Minakshi Gupta
Resident of: GC Block
During this crisis, while the doctors, health personnel and other frontline workers are fighting the pandemic and risking their lives to save the people, we are made to reflect upon our actions and re-imagine a world filled with love, empathy, kindness and gratitude. I am a fashion designer by profession and am doing my best to feel resilient and optimistic.
As a social responsibility, I took the challenge of distributing free masks to people in need. When the pandemic was announced, many daily wage workers could not afford to purchase masks which were a vital need of the hour. So I took to making masks easily available to them. This really gave me a semblance of calm.
Having strong immunity is the utmost requirement to fight the pandemic and this practice started from home for me for my kids. I made an ayurvedic immunity booster powder after combining 12 home-made ingredients. It worked wonders. I did not limit it to myself and shared this immunity booster powder with all my relatives and clients, and received a great amount of appreciation. The temptation of junk food has reduced drastically in the past three months among all the children I know.
And this immunity booster has resulted not only in better immunity but also better skin and healthy eating habits.
Creativity has been my passion and I mixed my passion with need and made beautiful rakhis for all my clients and relatives on special demand. This pandemic has made mobility uncertain. But it must not come in the way of Raksha Bandhan, the everlasting bond of love between brother and sister. So I made the rakhis available at people’s doorsteps.
As social beings, moving outdoors and connecting with other people is a fundamental need. A sudden transition that restricts your mobility to within the boundaries of your home can pose its own challenges. But with my ideas and innovations, I have engaged every member of the family in an interesting way with games like hunting in the house and running up and down. Age was no barrier in these fun activities.
I also created a lot of activities for toddlers, keeping them engaged as well. Being engaged expands your emotional bandwidth to deal with the crisis situation.
Spending time with oneself allows one to recoup one’s energy and internal resources to deal with a crisis situation. I practised a lot of yoga and mental exercises with my husband Rajyam Gupta. Yoga has helped me tremendously in making my inner self strong and making me think beyond the immediate.
The epidemic will end at a certain time and it will leave each of us changed and transformed by the end of it. Such an experience is going to provide numerous opportunities to take a step back, think and reflect on the lives we have been living and the choices we have been making. Not everything that will be the outcome of a pandemic will be bad and negative. There will be much for all to learn.
Most importantly, we will learn new ways of being and existing in our community and society. It will be an important lesson in understanding the power of nature and how it can transform everything around us if we are not sensitive consumers of what it provides us.
Bhumika Mishra
Resident of: AF Block, CPWD Qtrs
When the janta curfew was first announced on March 22, people thought that it was just one day, but when the lockdown was announced on March 24 and further extensions were made, people grew more restless and found out ways to keep themselves entertained.
Personally, being a student of Class VII, I never felt bored (though at times I became agitated by the lockdown and the deafening silence in the streets) because most of the time I was preoccupied with thoughts and the remaining time I was busy with the assignments given online.
Though the lockdown was a bit taxing for those who love to socialise, being an introvert, I never felt any change except that all around me, people were being more and more conscious.
Lately, I have started doing yoga to improve my health and keep myself fit, though as always I have to wake up early to keep pace with my online classes. But the drawing copies which had been lying around unused for years have turned to be my saviour and I have been improving my writing skills. Poetry, in which I never took an interest and thought to be boring, has inculcated a longing in me to write more.
Of late, I have also started feeding birds in my locality before having lunch. Though a tad difficult, it still turned out to be useful for me in many ways and I would love to retain these habits even after the world returns to normalcy.
Mohua Sen Dasgupta
Resident of: BF Block
My morning routine has not changed much in the lockdown ever since I left my full-time teaching job. I have been able to continue to nurture my interests in cooking, sketching, colouring and writing (I don’t generally share what I do on social media), probably because my maid who lives in my garage didn’t stop coming and I was spared from the menial household chores that many others had to do during the lockdown.
My evenings have changed though. I would go to the tutorial classes I had joined three years ago thrice a week. Now I am taking online classes from home, a new experience for teachers like me who have been teaching for the last 25 years. The positive side is that I have been given the liberty to pace out my classes according to my convenience. In between my evening classes, I have started tending more to my plants on my terrace and going for my evening walk in course of the practice. I have also reverted to my habit of reading.
The biggest change has been in our travel plans. We had to cancel our short trip to Kalimpong scheduled for end- March and our tour of Spain in May. Our last trip was to Guwahati- Kaziranga in February.
Now that we are in the first stage of un-lockdown, my husband and I have resumed our evening walk in our block park.
The pandemic and the lockdown have taught us to face adversities with patience and tolerance, hoping for a better future when every thing will be back to normal.
Ankita Chakravarty
Resident of: CE Block
Feeling hungry after the lighting of diyas and candles to salute the dedication of medical workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic, who do not have the luxury many of us enjoy of WFH (work from home), I set about rummaging in the kitchen for a snack.
As I weighed the merits of instant upma versus instant noodles, I was struck by the realisation that I could cook more elaborate meals for myself and my family now, since I have so much free time at home due to the isolation situation. I could try my hand at that fussy Biryani or the exotic Chicken Tetrazini or light French Macaroons, or well, anything really. The world was now, well and truly, my oyster — in terms of cooking, at least.
And clearly, it’s not just my bright idea. So many of us, self-importantly busy urbanites — usually too-cool-to-cook — have had the astounding thought that this enforced isolation is the perfect time to learn cooking, so as to become great home-chefs.
It is nice really, bonding with your family and learning a new skill to while away the extra time.
However, this indulgence is, in fact, over-indulgence. Should not we be rationing food supply so that it lasts during this long quarantine, instead of indulging our over-fed selves in the delights of sinful dishes?
Sourish Misra
Resident of: SA Block
During this ongoing lockdown, I am spending my time working from home to help my students (I’m a software professional and teach software-related subjects) by guiding them in their software projects, which they have to submit to their respective universities in their last semesters, within the next few months. As my family is not allowing our kajer mashi in, the daily workload of my mother has increased a lot after lockdown has commenced. So, I am helping my mother every day by doing some household chores.
Writing is my passion and love. I write Bengali short stories and poems. To date, my written works were published in renowned publications. Most of my me-time in this lockdown, I am spending on that passion. I am just writing and writing. Already I have completed two stories for my para’s Durga puja souvenir and written a number of poems. I am also writing letters to my favourite newspaper The Telegraph’s various readers’ columns daily. This has been my most favourite hobby for the last 26 years. The Telegraph has published till now more than 700 letters of mine.
As I am a big fan of Uttam Kumar, I watch his films on a regular basis. In this period of lockdown, I have watched five Uttam Kumar movies. Just a few days ago, I watched Jotugriho, starring Mahanayak and Arundhati Debi. I am also re-reading Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita.
