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Friday, April 17, 2020

Lockdown Diary


When one has so much time at disposal to indulge in activities that one cherishes, I find myself in a situation of having a writer's block. Even during the busiest times, I have always managed to write consistently in almost once in ten days but this time the gap has been an unusually long one. It is not lethargy but I think an environment of living in close confines for several days now, a new normal. There are no reasons for complaint as it is for own safety. In earlier days, a newborn infant was kept in isolation for 40 days, so no wonder we too are observing a lockdown of 40 days to save us from the pandemic! After the school days, this has perhaps been the only time to enjoy sitting at home with no real responsibility.

The time table generally is pretty relaxed with bouts of exercise, gardening, reading, giving a helping hand at the domestic chores, trying a hand at cooking and baking etc. You may have noticed that everything figures in except writing. It is perhaps that 5 minutes of news headlines which act as a strong demotivator to keep me away from the keyboard of my laptop. Come evening and the same mind makes me drift towards the keyboard of the laptop to tune in the new episodes of 'Money Heist' or 'Fauda' which have the new seasons playing on Netflix currently. I now have to learn to balance my mind so that it does not tilt in favour of watching the TV more than making an effort to write.

I also managed to squeeze in time to watch Paul Hollywood inaction to offer tips on baking better. I often now indulge in daydreaming about the vacations I had in recent times. It felt good to catch up with some old pals to learn about how they are managing in the current times. I am often bombarded by messages mostly unsolicited ones sharing some crass humour on Whatsapp which I generally delete by the next day as I am saddled with the paucity of space in my mobile phone memory.

I often notice on Facebook that the ladies and girls are sharing the cooking experiments, recipes and also tagging friends to share pictures in sarees making the drab Facebook suddenly light up with bright attired girls and ladies. Like always the menfolk are more concerned by the economic impact of coronavirus on our economy, sharing images of police taking lockout offenders to task, solving some silly puzzles et al. No wonder the women steal the march even on the Facebook and Instagram when it comes to sharing interesting content.

Every morning ever since the traffic and life came to an abrupt halt, I find that more feathered birds visit my garden than ever before. The call of koels on the mango tree in my backyard arouses me from the slumber. The first hours are spent in seeing so many birds and butterflies that the day is made right after hopping out from the bed. During the rest of the day, more birds of all hues and their twitter make the day more liveable than the dreary Twitter, where the disgruntled ones vent their anger.

I am sure once life returns to normal, everyone will realize that they have learnt to live with much fewer things than they need, the lesser requirement to travel, eat more healthy stuff than rushing to the restaurants on the weekends and above all to be more humane and respect all our community workers more than our filmstars and cricketers. The most important lesson the Lockout has taught us is not to take everything for granted but to value the smallest of pleasures.

PS Caricatures Kind Courtesy Google

4 comments:

  1. Listening to bird calls has been the highlight of the lockdown, really. And the absence of dust and pollution due to the restrictions on vehicular traffic. Hopefully those saying that Delhi's pollution is caused by diwali crackers would hold their peace now as not only is the air clean and even Yamuna is clean!

    But I am not too sure about people having learnt their lessons that you have enumerated, though, like you I am hoping they have, for I am an optimist too!

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    1. A pleasent surprise to see you back Zephyr with your nuggets of wisdom. Seldom , can I differ with your view:)
      I try to see a silver lining in every cloud and hope people will be at least a shade wiser in times to come.

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  2. I really hope when things return to normal we still notice the chirp of the birds.... And not return to the times when they stopped visiting neither did we have time to notice their chirp... Lovely post :)

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  3. Welcome to my blog Ira!Many thanks for your kind appreciation. Look forward to see you here more often:)

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