using pipenv - cannot import packages (numpy, pandas etc) from pipfile from active environment

Question

this is a weird problem for me and now I have no clue what's wrong. I have my pipenv working but when I try to activate the environment using pipenv shell:

1. first it does not show the environment name in (brackets) followed by the file path.
2. but when I try pipenv shell again it says "Shell for C:\Users\bupadhy.virtualenvs\trry-bbxJiZoF already activated"
3. Okay maybe the environment is active? then I install a package - say numpy, it gets installed and pipfile and pipfile.lock are created.
4. But when I try to import numpy in a file in the directory, it says package not found.

I tried reinstalling everything but did not work.