HYDERABAD: Days spent during the lockdown seem quite pacifying, it seems like a golden opportunity to dismiss the ancient, and make room for the new. I have the luxury to start my day a bit late these days, as I do not have to juggle with morning blues anymore. After relishing an early morning cup of tea with my husband, together, we plan what to eat for breakfast and plan on whose turn it is to cook lunch for the day.
My daughter and husband both have turned out to be amazing chefs during this lockdown. Lunch has now become a nice spread and teamwork, by the three of us. Usually with extended work hours these days, it seems that work is unending. However, it has been a great time with family. Initially, we struggled to adjust with the uncertainty around us, but the new normal slowly started to sync in. The day passes by with work as usual – phone conversations with office colleagues, emails, webinars - with WhatsApp, social media and chatting on personal groups sneaking in between.
With the onset of evening, the news channels inform us that the numbers of Coronavirus cases have risen, but, I try to convince myself that things will fall into place soon. Towards the end of the day, we plan on new recipes for dinner, and start the assembly work. While initially we were prohibited to go out of the house, but now, we now enjoy our long walks in the evening at our community garden. The community that we live in has days allotted for vegetable and grocery shopping at our in-house store.
What I find most exhausting is sanitising all the items that we shopped for! So, going for weekly shopping has become more hectic now. Every weekend, a food truck with a chicken store comes with our dose of proteins. With everything being made available within our community, it has been a while since we have needed to step out.
There are queues for everything, so we have learnt to become more patient. When I think about it, how else would I have been able to spend so much time with my daughter during her vacations? Helping her with craft, reading, playing cards and board games, late night snacks, a new series on Netflix, video call with my parents, this lockdown has made all of this so frequent and enjoyable. All these are our new normal. Manasi Kumar, programme manager, Hyderabad