Archana Natarajan

Drama Others

4.8  

Archana Natarajan

Drama Others

Day 7 Of Lockdown #COVID- 19

Day 7 Of Lockdown #COVID- 19

4 mins
159


31st March 2020

Diary of a new mother 


My entire series of these 21 days will be based on my experience of being in this lockdown and staying home as a first time mother of a 5 month old baby, Anvay. 


Dear Diary,


Today, I took out some time to soak in my surroundings post the lockdown. I had built an evening terrace walk ritual while babywearing Anvay. It would be usually post his feed session so that he could sleep peacefully while being close to me and also I get some fresh air along with a walk. If Yd is free after his work he would join us or I would do the walk alone. We have all witnessed the beauty of spring while staying home this time; some from their balcony, terrace, garden or window. Because of the decrease in pollution levels the air quality of Bangalore has significantly improved. Our area is full of parks and green trees but the only damaging factor was the noisy traffic, even in front of my house. This lockdown gave us respite from the noise and also gave us fresh air we could inhale safely. Our neighbourhood has become so quiet that for the first time in so many years of my stay in this house I am able to hear the temple bells ringing in the Ragigudda temple. The view of the golden dome of the temple and the sound of temple bells at the same time gives me goosebumps at times. If Anvay is awake, I point the temple dome to him and tell him, ‘ Jai hanuman’. It is a blessing to be close to this divine temple. 


Lockdown has brought back the true beauty of this garden city. Not just Bangalore, the entire world has become clean and beautiful; Nature has found a way to cleanse itself. I usually go at a time when the sun is partially setting so that it is not too bright for Anvay and also partially bright for him to look around and see. We could hear the chirping of other birds apart from the usual coos of the pigeons and caws of the crows. Anvay never reacted much after hearing these but I am sure he is absorbing all these sounds and can relate to them when we imitate at home to entertain him. The sky looks the perfect azure blue these days and the setting sun leaves a reddish-orange hue around it. The trees look bright green and radiant with the yellow and pink flowers. Never have we spent so much time admiring the beauty of spring in our busy lives except when we are on a holiday. It reminded me of my childhood days in Jamshedpur when spring meant that our entire street would be full of the red flowers bloomed in the gulmohur trees and while passing from one end of the street to the other in dad’s scooter I would count the number of trees where the red flowers had bloomed completely. 


Now, our 17th main was filled with yellow flowers amidst the beautiful mango laden trees. Since there were mainly independent two/ three storied houses or small builder apartments like ours, we could catch a glimpse of everyone in the terrace, I have not seen anyone in the terrace of my adjacent street or the neighbouring houses in all these years because nobody would come up at a similar time. Lockdown brought everyone on their terrace and I see some common faces everyday. In fact, after staying in this area for almost 7 years, this is the first time I am seeing residents coming out of their homes. There are mainly families with grown up school growing children or senior citizens staying in the lanes and by-lanes around our house. We all are mutually able to acknowledge each other’s presence from our respective terrace. There’s a mother-daughter duo doing yoga in their terrace, there is a super-cool uncle who sweeps and mops his terrace balcony and does skipping, there is a father-son duo who come to play. The father climbs up the parapet to reach the water tank and throws the ball at his son and they play catch-catch this way, a lady plays badminton with her husband while their son rides his small tricycle around them, a middle aged lady comes out exactly at the time when I am up and talks for a long time on the phone, a neighbour old couple walk in semi circles and aunty keeps reading something everyday from the sheets she is carrying in her hand. From their perspective, there is a lady who comes on the terrace for a walk every evening carrying a joey in her bag.



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