Too Many Home Cooks Maketh The Quarantine Broth
The need of the hour is to be together from afar — an ode to the different types of quarantine characters.
Who could’ve thought the world would cease to move? For centuries we’ve been trained to move amongst places and people, physically and mentally, and here we are, not knowing what to do amidst this massive pause.
As the lines between weekdays and weekends, days and nights, reality and illusion dissolve, it’s fascinating to see how people are dealing with staying home in their own ways.
The Go-getter
“I should make the most of this time”, they say as they arise with the birds and tick the chores off their list along the course of the day. After all, why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?
The Vacationer
“I should make the most of this time”, they say as they nap and Netflix the day away. The vacationer is in absolute bliss, taking each day as it comes and merrily watching the go-getters from afar. Why do today what you can do tomorrow?
The Lockdown Butterfly
Their to-do list includes Zoom and FaceTime calls scheduled every couple of hours with the 1793497 people they absolutely must stay in touch with. Their weekends, filled with virtual parties are certainly more exciting than the rest of ours!
The Creator
The chef, the baker, the artist, the TikTok video maker — you name it. Determined to get their creative juices flowing, they’re brushing up old skills and venturing into new ones and of course, flaunting them on social media.
The Optimist
Spending their days scouting the news on the decline in the Covid-19 trajectory and the gradual return to normalcy in parts of the world, the optimist is our favourite WhatsApp forwarder!
The Experimenter
To those of you who have embraced this as an opportunity to try new looks — lads with shaved heads and/or moustaches, ladies with self-cut bangs and self-dyed hair, thanks for keeping us entertained.
The Rule Breaker
That one friend who thinks it’s summer vacation and is badgering us to go out and do stuff together. “Government orders to stay in and not meet people? Seems like a great day to go out and meet people!”
All said and done, we’re embracing the situation much better than initially anticipated. It’s not easy for a species of over 7 billion so accustomed to moving, to come to a standstill. But we’re making it possible through the social media challenges, DIY videos, live chats, short films and virtual gatherings whilst we whip up some Dalgona coffee (!) and might I say, even enjoying it. Before all of this, we thought we needed to chase sunsets in new cities to feel fulfilled, but we’ve finally learnt to see the beauty in the sunset from our own windows. So here’s to us — the go-getters, the vacationers, the lockdown butterflies (my personal favourite), the creators, the optimists, the experimenters and the rule breakers; we possibly couldn’t have done it without each other!
