Random thoughts and my guide to surviving in a lockdown

It has been almost 3 months since I last went to work, met friends at a birthday gathering, had a professional chef prepared meal at a restaurant while sipping wine, hugged my friends. Its been a time where a lot of normal life has been missing. Its made all of us appreciate and accept things in our life that are more important and meaningful.

It has also made me again recognize how privileged we are. To be able to sit at home and complain about social distancing and lockdown is much simpler a problem than the ones faced by many others.
Even so, my anxiety levels have been super high through these weeks. The havoc this pandemic has caused in places like NYC, Italy and in India has been gut wrenching to watch and thats given me some sleepless nights for sure. I have tried a few things to survive and find my happiness in this time when life is under lockdown

Reading and Reading together, and Book clubs
I have certainly read more in the last three months. I have had a lot more free time on my hands but have also been fairly distracted. I've often found my mind wandering and my hands moving towards my phone to check the covid-19 stats.
A and I started the Foundation series together. It has been fun to read and talk about the book.

I started two other virtual events with friends - a book club and a weekly Read-aloud story session. We take turns to pick a story we think will make for an interesting read or conversation after. The session is ambitiously called 'Reading time in the Alpha Quandrant'. Its introduced some interesting stories and authors, led to some interesting socio-political debates, had us reminisce about the world as we knew it and about our childhoods. I also joined some other book clubs that friends started.
Even in this time of social distancing, these events, zoom and google meet calls have helped me stay connected.

Podcasts, Book Readings 
I find I have a little less time for audiobooks and podcasts than I did before. My past life involved a lot of public transport and walking around. So my regular podcasts are kinda little ignored right now. But I did turn to some new podcasts to help cope with my anxiety levels. I am someone who processes things by talking them over and this pandemic has had varying impacts on people. I found that talking about those upsetting things happening out there was difficult for some of my friends to talk about. I turned to some familiar names that started new podcasts to talk about the pandemic and its impact.
'Sugar Calling' by Cheryl Strayed helped me understand that I was not the only one having trouble with disconnecting from the news.
Levar Burton's twitter reading sessions were a good escape.
So many celebrities did book readings on social media. Taika Waititi and friends reading of James and the giant peach has been quite the listen. Juggernaut books did a #readinstead fest and I love Konkana Sen's reading of Jhumpa Lahiri's short story 'Hell-Heaven'.
This inspirational TedTalk by Neil Gaiman. "We are tougher than we seem. We are tougher than we think. Our stories will outlive us. Let's make them good."


Exercising
I had a rough first few weeks adjusting to this new schedule of working from home. But by May I had found my rhythm again. Running is like meditation for me. A good audiobook to focus my mind while I run has been my go to to maintain my calm. This last month we also went on a few bike rides.

A photo from my regular running path.

Watching A cook
I have never been a big fan of cooking. I cook to survive. A on the other hand loves to cook. He finds the boring...I mean simple... act of chopping veggies cathartic. He has been cooking and baking quite a bit these few months. And we've been dancing our usual tango of he cooks while I chat away.


Surprisingly we have not been watching as much tv as one would expect. But all that cooking and baking does take up a lot of time. As trying as these times are, it has given some of us an opportunity to slow down, pause and remember to look inward. This social distancing has created a chasm that we can fill in with things that we like doing. Everyone around me is cooking more, drinking more, reading more. The world..err I mean amazon... is out of yeast. The one question thats still on my mind is whether this lockdown has made us socially distanced or socially connected.