Locked inside my house, gazing outside the window, I see the barren park. The place which would be otherwise buzzing with people jogging, kids playing, dogs being walked around and many others enjoying the sunshine. As I
turn to look at the other side, I see the almost empty highway which would be otherwise filled
with heavy evening traffic when people would be travelling back home at the end of their workday. This is year 2020!
In my last post [a-nostalgic-visit-to-my-own-place] I was surprised to see how much my
life has changed in the last 10 years since I started this blog. But then I
realized the change that has happened in my way of life in last 1.5 months
is much bigger than the entire 10 years put together. And it is not just for me
but for everyone. As pointed out by lot of world leaders,
these are unprecedented times. The entire world seems to have come to an absolute
halt. As a result our life has come to a standstill. But did we not complaint too
often about life running fast? Every time I spoke to my friends and family,
everyone had one thing in common
"I do not know how days and months are going
by! Oh, another year is coming to an end!"
But the last one month did not just
fly past!
I agree that we all have a lot of complaints and how this pandemic has put all our life’s plan on hold! But I am sure once we are over this, we will remember this time of our life and recall how our life had slowed down and we had ample time. So let’s look
at some brighter side of this lockdown life. Below are some thoughts on changes in my way
of life and the world around.
1. I do not recall when I last saw my eyes without kajal. Not atleast in the last 10 years of corporate life. But now I have been without it for 40+ days. I like to see the
new me in the mirror without any curtains of fakeness and when I look into my
eyes, I am seeing the real me.
2. These days I do not feel the difference between weekdays and weekends. Suddenly the Friday excitement and Monday blues are gone. I still do office work, but there is no travel to office and no requirement of dressing up formally. The moment I close my laptop in the evening, my work day has ended with still a lot of my evening time left. I can
read, write, watch TV and spend time with myself and my loved ones. I have been catching
up on some of my favorite old movies, some classic movies which I missed watching
earlier, reading and re-reading some books from my list.
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| If you want my suggestion, you can read: Sapiens - A brief history of Human Kind by Yuval Noah Harari |
3. The environmentalist inside me is very happy for how the Nature is able to restore the damage we have caused continuously from past so many years. I never imagined there would be a way in which people could be convinced to reduce their carbon footprint on the Planet. But now, it is all happening by itself and all it took was an invisible virus. I like to believe this to be Nature’s way of showing us our real place. If you still don't believe in Climate change, read my post on chasing-ice-documentary-of-lifetime and watch it.
I am still not very positive if way of life and mindset will have any change once life comes back to normal. History shows us we have always been greedy and never been kind towards Nature! I hope we are proven wrong this time and make some good changes in our life permanent.
Even one less car ride a month, one less addition to the wardrobe or one less bin of garbage will make a difference!
4.
Most often we hear from elderly people how they
wished they did things differently and stayed in touch with
people from their younger days. I like to consider this to be such a checkpoint for us and it is still not very late. I have been utilizing this time to catch
up with my old friends, relive and laugh at old memories, browse through some
old pictures and talk to them to check how they are holding up.
As we move forward, we leave lot
of things and people behind. As a kid, I would find ways and means of spending
time and I thought 24hrs in a day was too long. As I grew up, the equation of
time kept on changing and reached a stage where I started thinking why do we
have only 24hrs in a day? It was always a race against the value of an activity
and the time investment it required. But now I feel that my childhood days are
back with an extra shot of technology. So yes, I am trying to make the best use
of it.
5.
Cooking has become one favorite hobby everyone around seems to be indulging in. I am no different. This isolated way of life has shown us
that we can do well without restaurants and home deliveries. Each one of us
has been trying to make food at home and add some healthy ingredients to it.
With so much time at hand and ample recipes available online, cooking
experiments has become my favorite pastime. Baking is my favorite
these days! Previously I did quick cooking to help with the meals but now I
have the time to try something new and fancy. If not anything, the next time I
order a pizza or buy a pastry, I would know why it carries so many calories and
how much cheese and sugar has gone into it
These were my top 5 picks of how the quarantined life has
changed my way of living and what I have been doing to make the most of it! In whatever phase of life you are in, I am sure you have your side of
story of this new way of life. Do share some in
the form of comments.
StayHome & StaySafe
Follow Social Distancing
Follow Social Distancing
Hope to see you all soon…
~ ~ Cheers ~ ~
