The Year That Didn’t Pass By So Quickly
Rewind your life a year back and imagine someone telling you, “Let’s just not go anywhere or do anything for months together. No dinners, no parties, no shopping, no trips, no movies, no traffic, no cabs, nothing at all!” Sounds insaneeee!! I would have just screamed at the thought of it. I wouldn’t have been sure of surviving through this insanity. Fast forward few months, I have managed to stay sane while living through what seemed to be impossible and so have many of us. Though the insanity was limited to just staying indoors for a bunch of lucky people, past couple of months have turned many people’s life who either got infected, lost their loved ones, or lost their job upside down. It has taught lessons that wouldn’t have been learnt in a lifetime. The world transitioned completely in what has slowly turned in a new normal.
Weekday in 2019: I woke up, brushed, got ready, jumped in the cab, reached office, spent the day loaded with work, meetings, coffees, and chit chats, left for home, stuck in traffic, came back home, dinner, party/late night walk/ice cream/meet friends, go to bed…
Weekday in 2020: I woke up, brushed, started reading mails, started work, cleaning and mopping, some more work, lunch, more meetings, more work, dinner, work again, go to bed…
Weekend in 2019: I woke up, brushed, got a call from friend, planned to meet over brunch, got ready, jumped in a cab…
Weekend in 2020: I woke up, brushed, got a call from friend, gossiped over the call, did mopping and cleaning, got ready, sat in front of TV with nowhere to go…
A weekday earlier involved conquering the struggles of waking up from bed, choosing the clothes to wear to office, and getting stuck in traffic for hours (no exaggeration)—to finally reach office to attend a series of meetings, divulge in an ocean of work, meet colleagues, and have countless conversations over coffee. Anything less than this seemed like a boring day. The possibility of working from home was only thought of either when the work was pretty less, or when overlap/coordination with team members was minimal, or when you had an evening flight to catch and avoiding office commute time was absolutely necessary. Weekdays just passed by in a jiffy and so did months, quarters, and years.
Weekends were no different. Being a total extrovert that I am, I never spent even a single weekend, staying completely indoors. The idea of not stepping out for 48 hours straight suffocated me. A stroll to nearby Pani Puri thela (cart) or sipping on fresh coconut water available at the end of the road or a late night trip to the ice cream parlour at the least was mandatory. Each weekend, more often than not, was a power packed one full of meeting friends, parties, brunches, dinners, or trips to weekend getaways. With weekends filled with excitement, Monday morning blues were a real thing!
Impossible though it seemed, numerous weekdays and weekends have passed by without even stepping out of the house. It seemed difficult at the start. Living in constant fear, confined to the four walls of the house, extreme worry about everyone — and especially the elders at home, paranoia about every single thing or person we came in contact with, increasing tension with the rising COVID-19 numbers with each passing day, and saddening news of people losing their loved ones filled the days with sadness, worry, and extreme paranoia. This continued for days together until we realised that constant fear and worry is only making us weaker. Transition had to be made to adjust to this new normal. Being grateful that my loved ones are healthy so far, being lucky enough to be with my family, being extremely lucky to still have a job and continue working from home, and drawing all the strength from home made kadhas kept me going. The strength derived from the warmth of family, gratefulness of being safe and healthy with each passing day, and looking at the silver lining helped me slowly transition to a completely different lifestyle.
Grateful for being among the lucky lot who still have a job and a possibility to work from the comfort of home, weekdays are filled with more and more meetings, a name-sake work life balance, and coping up with work inspite of all the distractions at home, along with making room for cleaning, moping, occasional cooking, and taking care of elders at home. There is no traffic on the roads and commute time is minimal, still the trip to office is limited from bedroom to study room. For many of us, colleagues stay nearby, still the only way to have a hallway conversation is by setting up a full fledged meeting. Grabbing a cup of coffee is just a trip from study room to kitchen, still the only way to chit chat over coffee is by setting up a video call. I miss my office, I miss those chit chats over lunch table, I miss a quick hallway conversation with colleagues, I miss the white board discussions, but as I said earlier — just having the job at hand is a blessing that I am grateful for. With that said, the new reality has also opened up new avenues. It has come with a realisation that you can be productive even while working from home, tasks can still be delivered with equal productivity while enjoying mom made food, and working from home to beat the traffic for few days is not a bad option.
Though it is not possible to spend the weekends the way I did earlier, it is after 8 long years that I have got the chance to stay at home with my family. Though it is not possible to roam around with family and enjoy this time the way I would want to, the opportunity to spend this time with them ensured that my weekends are not so boring. Weekends are now filled with binging on series (with my parents :P), reading books, video calling friends whom I could not meet in person, and playing whatsapp games with families. We have so far managed to find unique ways to make the weekends interesting, inspite of staying indoors. A never thought of form of life started becoming the new normal. I miss roadside Panipuri, I am longing to dress up for a party, and waiting to go to movies with a tub of popcorn in hand, but an opportunity to stay at home is the silver lining. Weekends from past couple of months taught an alternate form of holiday that is equally relaxing and fulfilling.
Contrary to the popular notion that time flies, 2020 has been a year that hasn’t passed by so quickly. It has affected almost everyone in one or the other way. There are people who got infected, there are people who lost their loved ones, there are the ones who lost their job, the ones who passed out of the college with no job in hand, the ones who are stranded alone away from their families, the ones whose travel plans went haywire, the ones who are living out of their savings, and an extreme lucky lot whose only suffering is an alternative lifestyle — devoid of trips, dinners, parties, movies, gatherings, and working from office. Belonging to this lucky lot is a blessing that I would always be thankful for. And as they say, no better teacher than circumstances , this alternative style of working with no office, no in person meetings, no white board discussions, the alternative form of social gathering, family dinners replaced by whatsapp family games, social gatherings replaced by zoom calls, sleep overs replaced by late night video calls, the alternative way of celebrations, birthday parties replaced by video wishes, religious festivals that turned every home in a temple, lighting diyas and banging dishes replaced the processions — a never thought of way of living is what covid taught me. It taught me the elements of peace, family bonding, self care, hygiene, helping each other and few more that should be carried along even after things go back to normal and we once again start living as free birds.
“Hang in there, everything will be fine.
Take care, we will soon see a new sunshine!”
