Busy as busy can be, I still have no time – like it always has been!
We are on the 14th day of a nation-wide lockdown in India in our fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The lockdown was announced suddenly, there was hardly any time to plan and think. It was a desperate situation. We didn’t have a choice. The virus wouldn’t wait, and we had to slow down its spread. It’s been the world’s largest lockdown, where the 1.3 billion of us have been asked to stay home for 21 days, that took off from March 24. While this was the need of the hour, it has led to several complicated situations. Not surprising though, in the world’s second most populous country and it’s complex and varied demography.
It’s a Tuesday. A weekday like this would usually revolve around office for people like me. Whether we like it or not, office takes up a large chunk of our day and thereby what we do for a living defines a large part of our lives. Most of the people in my circle have suddenly found themselves in a work-from-home situation, especially those from the corporate sector. While some are used to that culture, many aren’t. Then, there are some others, especially those working in the government sector, who are grounded at home with no work at all. Both these groups are grappling with their newfound and unusual situations. Initially, there was a sense of excitement of being at home, even with the Covid-19 gloom hanging in the air. That is now slowly giving way to boredom and restlessness.
Many are struggling hard as they juggle their office work, house work, children, and family. This isn’t easy, being used to the assistance of maids and cooks. Drawing the boundary between work and home while being at home is a difficult task. Then, there are others who are making good use of their free time by investing on things that nourish their souls. Some are sketching and painting; some singing and playing musical instruments; some designing creative videos and so on. A couple of them even displayed hidden talents that I that we never knew existed.
Amid all of this I am pretty much where I always was – lockdown or no lockdown. There aren’t any drastic changes in my life.
When I am in Bangalore, I am mostly holed up in my home. I have been working from home for nearly 4 years now. I am not required to go to office. Though, I did go once or twice a week but even that was at my discretion and sometimes I wouldn’t step out for an entire week. Neither my manager nor my team bothers about my whereabouts, as long as work gets done. So, my weekdays haven’t changed at all.
On weekends, the crowd and the traffic were deterrent enough to contain me in my little nest, except those occasional meeting with friends. However, I used to have people visiting me, which would happen quite often than less. I would also step out for grocery and other essential household items as I always preferred buying from the local market rather than online markets. Since I live alone, such outings were not in plenty. It wasn’t required.
There’s only thing that is significantly different now. There’s no travel, no outing, no planning for the same. Ironically, I am not missing them at all. Not just yet.
And, as always, I still struggle to keep pace with time. I just have no clue where all the time goes! Or maybe I do. The social butterfly that I am, even though I stay at home most of the time. No, not social media but connecting with friends and family over phone calls and WhatsApp messaging. And that does eat up a lot of my time.
Seasons of Life! 
Hope this will subside and the world will see the normal days soon! But, u am this as a researcher, it’s really really tough to stop the spread of the virus, so staying home is the only solution, these days can be more productive and thank you for sharing your experience here 🙂
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Thank you for taking time to read my post, Shree. Have you written anything on what you are doing during this time? Would love to read.
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My pleasure dear and yes, I am writing a post on what I am doing during this lockdown, will post in some hours, hope you will like it 🙂
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That’s great. Will surely check it out 🙂
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We are into our 4th week here in the states! We are able to hike and bike in Colorado which helps. I can only imagine what it is like for you all – living in such a populous place. We are using a tool called zoom for meeting friends on-line, etc. Hang in there.
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Hiking and biking in a situation like this is like a dream. I’m wee bit jealous as that’s not an option for us. Zoom has become extremely popular and is perhaps the most downloaded app now. There were some security issues that I read about recently. Hopefully that’s been taken care of. Thank you for reading, Pam. Take care and be safe.
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As we are retired, when it started I did not expect it to make much difference. But I have been surprised at how much time has opened up. We are cleaning out drawers and closets, etc. that should have been sorted a long time ago. One friend jokingly expressed concern for U.S. landfills that wouldn’t be able to handle all items people are getting rid of. Another friend observed that it is nice that when you call friends now, you know they will be home.
