A second chance to introspect and live a little differently!

The grass is greener, the light is brighter, the sky is clearer, and the nights are beautiful. In the summer of 2020, we keep hearing news of how the earth is healing while humans, who are supposedly the ruler of our planet, are dying. Animals are wandering everywhere. Some say they are coming back to reclaim what belonged to them. We are caged inside our houses while the wild ventures out in the open.

Maybe all of this happened to give us a sign. Maybe it happened to shake us up and wake us up from our deep slumber where all we have done in the past is exploit the place where we have survived for so long. A second chance indeed to introspect on our lives and the way we have been living.

My lockdown of over two months went by in doing what I do the best - observe. As a spectator, all I did this summer was to observe how people were reacting to it. Sometimes it is fun to remain a spectator and not join the race. You only look at the world from a third-person view, and all you need is popcorn in your hand to make it a crispy ride.

Some learnt to cook while some learnt to play the guitar. It felt good to know that people utilized this lockdown in doing something meaningful or something that made them feel alive. Some painted their canvas of dreams with their aspirations while some made changes in their lifestyle.

Meanwhile, I also learnt how to stay at home. I think this could be the biggest thing that I have learnt in my life.

I am a free bird who does not like to be caged. When this lockdown was announced, my only thought was how will I survive at home. You see, I have lived alone for a long time in my life. For almost 13 years and all those years, I have not spent a lot of time sitting at home as that was one thing that I couldn't do. I enjoy going out and meeting new people, exploring places and learning new things. When it was announced that from now on we have to stay indoors for an indefinite period, I had no clue how will I spend my days.

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months here I am still locked inside a house, but, now it is a little convenient for me. It has become a habit to stay at home. I have watched numerous movies, TV series, experimented with my culinary skills in the kitchen and spent time plotting and writing my second novel. It is still in process, and hopefully, I will be able to make some announcements soon.

All you see around now are the reflections of what our inner self always wanted to do, but we were busy in building a life that can be left without meaning. In one stroke, everything can be washed away. This is how life is. Not everyone gets a second chance to reboot. As species, I think, we humans have got our second chance of this century.

The world that soon opens up will be a different one. It will never look the same. You will always have to smile from behind a mask and be afraid to come in contact with people. Well, not all the time but for a few years. But it will never be the same. We have got a second chance to do things differently in this world. Not every living generation gets to be a part of history. It is our second chance to make a difference in our lives, even if it is by a small margin.

The Blog train THE PANDEMIC THAT CHANGED OUR LIFE UPSIDE DOWN initiated by blogger Ila Varma to bring the bloggers together to share numerous experiences of #pandemiclockdown2020. I would like to thank Abhijit Bangal for introducing me in the last post and I would like to introduce Ghazala Nadeem. Let us hear their experiences about the lockdown.

#quarantine #staysafestayhome #quarantineedition #pandemicdiaries2020 #positivityinlockdown #quarantineparenting #workingfromhome #boredombuster