Together is a wonderful place to be.
When the year 2020 took birth, we welcomed New Year the Dubai way — watching Burj Khalifa lighting up the Downtown Dubai skyline in a spectacular display of fireworks, huddled together — sans masks, hand sanitisers and gloves — on a balcony with a view, our eyes sparkling, our hopes and dreams soaring like the resplendent show that lit up high in the inky sky.
On that day, only the spirit of togetherness mattered, N95 masks and villain viruses belonged to a dystopian novel or a series streaming on Netflix.
The lockdown is stressing out employees, employers and home makers but while we are in the eye of the COVID-19 storm we have no choice but to sit tight and wait it out because there is a tomorrow — a fresh virus-free tomorrow, that will reap the efforts of our today, waiting for us to pick up from where we left off
On the other side of living in the midst of a pandemic, this Lilliputian monster has got us to re-evaluate our choices, appreciate the often insignificant but important aspects of our life that conveniently slid into the blind spot and even redefined the meaning of togetherness.
Transforming homes into classrooms
When we were warned about computers taking over our world, I imagined the Autobots and Decepticons springing to life off of the Transformers movie, not a laptop and WiFi transforming our homes into work spaces and classrooms.
If Netflix is our master entertainer, YouTube has become our friend, philosopher and guide. When hunger became the new boredom, YouTube inspired us to cook up a storm.
When we realised that our culinary experiments would not get us out of the door by end of the lockdown, YouTube guided us into an exercise routine. To the delight of my children, screens rule our world.
Under the same roof
Together has ceased to be anything but under the same roof. With two children having little to do and vying for our attention after school hours means that I have learnt to direct the questions intended to the husband as discreetly as possible for I often got three responses for a question only intended one.
We have also shelved our differences of opinions to a safer day for we are not keen on having an audience in our midst.
If board games and Uno have an international platform to compete on the other side of the lockdown, our daily practice could easily win us a few golds and silvers. Together can be messy especially when you have a creative child who insists on finding beauty in mess.
Unfortunately, her mother is not creative enough to see puddles of paint anything other than stains and sharpener shavings glued to the wall as nothing but mess. On the bright side, her creativity is keeping me fit.
Appreciation and gratitude for everyone and everything that we took for granted is a major lockdown side effect.
The superheroes who live among us playing hide and seek with the virus to ensure that we stay-at-home heroes are well provided for and safe now have all our heartfelt respects and gratitude that they always deserved.
Everyone's shaken
The present situation has shaken us enough to appreciate and be thankful for everything that we had in abundance just a few months back.
The lockdown is stressing out employees, employers and home makers but while we are in the eye of the COVID-19 storm we have no choice but to sit tight and wait it out because there is a tomorrow — a fresh virus-free tomorrow, that will reap the efforts of our today, waiting for us to pick up from where we left off.
A tomorrow when we will value health, hygiene, our heroes who stood by us and even a visit to the supermarket than we ever did in the past. And the last thing that we need while we await that day is doubt.
Until then, the only constant that matters is to stay safe and when in doubt, count your blessings. We will come through this together, one day at a time.
Pranitha Menon is a freelance writer based in Dubai. Twitter: @MenonPranitha
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