Getting out of a 40 day complete home lockdown
Yesterday, I went out of my house for the first time in 40 days. India was in a complete lockdown for ~30 days, and I didn’t feel the need to go out for the remaining 10 days. So in a way, I just finished my exile/ house arrest/ self imposed isolation. I’m here to answer — How does it feel? What did I realise from this?
Mmm… Pretty much the same, yet very different. Let me explain.
When I returned to my parent’s home on 20th March, I was pretty sure the virus is going to stay for a long time. The government must have also realised by then, and 4 days later they announced a 3-week complete lockdown in India. This later got extended to 10–15 days more, but it was exactly as it sounded — meaning no one could go outside their homes, except for of course buying groceries and medicines. This was not a surprise and pretty much expected by everyone who was following the news.
For me, it did not result in big radical changes. I was already accustomed in a work-from-home set up and still did not have to cook food and compulsorily do household chores (which later I did of course). One more thing where my family could have benefitted from me was to bring groceries — but for which we (or my parents at least) decided that only one person from family would go. Unanimously Father was chosen because one, I cannot be trusted with shopping vegetables and two, Father’s office had given holidays. Being an avid walker, these were his only opportunities to go out.
This exhausted all my options (don’t forget, zero intentions) to go out.
After around 35 days, my home state with almost single digit active cases now — none in my district, had decided to allow morning walks for residents. This was also highly demanded because in a hilly state such as mine, walking is as good for fitness as running in plain regions. Let’s not even call it walking, it’s basically ‘hiking’. And therefore, it is the #1 exercise for people around.
My parents are one of these people although they also exercise indoors. But there’s something about walking in hills that’s therapy. They of course did not want to miss this and got rolling from the very first day when restrictions were eased. I, on the other hand, could simply not wake up at the allotted time. It was too early for my work day routine when I was taking some late night calls. But my intention of going out was fast brewing inside me. I decided, that I will go out for a walk on the weekend, come what may.
It was a cold morning (I guess they always were, I just didn’t know about it) and putting up my Skechers I walked out with my Mother. Father had skipped as he just didn’t feel like it today. Fair enough, I had been feeling this way for the last 3–4 days.
As I stepped out, I had imagined it to be a surreal experience with so many emotions rushing inside me but meh, it was much normal. Not pretty normal, but much normal. I could see more monkeys on the road, I guess they were all very hungry because of this “stupid” lockdown. In terms of people, there were quite a few, all mature aged people. I could simply imagine why people my age wouldn’t wake up on a weekend for a “walk”. We are all lazy.
But I really felt nice, when I could see in the distance the main town. The vision, then looked full. I guess it was simply that until now, my view was narrow, limited to narrow roads and shops that it all appeared ‘daily stuff’ to me.
But when you see in the distance, towards the horizon, two hills ahead of you — you realise the concept of space and freedom. These two intermingle very beautifully in our sub-conscious.
Space gives us vastness of the beauty around us, it lights up a sense of exploration in us and Freedom is the vehicle to make it happen. We love the freedom to explore everything around us. We might never go everywhere, but the sense in itself keeps us happy, fulfilled. I think this sense was restored that day, and I enjoyed this the most.
I also enjoyed seeing other people from different walks, pretty evident on each’s face the joy of walking around without any worries (except of the frequent face masks falling down their noses). There were pets, monkeys (again) and birds chirping loud and clear as if they were also excited on seeing us after so long. Although I highly doubt the last one — no noise pollution would be such a relief to these pretty creatures.
In a nutshell, I think being an inclined introvert I can pretty much cope with an isolation, I can keep myself engaged, but the joy of walking around — freely — is something which can’t be brought to your homes and is a necessity. At least for me. And therefore, I’ll keep waiting for complete lockdown to lift up, when it does.
P.S. I haven’t gotten up as early since to go for walk again. Don’t judge me, I plan to this weekend.
