Life of a journalist, blogger, student and human in the times of corona (Part 2)

I ended up writing quite a lengthy post and thus, thought of breaking to into parts. All the parts were written on the same day.

Social Distancing Day 50
May 3, 2020

I am in the 8th week of staying at home. While lockdown in India began on March 24 (and had been extended twice since then), my office asked us to start working from home from March 16 onwards. The last time I saw the world outside was back on the evening of March 14. It was a Saturday.

Read part 1 here.

Writing and appreciating nature

In the last 10 days of March, to distract myself, I wrote letters. To keep myself motivated, I invited members of the Blogger Community to participate. When you do it together, you feel better.

As I worked from home, I started spending more time in my garden till the time Sun forced me to run inside. I enjoyed the sound of the birds and the green. Though trespassing cats were annoying, the butterflies were beautiful distractions. I started rediscovering my love for photography. The days are hotter now, so less garden time.

In the first week of April, when Jalandhar people saw Dhauladhar mountains from their rooftops, I realised corona is not that bad. News of wildlife taking over the streets was already doing rounds, but mountains have a special place in my heart. I wanted us to stay more at home so that I could see the Himalayas from my home too. If they can be visible from 200 km, then why not 600? Last week, the Gangotri hills were visible from the Saharanpur (that’s 300 km). And I’m thinking that Noida isn’t too far. I am keeping the hopes high as the lockdown has been extended till May 17.

I spent more time writing and blogging to keep myself sane.
(1) Participated in A-Z challenge 2020 (not ashamed that I didn’t complete it).
(2) A friend organised a 10-day photo prompt writing activity, wrote a couple of pieces for that.
(3) To do my bit, I am organising a multi-author story-writing activity. You can participate here.

Appreciating humans

I also wrote appreciation notes for 12 people (some of whom were complete strangers). One note at a time. One positive message for everyone in a day. That’s so many days of positivity. This was a part of an activity organised by the NGO I’ve been associated with since 2016. The exciting part of the activity was to guess for whom the note was written. There were times when I had to wait all day long for my message. I made new friends because of this activity and strengthened my bonds with those I already knew.

Staying at home became a lil hard when I started to miss seeing people. I may have a socially awkward nature but not seeing more than 4 faces for a month made me miss the crowds I have detested all my life. Not that I love crowds now. I am sure, when everything becomes normal, I will hate crowds again.

Small video meetings with colleagues made me happy. Hearing new voices made me happy. Yes, the voices and faces felt new.

I also reconnected with old friends, some of whom I hadn’t talked to for years. We began where we had left last time. We made promises to meet after things become better. Even though I made a promise to only those I’d like to meet, let’s see how many promises are fulfilled. We all come up with excuses when it’s time to execute.

I also played Ludo on board and online. I also spent time watching Ramayan during the lockdown period. Was curious to know what was there in the show that the nation came to a standstill when it was telecast for the first time back in the 80s.

Read part 3 here.

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This post was inspired by Dr Tanya’s question in her Blogging Insights series about the effect of the pandemic on life and another recent question about repairing self during lockdown.