The art of just being

India, the world's largest democracy, went into lockdown due to the Corona scare. I, a working mother of 2 boys and seemingly living the perfect life suddenly felt like I got the summer vacation I always wanted.

Now, almost 2 weeks into the quarantine, this surely doesn't seem like a summer vacation. First, because there's no nani's house or visiting cousins. Second, because there's no endless supply of sharbat and maggi and icecream that used to define our holidays - majorly because I am on a diet. 

There are no trips - to the market or elsewhere and there are none of the trappings of a vacation. Heck, my mom's not here too. 

This is, by all means, a unique situation. 

A situation that takes us out of our multiple lives - at the office, at a vacation, at a coffee shop, at a meeting or at xyz. Today, we are not vacationers or people with jobs or people with a social life. We just are. Just existing, just taking each day as it comes. Just parents looking after our kids - neither do they have to go anywhere, neither do we. 

Forced to spend time together, forced to get to know the pre-industrialized life (to a certain extent), forced to rethink our priorities, forced to embrace uncertainty. 

For once, we are more human than we have ever been. More thoughtful of our food, our vegetables, our health and so much more. For once, we have no social pressure to show off our good clothes and shoes or our vacation pics to the world. For once there's no FOMO about the new restaurant that we've not been to yet or the movie that we haven't seen yet.

We have more time and less things to tick off our list. How blissful is that! 

This feeling is very strange, very unfamiliar. I'm getting used to the idea of not having anything particular to do. Finally, inviting my old hobbies back into my life seems quite nice, in a strange kind of way. 

I think this is what a spiritual bootcamp would feel like , where you've cut off most of your worldly ties and limited your attention to the things that matter the most. I'm valuing, cherishing and thanking this time-  for the things it's bringing right through my closed doors.