All of this started in March 2020. The world was drowning into the flood of the novel coronavirus and India was just on the edge of it. On 11th Of March, 2020 the outbreak was declared as pandemic almost after 13 days India announced nationwide lockdown for 21 days, limiting movements of the entire population for preventive measures.
All the public and private sectors were closed, no mass gatherings were allowed. Shopping malls, gyms and salons, local markets and shops, theatre and all other recreational activities were closed.
Religious places closed, state borders sealed, and all transportation shut down. The government regulated accordingly, to maintain social distancing, sanitizing each and everything, wearing gloves and masks whenever stepping out (if needed) of the house.
The population of India was shuddered and frightened. Roads were empty as nobody existed nearby. India went into a shut down mode. It felt like life was in the rest mode. It's been long since we all are running in an unbeatable race and suddenly due to a pandemic outbreak everyone got a real-time break.
On the contrary, it was like nature nurturing itself. I saw peaceful mornings with cold winds and relaxing nights with clear clouds and shining stars. I heard different species of birds came along with beautiful chirpings. It sounds like they were celebrating life by singing songs. I didn't feel hot sunny summers because there was no pollution out there. Life is too simple in the outbreak.
The early days of lockdown felt astonishing as a break was needed for everyone. But as time is passing by, those relaxing days with full of break is becoming an irritation for all of us. Being born and brought up in a metropolitan city, we are not habituated of staying at home for such a long period of time. And specifically belonging to the working middle-class family, I have been raised by parents simultaneously with their jobs. Now and then we stepped out of the house for each sort of work; either it was for office/school/college and out of routine, or for any recreational activities like hanging out with friends and family, food, shopping, etc. So originally we had never been on a long leave till this pandemic outbreak occurred.
Eventually, it became challenging to adjust ourselves into a home sweet home for 24*7. But slowly and gradually we prepared ourselves to co-operate with the situation. As being a member of a joint family, it is beneficial having 10 members at home. We planned to divert ourselves to other activities. We started sitting together chit-chatting and discussing, eating food together, and giving more time to know each other even better.
Also in those days, Ludo was on hype. Therefore, we played virtual Ludo with anyone sitting around anywhere in the world with the help of the internet. Those were the ‘nostalgic’ moments that we had re-created from our childhood.
Becoming a quarantinee, also brought a possibility to find time for myself. Cooking was an essential key to spend hours in lockdown. I learned a few dishes; though I am not fond of cooking at all. I resumed my art skills during this lockdown. I started doodling and making modern art using soft pastels. I upgraded my abilities of writing and started writing blogs. Each new day brought my ability to discover new skills in me. Apart from that, I attended online lectures for a career perspective.
On the other hand, parents were dwelling in devotions and spirituality. Spirituality is always good to support and keep yourself sane. They started spending maximum time reciting holy hymns so that it would become easy to tackle with the depressing global cause.
Sometimes I joined them as well but for me - spirituality lies in books. I read books from several genres like fiction, non-fiction, mythology, etc. Not only had this but given some of my time to Netflix and Prime video to watch web-series. It also brought catching up on more hours of precious sleep. And reconnecting with the lost old friends over video chats was cherry on the cake.
During the lockdown, I explored much about my personality and perspective towards life. It helps all of us to understand not only us but also the people around us. We all came to know that family matters. When everything used to be fine, a lot of us wasted our time but now Lockdown made us realize the worth of time.
It brought to us, the value of life with the value of love. It made all of us patient and taught us to hold on to our positivity. There is always a ray of hope. Lockdown leads us to stay calm and focus on what motivates us to keep moving forward in day-to-day life. However, this was sure to be a complex situation but it trained us to fight back with our chins up and keep moving onwards attitude!
Nice article 👍👌
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