cooking, sleeping, exercising, and other habits in unexpected ways.

WHY IS EVERYONE BAKING, ESPECIALLY BANANA BREAD?