Lockdown Diaries Nominee#29 Lockdown and Loafing‌ By Vandana Das

‘Quarantine’. An Interesting word right! It has been almost five months now, since I have been Quarantined in my home. There have been a series of events happening in this episode of Lockdown but still, everything seems to be at a halt. Every segment and age group was affected in different measures. The young age group or school going folks were carefree and joyous because of the unexpected holidays. The secondary level or college going adults were in a dilemma whether to enjoy the vacation or optimize the opportunity. One of the frequent suggestions given by Indian parents was “Online Course kar lo beta” (Try some Online Courses in the meanwhile). Then comes the ‘Kaam Kaji Log’ group (The working Group). The very well evolved concept of ‘Work from Home’ because of the pandemic was the ‘Lender of the last resort’ for the Big Companies or business houses. The label stated, work from home but frankly speaking, it was all about converting the home into an office setup. Next, talking about the above ‘40s or our parents. This was the toughest phase for our Fathers because they couldn’t roam around freely, or go for morning walks/ Katta (A place to hang out) with their friends. And finally, talking about the victims of the Lockdown worldwide: ‘Mothers’. The Lockdown is converted to overtime shifts for them because the kids need timely food, Fathers need perfection and Bai (Maid) is on vacation for obvious reasons.

Now, I am narrowing it down to my personal experience and age group which is of the ‘Confused Adult’. Talking specifically of the college-going creatures! It’s an exasperating phase for us as the time is passing rapidly, and there is a direct relationship between time and tension. The only business which is achieving heights in the time of Pandemic is of Online Educators. Many are involved in the period of Internship via Work from home, Online Courses, College Classes, and many more innovative works. Nobody will deny the fact that everyone has been trying to be ‘Sanjeev Kapoor’ (An Indian origin Famous Chef) since the period of Lockdown and recreating street food in their home. The kitchen adventure could be very well explained through my personal experience when the LPG cylinder at home was over in just 16 days and my father was telling this to the service provider. I was giggling when the boy commented on my father’s previous statement ‘Sir thoda kamm khaaya kijiye’ (Sir, try munching less). Initially, everyone was enjoying the phase of staying back but now the majority has reached the level of saturation, or at least that is how I feel now. The key learnings for me in the Lockdown till now were: ‘How to bake a cake’; ‘How to attend webinars along with cutting Onions’ and ‘How to take procrastinate’. Now as days are passing by, we are getting more and more comfortable with the place we are living in and now I feel this saturation point will be one of the fond memories in our hindsight. As the Graph of the Time and the number of cases are in Positive Correlation, there would soon be a situation arising in which the ‘Negative tested Patients need to be in Quarantine’. Shocking! But true.

Namaste! Because ‘do gaj ki doori hai zaroori’ (Jann heit me jaari) (6 feet apart is needed on our part, Issued in Public Interest).

ReachIvy.com organized an online blog/vlog competition to provide people the unique opportunity to share their lockdown stories using their creativity. The competition met with a fantastic response from participants across 4 continents, and our jury has handpicked the Top 50 entries from them for the Popular Choice Award 2020!

The above entry has been submitted by Vandana Das from Pune, India. She is a 24-year-old student of Symbiosis School of Economics. Kudos to Vandana for this beautiful piece!

Show your support and help Vandana win the contest by liking this blog post on all ReachIvy.com’s social media platforms!