Lockdown
Diary: Every Dark Cloud Has a Silver Lining
When the lockdown was announced, we were all
nonplussed. What were we going to do? How were we going to survive? No stepping
out of the house for even a walk? Life actually came to a halt! No maids, no
cook, no driver…can you imagine a life without these lifelines?
We had invited my daughter, Neha, and her in-laws
for lunch at home just a day before the lockdown, and she had decided to stay
back for a couple of days with us along with our two-and- a-half year old
granddaughter, Kaavya, before she started her preschool on the 1st
of April. It seemed like a wonderful idea.
Then the announcement locked all our plans. So, here
we were with a toddler bursting with energy locked in with us, deprived of her
very first school and playmates. The onus of compensating for her loss seemed
to weigh on me the most. So, I, an M. Sc. degree holder in Child Development—the
expert grandmom—took it upon myself to transform this limitation into an
opportunity.
First, we decided to toilet train Kaavya. She is
quite conversant but the diaper allowed her the security to not tell when she needed
to relieve herself. So, we removed the diaper and told her the consequences of
not wearing one. The first two days were traumatic as she refused to sit on the
pot when we wanted her to. But miraculously on the third day, she began to
shuffle and indicated her need to use the toilet. A big victory, and my husband,
Sanjay, marked it by opening a bottle of wine for all of us after she had
slept.
Next, we wanted to train her to wear no diaper at
night too. I slept in my daughter’s room and put an alarm for 3 am to put little
Kaavya on the pot. She refused and went back to sleep. There was no bedwetting.
The next two nights, we repeated the ritual but she still didn’t oblige.
Finally, we realized that she could hold for the whole night. It was time to rejoice
again with Sanjay opening another bottle of wine. A second celebration within a
span of four days! If things continued this way, we would be alcoholics with
euphoria by the end of the lockdown.
By then, Kaavya began looking up to me as a mentor, philosopher
and guide. I wanted to strike while the iron was hot. Next on the agenda was to
replace her milk bottle with a glass. She loved her milk in a bottle, in the
morning and before going to bed. The fear was that she might give up drinking
milk altogether. We took a chance. The first day, she refused to drink from a
glass. The second day, she had half a glass. The next day, she gave up the
bottle suddenly, saying that we could give it away to a little puppy. That was
our third victory—and you guessed it, Sanjay was ready with our third bottle of
wine—all within the first week of the lockdown!
We then began a volley of question/answer sessions
with Kaavya. “What is the capital of India?” “Who is the prime minister of
India?” “What is our national bird, animal and flower?” “Where does a dog,
lion, hen and a pig live?” “What are their young ones called?” and “What sounds
do they make?” It seemed like an overwhelming task but my pupil was unrelenting
and kept soaking in information like a sponge, and soon started comprehending
the knowledge and blurting out answers like a parrot. Now, I needed to be on my
toes to find more interesting facts for her to assimilate. So, she learnt all
the rules of the Covid-19 lockdown: “staying at home”, “social distancing”,
“wearing masks/gloves” and “washing hands”.
During our ‘talk time’, she memorised the seven days
of the week, the twelve months of the year and the sensory organs and their
uses. In our play time, we cracked jigsaw puzzles while singing songs together.
Surprisingly, she picked up the gayatri mantra, a bhajan and “Papa Loves Mama”
in no time. It was really cute to hear her sing in her baby voice the lyrics of
these songs, some of which were quite intricate.
Since computers and mobile phones are an imperative
part of our lives and the only way to keep one’s sanity especially during the
lockdown, it was impossible to keep screen time away from her, which we had
been doing quite effectively before. So, I decided to incorporate a little
education in this too. I told Neha that computers may become a way of life for
this generation, and thereon introduced Kaavya to a tablet, the Surface. She
learnt to enter the code to turn it on, how to click on the Word document, get
to the keyboard, recognize letters, numbers, symbols and emojis. On the phone,
she learnt how to open the Scrabble app, push the letters in the box, recall
and shuffle them and move on to the next game. She can even click candid
pictures and selfies as well as delete them if they are “bakwas” (not good
enough). She can also record herself singing songs on the mobile.
There were many things I had planned to do during
the lockdown, like knit (which I love), crochet (which I wanted to learn), make
masks (which I wanted to distribute), resume cooking exotic cuisine (which I
had forgotten) and organize my cupboards (which are always a mess), but instead
I ended up spending the most fruitful as well as enjoyable time with Kaavya.
This prolonged period of containment has taught us
many important things. We have learnt to value our caretakers, cherish the
simple pleasures of life like sitting in the balcony looking at a sky full of
stars, hear the chirping of the birds in the morning, the sight of a clear blue
sky and the worth of people and family around us. Each one of us is trying to
help each other in chores we had not done before and realizing that necessity
is the mother of invention, and that nothing is impossible. I took charge of
the cooking. Neha helped with cleaning and washing. Sanjay sorted out his
papers and chipped in with dusting till everything sparkled. In fact, the house
had never looked as clean and organized as it did currently.
Despite more work in the house, there is more
compassion and willingness to help others who are older as well as support the
less advantaged, while being thankful for one’s blessings. I went on an
impromptu baking spree, and surprised my neighbours with little cakes one day,
which was appreciated by all. Needles to say, the small gesture gave me immense
pleasure. The earth is healing, as we all know, and so are all of us from
within. We have realized that we can do without so many things that seemed
essential for us, and that living a minimalistic life leaves one feeling
gratified. That we can do very well without racing around aimlessly on roads,
in movie halls, restaurants, malls and unnecessary large festivities.
People have even commemorated weddings, landmark
birthdays and anniversaries during this time. For instance, we had a lockdown
milestone 40th ruby jubilee celebration. A lot of our friends and
relatives called and wished us—some on Facetime too—many of whom we had not
even connected with in a long time. We didn’t feel as if we were in isolation,
and it was a pleasure to have Neha and Kaavya with us for what will be one of our
most memorable anniversaries.
People have even dealt with adversities like
illnesses, death and separation in seclusion. This lockdown has taught us a lot
about resilience, selflessness, sharing and tolerance—in short, it has helped
us relook at the world and all of humanity in a completely new way.
We still have many more things to work on. Kaavya
likes to read several stories and sing a number of songs before sleeping, and
needs much animation during mealtimes. So, for the remaining days of the
lockdown, we still have our list of challenges to conquer!
