Lockdown.....All is well

On February 12th 2020,I received a WhatsApp message from one of my friends living in Vietnam that all the schools in her country had adopted online teaching as the schools were closed there due to Corona outbreak. One line that took my attention was 'a period of adjustment for students and teachers but they are all handling it pretty well' . The same day I discussed this in my Master Trainers' group and got a very positive response from our mentor, Mrs. Rajinder Narula. This encouraged me further to enquire and learn about the virtual classrooms. I had a talk with the computer teachers of my school and my old students who had done engineering in Computer Applications, my school friends and searched many YouTube videos. After having enough knowledge of it, I started its experimentation on my niece after her annual examinations were over. I was in the initial phases of my experiments when sudden lock down threw every human activity out of gear, be it school, any trade, unorganised sectors and what not.

In the initial days of lockdown I was finding it very difficult to adjust as I used to find meaning through my work. Then I was assigned a responsibility by our mentor from Delhi. It is said teachers are lifelong learners and if they are not, they may get lost when things change.Herein came the whole concept of digital transformation. There was no other choice, no time for planning either. It was a necessity based upgrade. Probably the corona lockdown is teaching us lessons we never thought we'd have to learn.

My life during this lockdown has been busier; it has curated between work and home. My day still begins very early but it ends very late. The one thing that is making me happy is connecting with my students on Zoom. It brings a shred of normalcy back to one's life.

I am also revisiting my personal goals and interests - health and fitness, mind improvement, mithila painting, jewellery designing and of course cooking. I am totally enjoying these aspects too. In this respect, I am finding this lockdown time extremely fruitful. I am more connected with family and friends digitally . All of us have time and enjoy talking to each other. We seem to value connection more. But this is only one side of the coin; the other one is not that good.

This lockdown has, no doubt, given enough time to be spent with the members of family but at the same time it has led to separation of the members from each other in those families where the mothers, the fathers, the sons and the daughters are living at different places and have got trapped in this sudden lockdown.In such families, members aren't able to take care of each other and consequently, at times, they feel helpless.

After my hubby's move to DAV Mathurapur in August 2019 ,we had become fortnightly couple.But this lockdown has further separated us.He has to do all the household chores on his own as his cook no longer comes.Most of the days it is khichdi and papad and sometimes only sattu.My son is stranded in Delhi,but happy that he is with my parents and taking good care of them.

I am praying for the world to heal, for food and health for all, especially those miserably affected or belong to the poorest section of society. I am also apologetic to the earth and its other inhabitants.This had to happen for them to get what is due to them.

'All is well' is the only mantra that is working for me now-a-days. Having said all this, I am dying to get back to normalcy.

Inspite of all the worries and concerns, this time for me is the one for rejuvenation, reorientation, revisiting and charging my batteries to get back into the mainstream.