Who knew one day the world would submerge under a lockdown? I had come home for Holi. The next day I was going back to Bangalore. I didn’t want to go back so soon. I wanted to stay longer. Little did I know my wish would come true. On Wednesday early morning I took a bus back to Bangalore. I went directly to the office. I think the journey tired me down. So the next day I chose to work from home. And from then on I’ve been on a work from home mode. The day my office announced a 30-days work from home policy in regards to employee safety due to COVID-19 I was extremely happy. For the first time in years, my entire family would be together. My dad had come back home from Cambodia. He had canceled his upcoming trips and had self quarantined himself at home. My parents had sent the car to get me home safely. And within a few days of leaving home, I was back again looking forward to living with my family for the next thirty days. Within the first week of work from home, a lockdown was announced. For a person who loves staying indoors, that is me, this didn’t change much. But a lot was changing. The surroundings began to change. The seriousness of the situation began to hit everyone. We were getting into the storm created by the virus and there was just one thing we could do, Stay Home Stay Safe. At first, it felt like nothing much had changed. But soon everything had changed even at home. Taking care of the house was no longer one person’s responsibility. It was everyone's. While working from home once was a choice, an option, it had now become a necessity. The real work-life balance was to be tested now more than ever. Before all this began, work from home was a benefit but now it was a privilege. A privilege that not everyone had. A privilege that ensured your safety while you were able to still get food on the table. A privilege that allowed you to help anybody and everybody out there. Amidst all this chaos was a chaos of my own. My 25th birthday. I had been thinking about how special it is to be celebrating my 25th birthday on the 25th of April this year. The whole idea seems irrelevant compared to what’s going on out in the world and now up close to us. Yet it holds it’s own special place. This lockdown life is turning into a new normal and in this new normal the idea of celebrating something special despite the limited options is all I had. That’s my story. That’s how this entire thing came together. This is why I spent every day since the first of April into making my 25th birthday special. And in spite of all the difficulties I have made it special, made it count. Things might keep changing but this will be my constant in the chaos that now has become our life. And guess what? I was able to celebrate my 25th birthday in the best possible way, thanks to everyone at home who made this possible.
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