Locked-down : a blessing in disguise

I was working till 2:00 am last night, not because it was too much work, but just because the internet works really fast at night, so I don't have to wait for ages for the browser to load. Then, after working for 2 hours and watching nextflix for the next three, I slept around 5:30 in the morning. I had hardly slept, that I started feeling a thumping noise on my roof, I guessed the kids must be running on the roof.

So, half awake I went to the terrace to shout at them, you know when you are sleep deprived, you become quiet irritated, but to my surprise I saw my mother, and the aunty who lives next-door were playing stapu(its a quiet a famous game, refer pic below)

Now, I was half asleep and in my shorts and angry, but seeing my mother really enjoying the game, I kind of felt really good. It is that feeling of satisfaction that you get, when you know the people you love are happy, and my mother and that aunty, whose name I don't know, since I always call her "side wali aunty" as she lives adjacent to our flat were really happy that day.

But I had never seen my mother play that game before, so why she all of a sudden wanted to play that game? but then I realized that I never came to know, because I never asked.

We are so busy in our lives, or we were rather, thanks to a pause that this pandemic has bought. We want to make a career, meet deadlines, attend meetings, that we have completely forgotten to take care of the people we love. We are in this race where people have become more artificial and machines more intelligent, where everybody wants to win, but the irony is nobody has time to celebrate.

But, we are doing all this for them only, some people might justify, but no, the answer is if you are doing all this for them, then include them in your daily life, talk to them, just sit with them, they will feel good. In the quest and race of building corporate relations, our personal relations have gone for a toss.

We have to work from home for few months and we can't take it, we miss office, we want to be with our colleagues, it feels suffocated being at home all the time. Think of your mother, who has been working from home for you 24x7x365, she never complains, she never demands holidays. She just wants you to sit with her and talk to her.

Do you remember? when you were a kid, your father would come from office, you would go running to him in excitement, take his bag, give him water and ask in your innocent voice, "dad aaj office mein kya hua?" and he would answer all your questions without getting irritated. Today, when your dad asks you, how is the office work going on? you get irritated, you don't talk with a straight face, and you say dad it's too much stress you won't understand. Your parents could understand you, when you could not even speak, you are the one who has to understand now.

God has his own ways of telling you things, the amount of time we are getting now to spend with our loved ones might never come back, and we will look back and say, I had a lot of time, I just didn't use it.

So, let us make use of this opportunity, working from home gives you more time than ever before. Use this time to talk to parents, enjoy a cup of tea with them while watching their favorite movie, yes their favorite.

Go down the memory lane, discuss some funny childhood incidents. Cook something for them, play any game. The point is use the lock-down to bring up that love for your loved ones, that was lost.

And yes, now me, that side wali aunty and my mother three of us play stapu, I have to wake up early for that, but it is okay, because I can't keep losing to that side wali aunty.

And that is why I said, this lockdown is a blessing in disguise.