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That’s one hell of a productive activity that you are engaged in. Drawers and closets are the most neglected places of anybody’s home. I am afraid to even start off cleaning my drawers. My closets are relatively tidy though. The tonnes of things we keep collecting and hoarding is baffling. There are many things that we would have never used or used only once.
Thank you for reading, Ralie. Take care and be safe!
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I’m glad to hear from you and that it sounds like you are doing well, albeit in a similar situation to me. I’m also at home most of the time except for essential trips out twice a week or so. Working from home has been my default for most of the past four years as well so if I just look around myself on a given workday I can almost convince myself that everything is as it always was. And then I look outside and see that the streets are nearly empty. I see my social media feed filled with terrible news and friends and family of friends getting sick. I go to sleep to a quiet city and wake in the night to sounds of coyotes calling in the park and in the morning to songbirds. We may be in distress, but the rest of nature seems to have a different opinion.
Stay safe.
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We have a lot common here, especially the work from home bit. And, just like you I feel things are different when I look outside my window to see the empty school field, which at other times would be occupied by children playing and indulging in various other activities all through the day. I always had a variety of birds visiting and hence that part remains same – parrots, cuckoos, ravens, bulbuls, and a couple others. There’s a squirrel family too. My sister is currently making a series on them with all the extra time she has and posts videos and pictures on Instagram. Nature does seem to be happy and refreshed and why not! I just hope we emerge as a better fit species willing to accommodate all other creations of mother nature.
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You are so lucky to at least have some Nature to look at. In my part of London we don’t even have pigeons or sparrows. Cuckoos and ravens would be lovely and parrots a dream.
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Pigeons are a pain, I tell you….you don’t know how lucky you are not to have them…..and sparrows and pigeons mostly don’t go together, so you’ll have either. Cuckoos and ravens are great, so are the parrots. I have eagles too….and a squirrel family, which is the best. They have a good supply of peanuts from my kitchen. 🙂
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We have far too many damned pigeons in London, just not in my area thankfully. Do you have grey squirrels or red? Great that you are feeding them but do save some peanuts for yourself!
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The squirrels are the grey ones, small in size…..simply adore them….the squirrel family lives on the tree just outside my balcony and consequently my balcony happens to be their favourite hangout place. The peanuts and water are added attraction but they get it for breakfast only. 😀
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Us, the introverts, it’s all the same except the part that now humans tend to violate our privacy with all the social media being bombarded with utter nonsense. Well, would be glad to see one patient less awaiting for a session. Stay Healthy 🙂
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Just avoid social media or choose what you want to see, ignore the rest. I can quite successfully do that. You can too, if you try. Hope everything is good with you. have you written any poems on the current situation? Well, I’ll go check it out myself. Take care and be safe.
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I don’t use much of social media anyhow. Yep, things are going fine, and no, I didn’t write anything on the current situation, just busy treating patients and working on few other things. Thanks for asking 🙂
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See in all of this I had forgotten that you are a doctor too! Sincere apologies. It’s a tough time for you. You are the real heroes. Please take care and be safe. My good wishes with you. Hope this dark time gets over sooner than we think.
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That’s fine, yep, we can only hope.
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I am happy about the fact that I can avoid the pain of Bangalore traffic, on a lighter note and also that I have always been quite happy socially distancing myself, solitude lover that I am. But yes, these are testing times that come with an entire set of issues. Perhaps in hindsight, we’ll look back and appreciate this time when Nature reclaimed her space.
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Being a solitude lover, this time wouldn’t be very tough for you. Good to know you can avoid Bangalore traffic too. I think many of us are already appreciating this time even with all the issues around us. Not meaning to undermine all that is happening though. I just hope we carry with us what we learn during this period. Though I doubt that sometimes. When everything goes back to normal, this time will be forgotten as a bad dream and humans will go back to their usual ways. I hope I am wrong.
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On a lighter note, some of my friends have been telling me that perhaps this was my conspiracy! But yes, there is so much more time to reflect, ponder and do things that we kept delaying. I am hopelessly dreaming that there will definitely be some change, a positive one and that we remember this time as a lesson and not a bad dream, or a temporary pause. 🙂
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Haha….
Everybody seems to have the time to reflect and ponder. That makes me feel left out. I sure need to better manage my time.
