Today I share a journey that has been totally different from those I have shared before. This was the most unplanned, unprecedented and unavoidable trip of my life and I am sure the same is of yours too. All these ‘un’ things made me really unhappy. The soul was rioting within and the mind with its acquired wisdom kept soothing it to take on to this new and the most unique journey of my life till date. This was my lockdown journey which came in as a side effect of the imported COVID-19 pandemic.

As things are getting back to a new normal with the concept of living with the novel CoronaVirus, I thought of writing down this post. Even though it has the term normal but after a lockdown that lasted for more than the habit-forming 60 days, it does not seem to be easy and normal. Probably that is why it is called the new normal.

Now getting back to the initial phase of lockdown, it was totally a new thing to all of us. Little scared, little irritated, little reflective, little happy, little bored, little lazy, little unsure – it was an emotional carousel knowing not what was going on but it was definitely going round and round. During the initial days, the biggest of all challenges was the home detention and the second was the crazy thought of continuous supply of the necessary items.

Being blessed to have a comfy home and the privilege of financial stability, these worries were just a grain of salt in the sea of troubles that many were facing still, our selfish human mind is crafted to be worried for anything that is not normal. Apart from these, there were various negative pieces of news all over the media and to spice them up there were people in social media spreading all sorts of nuisances. Things were literally jumbled up. On one side it was the personal worry while on the other it was the worry for the nation and the countrymen.

I very well understand the sad plight of many of our countrymen since the lockdown to date, and I do empathise with them. I do try to help out people within my worth and reach but I do not like to glorify their pain (by writing about the sad occurrences happening in this course, here and there) in turn spreading the sorrow and helplessness among all. So I figured out to stay away from news and social media to keep my mind in peace. The brain seemed to overwork thinking on anything and everything knowing that it has control over none.

While the brain overworked so did the body doing all household chores and washing hands again and again. Now I remember some of my aged grannies who (I feel) suffered from ‘Obsessive-compulsive disorder’ with the obsession for sanitation or were germaphobe, repeatedly washing anything and everything including themselves. I feel the Covid-19 has turned all of us to such grannies washing things again and again.

Within these few days of lockdown, we were transformed to our grannies, so most of my time was devoted to cleaning while I kept thinking of using the rest to some noble things such as reading, enrolling myself to some online course that I have been planning since a long time or making something creative. Making something creative went out of scope with limited to no resource available at hand.

With the restaurants closed the foodie in me was revolting against my own monotonous daily food. I could not deprive my adorable tummy of the delicacies anymore and decided to become ‘Atmanirbhar’ (self-sufficient). Suddenly I discovered the hidden chef within myself and I delved into the culinary journey of my life trying hands at many things. Sometimes it came out exceptionally well and sometimes it was alright but to my biggest satisfaction, it was never too bad to shove them into the bin.

Thus my thoughts of reading and enrolling to online courses went in vain. Then there was my favourite pastime – my balcony time. (Read more about my balcony time.) I watch how nature unfurls its beauty in various ways. Added to them comes my winged friends chirping and tweeting, cooing and cawing all through the day. In between such moments, I grab my camera and capture them all to stay with me forever.

Then the funniest part was trying hands on my husband’s hair and beard. With a fallback plan of making his head and beards fully shaven, I coaxed him to sit in my home saloon and worked my wonder-hands on them with a plain simple trimmer, a comb and a pair of scissors. Although my husband was not so happy with his hair cut and kept complaining, I felt it may not be a clean work still it served the purpose well.

Added to this, my garden got a little more attention than the regular old days. As the trees outside bloomed with the seasonal effect so did my garden. These adorable pals were all through these days to uplift my mood that was slowly walking towards phases of depression and nightmarish dreams with all bad things happening every other day. The Corona scare was already there, then there was the economic slowdown, the sad plight of the poor, the state of migrant workers, the devastating super cyclone Amphan in my native place, the locust attack, the rare cyclone Nisarga on the Arabian sea, the death of a pregnant elephant and what not.

With the corona numbers reaching their everyday high, things are getting back to the new normal. Gradually and definitely things will get back to the old normal. This pandemic and the consecutive lockdown has given us lessons for life, brought out many hidden talents and now, will surely open up new opportunities. The only thing one has to do is stay calm, patient and away from the negative news which only brings sorrow with no respite to the sufferers. So friends! Stay Safe, stay calm and have faith all will be well soon. Till then share with me your lockdown journey.