Ironically, the recent lockdowns helped TANDRA CHAKRABORTY discover that there is so much more to life than workdays and the humdrum routine of life that we took for granted all these years
Not very long ago our life followed a set pattern nearly every day; some things had been a part of our life just like a ritual for decades, only sometimes happening differently. Fate really wasn’t such a big player till March 2020 dawned. And then, all of a sudden, many new words, rarely uttered before became part of a common vocabulary – quarantine, surgical masks, ventilators, RTPCR tests, and the most dreaded of them all, lockdown.
Enter 2021 and many hoped that life would come back to normal. But we suddenly seemed to be groping with Fate playing the game at Level 2 – and with our little experience gained at Level 1, we began living another round of lockdowns. In spite of the string of losses that this roller coaster has brought about, it has pushed us to look at things a little more closely – and to look anew at life.
But lately, I have involuntarily done things I never realised were meant to be done any other way – such as the things that go into enjoying a simple cup of black tea and sipping it slowly to register it all, perhaps taking a walk among the greens around my place, telling them a silent ‘Hi’ and acknowledging that they do make a difference and that there is more to life after all.
Sometimes, an action as simple as a walk in the colony or a drive through the city, makes me wonder how I could have missed simple things like the daily sunset. Now I notice every tall tree that leaves a different portrait against the changing colours of a monsoon skyline. I notice the early morning shine of rain-washed deserted roads. The ‘no rush’ breakfast time, which was something I had forgotten decades ago….
I have also rediscovered those long-forgotten hobbies. Singing, dancing, writing and reading, drawing, drama, cooking and creating, besides so many more. I am sure each one of us must have had one calling from the past knocking on our doors in our stint indoors. Yes, I have had my share too. I now sing whenever I can, I write when the silence gave me some head space, I speak to friends and relatives who have been my subtle support system even without an active dialogue all these years. I have cut down completely on unnecessary conversation that comes with so-called duniyadari. The bonus of ‘Me Time’ has helped me prioritize life more. Perhaps it is the declutter that the mind has undergone through each silent phase that has helped me connect with these truths more and more.
I have also rediscovered old apps as well as found new ones. There are apps that help you speak on different topics through ‘voice only’ apps, or sing along with pre-recorded tracks; there are websites that help circulate your feelings and words through blogs and the ‘photograph yourself like a celebrity’ apps are yet another high we have discovered. There are numerous skills that have found a showcase today and a willing audience who has the time to stop, see, admire, and respond. The bonus is that humans have perhaps understood a little more about being humane just by being kept apart.
We all know the pain package that this phase has bought about, but what did it bring along in the form of realizations? That we do not need a 12-hour job. That we can be happy without having too many things. Have we asked ourselves that if our souls had a free run amidst all the chaos over the years, then what would we have really done? Have we asked ourselves whether we had the time to take health checkups over the years? Whether we have traveled enough? Or if we had time to balance our plate in life?
I just hope we have learnt a wee bit more about what is meant by living…by living through this period.
Tandra Chakraborty is passionate about music and travelling and is an educationist by profession. She is based in Mumbai.
Image of singer by Uschi Dugulin from Pixabay
These “Me-times” had indeed become a hard find earlier, almost lost amidst the We & Us times during Pre-Covid periods. In many aspects of life we have learned to slow down, using the hand-brake of the vehicle of life, which as such was very much there merely as a conceptual tool but remained unused over the years. Living life in slow motion and enjoying it in complete precision had been a far fetched dream for almost all of us, being not only absorbed but overtaken by the demands of a rapid life, better to say, a mad rush.
Yes, in spite of being in itself a ‘pain-package’, as Tandra ji says it, Covid has brought along with it a wake up call as a camouflaged gift for all of us to press the reset and refresh button in us, reorient life and explore its finer dimension. I personally have benefited a lot in this particular aspect and endorse the spirit of this write up with a first hand experience, full of inspiration.