Living the LOCK-DOWN

It’s true, COVID-19 is absolutely the biggest state of distress the whole world is experiencing since the world wars. Media is full of it and no one now bothers which bills are being passed in the parliament or how sexual exploitation is engulfing the film industry. The whole world is in the same glove and it seems finally the world leaders have got their heads around the issue and are starting the blame game (pointing excitedly you know where!). Some are vigorously discussing the falling economy and some reinforcing old ties. It is a time where the foundations of each country’s culture and lifestyle is showing its true face which was never seen before, for some its pretty but for others its completely ugly.

Lockdown and social distancing, the most effective way to break the chain of virus transmission is also the reason for a large chunk of humans to be in distress. Unemployment and salary cuts are just the top layers, deeper in the folds it has made each day a setting for a new challenge. Each person’s sacrifice is his/her own, and none are comparable.

Although, I am aware of everyday problems of the under privileged, I would be lying if I say, I understand and feel their plight. I can only speak for myself and what I am experiencing in these difficult times. Like most urban multi-storied building dwellers, I am following all the rules of lock-down and being a responsible citizen. Government is doing a lot of work and is following a lot of policies and procedures to stabilize the situation. At-most a middle class citizen can do to help is abide by the rules of isolation published by the ministry.

Me and Sunny have been trying our best to keep our home sanitized and ourselves clean and isolated. We are working from home, it’s the first time that a major VFX studio has undertaken a mission like that and its commendable how they have been able to achieve it. It’s not easy for such a large team to work from home and still deliver quality work for great looking movies! Having said that, years of single minded working in office and not caring a damn about house work has resulted in us being the worst homemakers that can ever be. It took us a long long time to adjust to work from home culture and getting out of the lazy one and getting onto the washing the heap of dirty dishes (no maid!) sweeping the dusty floor (again, no maid!) cooking ourselves (no office cafeteria, or take outs!). Worst of all, the heat! its freaking sweaty and blazing all the time. May in Mumbai is not the best time to be at home in front of a heated CPU! I miss the office AC the most. Although we do keep AC on in our home office room, thought of a gigantic electric bill makes me sweat a little bit more! – also suppressing the guilt of polluting the environment. 🙂 [awkward smile]

Yes, salary cuts have hit us, Yes, we feel lucky and fortunate to still have our jobs. And yes, life is comfy, workin in my jammies! What about the travels & adventures you ask? Well, that’s restricted to biweekly grocery & vegetable shopping down outside our building premises, watering the balcony garden, chasing pigeons off the balcony so they stop pooping everywhere (no maid – hello!) and watching pigeon chicks growing up behind our AC compressor, harassing their parents to feed them and learning to fly. Late evening are dedicated to browsing Netflix, catching up on Big Bang Theory and some movies I missed in the theaters.

Saddest part right now apart from continuous dish washing and sweeping & swabbing the floor is trip cancellations. We had done all our bookings to go to Italy on 1st May 2020 for 15 days. As things started going down for them in February, we started cancellations for everything. The virus was still restricted to Europe and far east when we decided to shift our holiday plans to South Africa. Worst of worst! the cases in South Africa started popping up and sooner than expected India shutdown as well as South Africa. Our travel plans got bombed again. We have now managed to get refunds from both the trips except the air tickets. Those have been turned into vouchers to be used in next one year. At-least all is not lost, it has given us a string to hang from through these cloudy (blazing hot clear sky right now!) times.

Now when we are a bit settled in our house & office work schedule , we are finally able to give a little bit time to our multitude of hobbies. According to all the suggestions on internet and whatsapp forwards (yes, that’s right, I read everything, and believe everything! rolling eyes – rolling eyes) lock-down blues are best tackled by utilizing time for self development (the non Cinder-ella time!). And certainly, I’m not the kinds to follow lock-down cooking challenges going viral online. Sunny has been filling up his sketch book with lovely scribbles ever since. And I have got onto some digital de-cluttering. The major part of which is photographs.

Clearing and sorting photographs, believe it or not is more difficult and time consuming than de-cluttering wardrobes (believe me, I went all Kon Marie on our wardrobes and other storage 2 years back! undoubtedly, half the pain!) As I tackle each photo folder of our older adventures, I am flooded with the memories of those fun filled moments that we experienced when on a break, ‘Down the Memory lane’. From Andaman islands to China to Leh to Japan to Goa. So, keep reading as I share the fun stories! Check our When on a Break Instagram and Sunny’s Instagram page for updates too from these places too.

As we learn to adapt to this new way of life, we do hope things go back to normal soon, and the rainbow beyond this tunnel gets the color back into our lives. Until then, we keep helping all whom we can, bond with the families and give quality time to the loved ones. Most importantly, never stop dreaming and planning the next travel, the next adventure and the next wonder!

Comment below and let me know which hobby have you picked up or if you have finally picked up something which you have been procrastinating since a lot of time during COVID – 19 lock down.

It’s always good to hear!