Grow your own garden
Kunal Kapur, Chef
“When you repeat something every day, no matter how much you like it, the fun goes out of it,” Chef Kunal Kapur has learnt over the past couple of weeks. Which is why at his house in Mumbai, the chef’s hat does not rest heavy on just one person, but all three members: he, his mother and his father.
Meanwhile, having always had green fingers, he has thrown himself into developing a thriving vegetable garden at his balcony. “There are so many vegetables that can be grown in a pot — tomatoes’ roots for instance, don’t go very deep. I also have chia flowers that will be ready to give seeds in another month,” he says. You don’t even need to have a sunny balcony, he adds, “Greens like spinach grow well in the shade.”
Kunal Kapur
Another thing he would like to bring back is a humbler eating style. “I remember when my grandmother made food, we did not have a dining table at home. We would instead all sit down on the cold kitchen floor and eat together.”
Deep dive into nostalgia
Benitha Perciyal, Artist
Artist Benitha Perciyal in her studio at George Town in Chennai.
Artist Benitha Perciyal has not been doing anything even remotely connected to work during isolation. “Friends call and ask me what I’m working on, saying that I must now be getting a lot of ideas…” she says, adding that the circumstances are “situation-imposed” and not “self-imposed” to get a sudden burst of creativity.
She has not stepped out of home for almost three months now — she suffered a ligament tear a couple of months ago. Her house in Chennai, says Benitha, is her everything now. “I’ve cleaned up every nook and corner of it and encountered objects that I collected during the past,” she says. Benitha never lets go of these little memorabilia and says that each of them is making her reminisce. “I’m in that space now,” she says.
But perhaps the best thing the lockdown did to her is make her listen to her plants’ needs. “I’ve been growing plants for 25 years now, but I’ve always only watered them when needed and walked past them.” She now spends time with them — talks to them. “I can tell you exactly how many leaves each of my plants have,” she says.
More focussed now
Anita Nair, Author
Author Anita Nair
“Something that I have always believed in, but has now been proven is this: I am very much a solitary person,” says Anita Nair. The Bengaluru-based author has not been meeting friends since two months now. “I was in a state of lockdown long before the actual lockdown began, ever since I had eye surgery. And I realised I was quite comfortable living life like this.” The lockdown period has made her realise how self-reliant she is.
The author has just finished writing an audiobook for Storytel, that revolves around the Citizenship Amendment Act. “Since I am spending a lot more time on household chores, I don’t have the full day to write. So when I do find the time to write, it is with a single-minded focus. I won’t say I am writing better but in longer spurts,” she says.
For many years, she would work only in the morning, but now with chores spread through the day, she finds herself writing at night as well. “It allows me to step out of that regimented style of working I had set up for myself.”
Downsizing life
R Bhanumathi, Naturalist
Bhanumathi
For Bhanumathi, the lockdown has been a chance to think about her lifestyle choices: a reminder to live a sustainable life. “We need to examine how much resources we are using,” she says. Whether it is using ingredients judiciously in the kitchen, buying fewer gadgets and cars, or “on a more personal level, even whether we need to have two or more children. I am glad many are making the conscious decision to adopt instead. Because we have to think about the kind of planet we are leaving for them, 30 years down the line.”
Given that things are no longer easily available to us at our doorstep, she says this has made her pay attention to the whole process of manufacturing that goes behind a finished product and all the people involved in it.
The lockdown is a huge shift from her regular life, given she would go on Nature expeditions almost twice every month. “This period has taught me tolerance and patience in thinking before making decisions.” The odd dragonfly still wanders inside her window. “One day, I heard the calls of a spotted owlet at around midnight. I have lived in Chennai since 1982 and that has never happened before.”
In all gratitude
Raashi Khanna, Actor
Soon after the lockdown was announced, one thing stood out in actor Raashi Khanna’s mind: the ease with which she was able to adapt to it. “In the first few days, I understood how privileged we are and was grateful to have food on my plate, when I saw what was unfolding [the plight of migrant labourers].”
Raashi has been using the downtime to finally learn Tamil and meditation. “I began following guided online meditation videos by Wayne W Dyer and have been reading his book The Power of Intention . Earlier, I wouldn’t be able to sit still for more than a few minutes; now I can be in a meditative state of mind for two hours, without a rush of thoughts.”
- “This lockdown has brought a new sound in my life. The sound of silence,” says author Rose Garg. “It began, when the weekend blurred into Monday; with me barely noticing. It helped that I stopped looking at the date, the time, even the news. I had a 3-year-old and plenty of household chores. What was the hurry? My anniversary, Easter and a few other important days came and went. Quietly. In the silence I see important things that I otherwise miss.”
Adding that this is a good time to do some soul searching, she says she would like to carry forward the positive changes she has sensed within herself for the remaining days of lockdown, and much beyond. “When we step out after the lockdown, I hope we become more environment friendly as well. When human beings stay home, Nature has been healing, hasn’t it?”
What has this period of lockdown taught you? Tweet to us @thmetroplus or mail metro@thehindu.co.in
