The Shapes In The Clouds

Dragon, alien, crocodile, fox, alligator, and a whole bunch of them you'll see if you choose to. But do you even look up? I don't. Or to be accurate, I'd forgotten till my daughter reminded me to!

This little exercise started in our household when my daughter read a lesson in her English book about how a little boy finds new shapes in the clouds. Their homework for that day was to go look out the window and find shapes in the sky. And how we do that everyday. Even when we are out riding in a car.

Boy! How we have really missed out on those carefree things! Those little things that made up our childhood. That finger crossing that we did when we saw a red mail van, those pencil shavings that we kept in water overnight hoping that they would turn into erasers (duh!), the small designs that we cut and preserved from the wedding invitations that we received in the hope of using them for making greetings and then not using them because we liked them too much!

Innocent things that didn't matter to anyone but to yourself. A little ghungroo that you found on the road that you've still kept, an ice-cream shaped eraser that you got as a birthday present, that peacock feather that your dad got for you on a rainy day, a keychain that your best friend gave you. So many things, now lost to antiquity, boxed up in a long-forgotten drawer of an old table.

As my girl grows, I find my own childhood in her. Some of the things that she does or says remind me of how we grew up, what our aspirations were, how our playmates were! Our childhood is far behind us, but our kids bring back those memories that help us relive them.

I don't regret growing up. But I do love it when my girl reminds me of what we did when we were kids. And it does make my heart carefree to do some of those things again.

I found an octopus today in the sky. What did you find?

Work From Home, Work At Home, And Home Work

 ... that's our new normal! Each one of us is doing this. I could also add a few more...No Work So At Home, Not Working From Home, Never Want To Work From Home, Enough Of Work From Home....

This new normal has really become a different life from what we had five months ago. Nothing had prepared us for this phase of our life. When we started with this lockdown, we had assumed that it will be short-lived. But now after five months, our lives are irrevocably changed.

Being cooped up at home has changed our lifestyle. We are now spending so much time at home, just looking out of the window that I've now reconciled myself to the feeling of being a caged animal in a zoo. We really don't have a life outside. 

Milk, food, vegetables, groceries, even non-essential items are now delivered to our places. We just open our doors to our cages, get the parcels in and barricade ourselves back in our cages. No wonder zoo animals have such busy lives!

Back in March when the lockdown started, it was summer. The harsh summer set in April and we were glad we weren't out in the scorching sun travelling to work and back. Kids enjoyed extended holidays, exams were canceled, and for them it was heaven being home. Of course they did miss playing outside and meeting friends. But slowly, we all accepted the new normal.

As April galloped into May, our life had turned upside down. Mall visits, evening drives, shopping sprees, friend meetups all morphed into cooking, cleaning, standing in self-distanced queues for essentials, working from home, entertaining kids at home, and surviving on meager supplies. Shops were closed and stepping out of the house was strictly forbidden.

Most of the kids have adapted faster than the parents. They are all tech savvy, attending schools and co-curricular activities online. I've seen kids who are giving interviews online, solving puzzles, learning gaming and coding, all through the internet. Earlier, parents fought to keep the screen time limited for their kids. Now, parents have no choice but to allow kids to learn online.

My family is no exception to these changes. My kiddo attends school three hours a day and then moves on to watch her favourite cartoons and shows online. Add to that the TV that she watches and her screen time has exponentially increased.

 When we keep her away from the screen, she devises different games for us. Some of the games that she has devised are: Danger crossing race, Guess the word, Clock game, Chocolate fair, Running competition, Karate exercises, Dance classes, Mask making competition. Almost every day, she comes up with a new game in which Aaya-Baba are the opponents. The games have elaborate rules, and not adhering to them ends in us getting expelled out of the game, or worse, double punishment. Thankfully, the game conductor is biased towards Aaya, and ensures that Aaya wins most of the time!

The other big part of the day is home work. And I'm not talking about the homework that my girl gets from her school. This is the homework that I need to do that she assigns me.

And that is the reason why I am so very busy these day! Imagine how much writing and work I need to do at home: usual office work, household chores, and my school homework.

The pandemic has brought so many changes in our lives that it is hard to imagine how it was a mere five months ago. We are still unsure of how it will be, or in fact, whether it will ever be completely normal again.

Till then work from home!  

Games At Home

So the games in these Corona Lockdown times involve food that's no longer available, or is rare.

My daughter is right now devising games that are helping her tide these difficult times. She is at one moment a pizza shopkeeper, while at another moment she is an ice cream shop owner.

My area, although not completely under curfew, is facing shortage of fast food, biscuits, cakes, wafers, and every thing that kids would want to have.

But it is commendable that this young girl is holding her fort in these times. Although she keeps asking for these things, she recognises the fact that there really is nothing available. She is quick to quieten and wait for lunch or dinner time to quench her hunger.

Her dad found a pack of six cupcakes a week back and she is saving one for her birthday for tomorrow, because she knows that there won't be a big birthday with a big, nice cake tomorrow. (I have ordered one though from a society lady, which will be a surprise for her!)

And so here we are surviving on her game. In her latest game, she was dreaming for better days with her shop advertising loudly "भरपूर खाणं आणि भरपूर things असलेलं शॉप!"

Hoping for better days soon!

Surviving Corona From Home

I'm writing after a very long time! But thanks to the Corona virus, I've got to be at home, although working, and could spend an hour or so to start blogging again!

I hope all my (meagre) readers are safe and taking the necessary precautions to stay away from the deadly n-COVID-19.

But I feel that being at home is no less life-threatening! Dealing with your spouse, kids, may be in-laws, and self at home for all 24 hours of the day, without a break for a week or more is going to take a toll on our mental health.

It starts right from a place to sit to work from home. The place should be comfortable in which you can stick for at least 4-6 hours at a stretch. It should be airy with good light, and most importantly, where you can receive the home wifi/broadband signal! Network issues with multiple people working are going to be frequent.

If you haven't spare rooms for two people to work together, attending meetings over phone is another challenge. We are used to meeting rooms when we have meetings. There are bound to be funny incidences when the mike is inadvertently left on, and you might hear discussions about what is to be cooked for dinner! Remember to take it all with a pinch of salt, and do not invite yourself for dinner at your colleague's place! You never know, you could be next in line for a mike fiasco!

Some of our colleagues do work from home regularly. We are used to hearing some background sounds such as dogs barking, kids howling, and even doorbells ringing. But in these times, be ready to have your kids around, constantly badgering you to play with them, help them with some task, curiously asking about your work just as you are talking on phone. Just bear with these times, and also enjoy the moments!

In fact, being with our kids and family is something that we rarely get. Enjoy this time with the kids. Just observe what they do the whole day, what they talk, what they think, and interact with them more! You'll probably get to know their humorous side, their wacky side, ingenuity, curiosity, and the fun side too!

Like yesterday, we had gone to get some milk, but we didn't get any. As we returned home on bike, it took me a few minutes to register the fact that my daughter was happily singing "No milk tomorrow! No milk tomorrow!!" (My daughter hates to drink milk, and was overjoyed to know that I wouldn't make her drink milk if there wasn't any at home!)

So stay put! All you know, we might still survive the self-imposed quarantine, and even learn to be more with our family!

Take care everyone!