How am I coping up with lockdown?

I think it will be the first time I am at home for such a long time. There used to be lull between my travels but still I used to go a day or half day trip from Bengaluru. But now I have not moved out of my locality for past few weeks.

My travel during Coronavirus spread

On Feb 21^st, I went on an Official trip to US with a short break in Washington DC. Everything looked normal with flights flying full and airports packed with people. But within the span of a week, things dramatically changed with cases increasing in Europe and Middle East. Even in US, new cases started trickling in who had no history of travel. It looked like the risk of catching disease increased with each additional day I spent in US. Luckily, it was a short trip and I was back in India on the first week of March.

Japan plans is shelved

I had planned a family trip to Japan in April. The air tickets were booked last year when the world had not heard about COVID-19. Even when China was at the height of this pandemic, I did not feel that my trip was in jeopardy. But after my return from US, it became very clear that I had to cancel my Japan plans. I had booked a very good nonrefundable flight deal with ANA and it looked like I would lose money. One of the hotel reservations at booking.com was nonrefundable (again a very good deal). There was nothing much to do apart from waiting how the situation unfolded. As expected, ANA announced that there were refunding all money and I promptly cancelled my booking. Last week, booking.com sent a mail that I could get my money refunded due to the extraordinary situation.

In general, I did not lose any money, but I do not think I could get such a deal in future. Anyway, there are more important things than to worry about such stuff.

My life during lockdown

Unlike many people who claim in social media, I do not find any extra free time!! I am working from home past one month (First 2 weeks as I came from US and then due to lockdown) and the weekdays are fully occupied. On normal week, I only have weekends to spend time on planning the trip, processing the photos or writing posts and it has not changed at all with the new situation.

Few people struggle with working from home, but I am now used to it. While there are pros and cons, I look at the positive aspect of work from home.

• No travel time – biggest positive aspect. I used to spend nearly 2.5 hours on commuting every day and I now I have that extra time. But that extra time goes in managing inefficiencies due to work from home and other household chores (though Chaya does most of it and I only play small supporting role)!!
• Less pollution and noise.
• Non A/C environment at home – I consider A/C as the main source of many health problems.
• Home food – Less junk and more nutritious food!!
• Reduction in expenses.

In addition to this, I also keep some discipline while working from home, else it could become extremely difficult to manage.

• Ergonomic chairs and tables (Basically, Tanu’s study table!!)
• Handling time – Managing the day like you do in Office.
• Adequate rests throughout the day – Lunch, tea, snacks.
• Go to the terrace and spend some time in the sun
• Exercise – the gym is closed (I went only for fitness purpose and not for muscles!!) but doing some home exercises like Yoga.
• Meditation
• News watching and social media usage is restricted – too much of negative news.
• Reading books, watching some good movies and series.

As of now, things are ok during lockdown. Newspapers and milk are delivered every day. Grocery, vegetables, fruits and medicines are available at the shops near my home. I haven’t gone out apart for buying necessary stuff.

Future travel plans

I had few travel plans in the second half of the year though I had not made any bookings. Looking at the current situation, I do not think that I could execute it. I believe that it would be May or June when the situation would come to control where the community or local transmission stop. But countries would still have restrictions on travel. Mandatory quarantine may follow any international travel. Considering that airports and flights are the major hub of disease spread, it would take some time for people to get confidence. Important and emergency travel may happen but not the leisure travel. Better to wait till the situation improves. Take it slow.

Considering how quickly this virus spreads, the situation may not be termed as control until there is no one infected with virus or a cure or vaccine is found. Even one infected person can cause havoc. Remember the (in)famous “patient 31” who is responsible for 60% of infections in South Korea. There is always danger of second wave (Ex: Second wave of Spanish flu) Considering the entire world being impacted, it will definitely take some time for the things to stabilise unless virus makes a sudden disappearance!!

For now, I am devouring all information about some places that I am interested to travel hoping for the situation to improve.