And, more power to your dream, may your dream come true. To think that we’ll be around to witness that transformation. How amazing would that be!
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Well I am someone who is always thinking. I think of my the nerve ending zapping like a million sparks all the time. Now I have more time to let sundry thoughts out of head and concentrate on what really matters. 🙂
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That would be wonderful. If you can sieve your thoughts and quieten the mind, it would be the best lockdown achievement 🙂
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It’s good to know that it’s not a big transformation during the lockdown for you. Although it is still a change. I guess even if things go back to normal, not many will travel in next couple of months. I guess it’s time to pull out old travel pictures and relive those moments. Stay safe, Neel
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Overall there is definitely a change. There is so much quiet all around. There are no kids playing around, no maids to help with the house work, I am not able to fix a leaking tap and there’s no plumber to help with that, my door bell stopped working today and I have to wait to get it fixed (I can do without one presently), and so on. These are at a very personal level. And, I shouldn’t even utter these, considering the actual problems people are facing.
As for travel, none will happen for a while now. Even the thought of it makes me feel frivolous now. I was just looking through pictures of our Sikkim trip last year that happened exactly around this time.
Hope all is good with you. I need to visit your blog. Have been away from WP, no particular reason, just caught up with other things.
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Hey sorry to hear about this irritants. I guess that’s what we can call it at the moment. All is well, Neel currently. Take your time. I have been slow to publish for a few reasons. Take care. 😊
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Glad to hear from you. Looks like whataspp keeps you really busy. I’m finding out how much there is to do at home when you can’t go out and the help can’t come in. This thing will not end soon, so I am busy reorganizing my day to stay completely locked down for a long time. How are you doing in B’luru on food and supplies?
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I know, a lot goes on in managing a house and if you’re a cleanliness and tidiness freak (like me) it only gets tougher. I was explaining the same to my American colleagues today, especially the daily dusting, sweeping, and mopping activities that got added to our daily activities.
Food and supplies here have been pretty much okay here. Though it’s tough to get slots for online deliveries of groceries and vegetables. You have to be really patient. Luckily, I don’t need to depend on online deliveries as my home is close to a market. I haven’t faced any issues for far. Stocks in the supermarkets are less but not so bad. The roadside vegetable sellers are fewer but are quite well-stocked. That’s the story in most other areas too. So far, we’re good.
I was wondering how you are coping up in Mumbai with the high number of cases being reported there. I have a lot to catch up on. I know there’ll be a lot to read in your blog.
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Until now we’ve been lucky. I wrote about little bits and pieces. But with the problems exponentiating, I think we will face hard times soon.
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That’s true 😦
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It is true that things have changed seismically in such a short space of time. For me, and obviously you as well, not being able to travel, even within my own city, is the worst thing, it is really driving me mad. I don’t so much mind being home on my own as I do that a fair amount anyway but knowing that I HAVE to do it is really annoying. Sorry to hear about your tap and doorbell, I hope they get sorted soon!
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Totally agree with that…I don’t step out much but now that I “have” to be home, it feels like jailed in. Initially, I was quite okay as life wasn’t all that mush different. But now, I sometimes crave for the freedom of being normal again.
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Yes, same for all of us I suppose. Don’t worry, it will get better. Remember chicken ‘flu and swine ‘flu? People said that was the end of the world and it wasn’t. This will pass to. Just stay home and stay strong.
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Absolutely! Nothing lasts forever 🙂
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It seems you have written this article during the first lock down, I am reading it during the second lock down ! Now we are prepared for 19 days more. I came to know about work from home through social medial only. For me it is work for home ! Naturally my wife is happy ! Yeah it is a peculiar situation for all of us that we never faced in our life. We have no other option too. The only anxiety is when we are going to get our life back. During these days I read lot of whatsup messages regarding the benefits of lock-down, though most of them are funny, yet it keeps us remain positive during this difficult time. Keep oneself engaged is the best way to banish boredom.
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Yes, Ramasamy Sir. Had written it during the first lockdown. Glad to know you are working from home too and able to give company to your wife. Can’t help it, that’s the only way. I hope the virus just disappears soon. Take care and be safe.
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