Every holiday was fun and happening until this one, which was termed as “LOCKDOWN” and was pretty sudden. For the people who love to wander and travel, this lockdown was bad news. I also am among the thousands of wanderers and travelers who love to explore new places. Initially, it took some time for the idea of the lockdown to sink in for me. To be honest, I was doing nothing except lazing around the whole day, watching movies, eating at odd hours, and not sleeping at all. This is the time I felt that maybe the lockdown is not all that bad.
Then one day I realized I’ve got to be more productive than this. So, I resorted to my artwork. I managed to paint so much that I ran out of sheets. This was the one thing that kept me busy and sane during this lockdown. I realized I needed something to keep me busy. There is a saying by Edward de Bono “Creativity involves breaking out of expected patterns to look at things in a different way.” This is what encouraged me to try my hand at different things. I started painting on newspapers, which magically turned out to be my best work so far. I shared my artwork with my friends and they seemed to be jealous and motivated at the same time. Some of them even got influenced enough to try their styles of art. This pushed me to work more. The fact that I could influence people was overwhelming.
Thankfully, shops gradually started opening during the next phase of the lockdown. I was able to restock my stationery items. But all of this also made me want to learn newer things. My mother is a drawing teacher in a Government school. So I thought, why can’t I take help from her? Thanks to art, we started spending more time together. I learned a lot about techniques from her. My free-flowing pattern of brushes now had a different stroke schedule to follow! Everyone could see the progress in my work. It was a happy feeling.
The internet then ended up pushing me towards something I had never done before. I started to cook. Though the kitchen isn’t the most favorable spot to be in during summers, it managed to not be as bad as I’d imagined. I started with the usual “common dishes” though still uncommon for my households like dosa, idli, different types of pasta, and varieties of chicken and fish. For half a month I managed to cook every day. Nobody in the family expected me to be in the kitchen for so long. Even I was in shock! I didn’t know how I pulled off almost all the recipes. Now I had two things to do during the lockdown. YAY!!
Jumping to my third milestone, I learned to bake also. I made cakes and muffins. I was having a blast during this lockdown period. While I enjoyed doing these, I continued with my photography. I have always loved the camera but was never really sure of what my field of photography is. One day I saw a green pigeon on my balcony and started randomly clicking that. From that day, I started clicking photos of the birds, moon, and sunsets. Thanks to the lockdown the pollution level has been so low that all the photos come out to be naturally beautiful. That’s when I began experimenting with the camera and the subjects. I clicked a lot of photos and posted them on my photography page on Instagram. Some of them are yet to be posted.
So to sum it all up, my love for different expressions of art -drawing & painting, my love for food -Cooking & Baking and my love for capturing moments- photography, helped me stay occupied and happy during this Lockdown period.
