Corona Times

Can Our Relationship Open New Avenues...CORONA 

For me, life is all about nurturing relationships and sustaining them with love and passion. We must have our priorities right for a content life. So, my priority is relationships FIRST, so FAMILY FIRST! The pandemic has spelt a disaster for the world. We haven't stepped out of our homes since 21st March 2020'. We have not called our support staff since then which means doing all household chores ourselves, from cooking to cleaning the house & utensils, dusting, gardening et al. Initially it was pretty exciting like, 'How"s the Josh? '" It was indeed high, we struggled with body aches but then things fell into place slowly and steadily and now it has become second nature to sweep, swab, cook, dust, deweed the garden etc etc etc. 

To tell you the truth it has been a blessing in disguise. It's my way of looking at the grimy situation we all are in. I have my reasons, first, one being all this work would not have been possible without help from other family members and they did not think twice before coming forward to help despite their'' work from home'' schedule. My husband, son, daughter in law and six-year-old granddaughter, everyone has pitched in. Each one has been so sensitive to the other, no distinction that only women will do household chores. We ended up spending so much quality time together and with a smile, while washing utensils, gardening, cooking, cleaning. Its been 4 months and I feel God has given us this opportunity to bond with each other, We have been planning menus, trying out new dishes, baking, dancing, watching cartoons with the little one, teaching her, playing pithu on the terrace, something we would not have done normally. We play Pictionary, ludo, Dobble, Scrabble. Pre Corona, free time meant going to the mall mostly, park in the evening, meeting friends, going for coffee. Now, with everyone home, we have revived old board games, learnt musical instrument online, cooked together, prayed together, and been alert at even one allergic sneeze by anyone of us. I feel I am loving this life with no intrusion of maids and other staff. We do work at our own pace. I have also bonded more with my plants on the terrace. With no mali coming and being a gardening enthusiast, I have been looking after my plants personally. It's such a pleasure to see them survive the blistering Delhi sun because of the care they are getting. My dear husband, who has not been fond of gardening has turned a new leaf and is helping me so much with our gardening needs. I have always felt that plants are like babies, need nurturing with love and care, to bloom. 

We celebrated my granddaughter's birthday on zoom with 40 of her friends. It was a great experience for everyone and the kids loved it. So, though our little ones are deprived of going out to play or cycle or to the mall, I feel they have learnt a lot too. They have become so tech-savvy for their age. They can manage online classes without our help. They have become independent thinkers and very sensitive to the need of the hour. They have never had so much time with all the members of the family 24 X 7, which has been a very good supplement for their development. My granddaughter one day came to me and said, 'Dadi, I have made a potion which I want to throw into the air to drive Corona away". I turned around and saw she was holding a small plastic cup in her hand with some pink liquid in it. To make her happy and to show to her that I trust her, I helped her throw the 'potion'' into the air. You won't believe it but from the next day, the number of cases started to drop in Delhi. God listens to kids. Curiously I asked her what did she use to make the potion, and she said some fevicol, red food colour, water along with prayers. I think the prayers worked because fevicol won't. Hahaha.

Though Corona is detrimental to good health, on the other hand eating only home-cooked food has improved people's health. Nobody is eating junk food! Everyone is eating at home, food cooked lovingly by a family member. When a family member cooks he/she definitely takes care of the nutritional value vs when a maid cooks! So that's another positive!

I won't say there are no downsides to it. The biggest downside is that there is no 'me time'". I only get 'me time' past 10 pm when I want to do things for myself, like writing this article at midnight. So, I sleep late and then obviously get up late the next morning. Then get ready quickly for my online yoga class which is a big motivator in these times to stay fit since we cannot go for a walk. We are very strict about safety protocol in our house. 

So, the point is that in any given situation we can choose to live happily or gloomily! Since the situation won't change, isn't it better to be happy and positive? Let's also sit down with a paper and pen to make a list of priorities in life, think, rethink and change priorities from just thinking about 'me' to thinking about ''ús'. After such a big jolt to our lives with the fear of losing our loved ones, its time to re-prioritise. 

Gratitude to the almighty for giving us this beautiful life and a lovely family! Gratitude to our family for loving each other unconditionally! Let's not take that for granted. Life is too short so let's make each moment precious and live life with no regrets.

Let's hope and pray that ''Happy days are here again ''!  Let's defeat negativity and kill COVID with our smile.