Rediscovering ourselves during the lockdown
Most of us have always been guilty of not saving the hour-hand for some ‘me-time’ while getting busy with the responsibilities of life. ‘Oh, I want to read the new book of Paulo Coelho but have to prepare for new projects coming up’, ‘I really wish I could start my own blog if I had enough time’, ‘I miss going through childhood albums with my family’ and the list goes on where not having ‘enough time’ is always the excuse. The unpredictable outbreak of COVID-19 has definitely plucked the string of uncertainties and fears inside us but looking from another angle, the global pause has also offered us ‘enough time’ which we have been craving. So here are the experiences of our Nepal Communitere family who has utilized their lockdown to rewind, rethink and rediscover themselves:
“ I feel extremely grateful for the time I’m getting to spend with my family. There are so many, especially the phenomenal front line people, who are working day in and out to keep us safe and fulfil our daily needs, and those away from home, who are not able or allowed to do so. An activity I very much enjoy in the evenings is chatting with and reading to my three-year-old – Viaan, and the gorgeous Jhilke at our favourite spot in my parents garden. ” – Padmakshi
“ Well, the evening badminton matches with the family and seeing the beauty of saplings growing in the garden has brought me back to my childhood days and I am loving it. Working from home has been a challenging yet satisfying experience. Having said that, when your home space becomes your work space, you learn to create a healthy work-life balance in due course. So, I am pleased how this lockdown has brought me closer with my family and I can still manage my professional commitments to its best! ”
– Aarti
” This lockdown, I feel I am back to my college days where the number of episodes in the series decides my sleeping hours. Waking up till late night or early morning (to be technically correct) while binge-watching Netflix is my new journal. I have been learning guitar and disturbing my parents with the sound. I had spent the first half of the lockdown cooking yummy food (that what mom says) and the second half on diet and intermittent fasting with an hour of exercise daily! Apart from that, most of the time go to e-learning and designing and exploring solutions with 3D printing helping the community to cope up with the pandemic. ” – Pallab
“ Finally I have got some time to experiment with my cooking skills and as they say, an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. My daughter is also keen about cooking. So the cool mom-daughter duo has been spending most of the time trying new recipes from youtube and the smile that we get after our family tastes the food is surreal. Apart from that, I am also trying to enjoy nature. Be it seeing the early sunrise or listening to the melodious chirping of birds, Kathmandu has never been so peaceful and calming before.”
– Kusum
“ Being a full time working student, I always felt I needed some time for self-reflection and revisit what I have done all these years. After lockdown, I just listed everything I wanted to do at home including a focus on things I really wanted to improve on. Apart from helping my parents with household chores and looking after my small garden which I enjoy, I spend a lot of time reading- from course books to inspirational novels and each time I extract a few ‘Activities’ from those books such as Warren Buffet’s 5/25 rule on goal prioritization to practice for myself. I regularly talk and chit chat with the office team and work and study from home. This lockdown period has provided me a perfect time to reflect and revisit my bucket list of priorities just sitting at home and that’s what I have been doing a lot of time! ”
– Rachana
“ I have been practising dancing lately as dancing has always been my hobby and it really makes me enjoy the moment. Sometimes I try signature steps and make a disaster out of those fluent moves. I always have a list of books to read. Currently, I am reading how to stop worrying and start living by Dale Carnage. Sometimes I watch YouTube and make cards. I realized watching South Indian movies is also fun. In most of the scenes, I wonder if this happens in real life. Talking and chatting with friends and scrolling news feeds takes most of my day. ” – Manisha
“ The lockdown was quite exhausting initially because of the assignments piled up for the approaching semester-end along with some deadlines from work. But eventually, it turned out to be the most chilling break where I not only completed 8 seasons of Game of Thrones in a week (yeah I was late but still season 8 was disappointing) but also tried playing ‘Rain of Castamere’ with the violin that has been in my closet since grade 8. A little secret, I sounded too awful, shh! Need to practice more. Besides that, now I am more into reading books because you are not your brain! Umm that’s my current read by Jeffrey Schwartz ”
– Ruby
“ Lockdown period has given me the opportunity to spend time with my family that I have always wished for. Finally, as a good husband, I help my wife with the household chores and try to make her laugh with my silly jokes. I also visit Nepal Communitere regularly and check our office site as it is close to my house. To be honest, visiting the office does make me miss our team but I am glad that everyone is safe in their homes. I am eagerly waiting for everything to be normal again and yes, taking care of plants at home and at the office gives me joy! ” – Dilip Dai
“ I love spending time with my family- especially with my two kids at home. Thank god this is the farming season and I am getting to spend the whole lockdown days at our farm planting vegetables and preparing for a rice plantation that starts in May/June. It is very close to our heart since it is handed over by our ancestors as a traditional occupation. I hope everything gets normal very soon. ” – Shanti Didi
“ As soon as I knew we would potentially be locked down for months I was on a mission to try and find some eggs to hatch and explore raising some chickens. Last week we received these cute little chicks and are incubating 6 more eggs. From incubating startups to incubating eggs…we are learning about how to nurture LIFE in the truest way. . .” – Bahar
