As the world gets engulfed into a pandemic with mass-hysteria and banging thaalis at the drop of a hat, what can one do till 31st?
Cramped up between internals and 9 AM lectures, we were dying for the mid-semester breaks, but no one, absolutely no one knew what was in store for us. On 12th March, the University of Delhi (DU) Registrar declared the postponement of classes, exams, internals till 31st March, 2020. Stuck within the four walls of your house, how can you make the maximum out of social distancing and quarantine?
- Bond With Your Family
Agreed, not everyone has a healthy relationship with their parents and quarantine can take an emotional toll on them, let’s get together and cry over our collective trauma. For the rest of us, we cry our hearts out on ghar ka khana and mom’s remembrance, try to relive the pre-college days, try to re-bond and repair the broken threads of your family. As Karan Johan says, ‘it’s all about loving your parents.’
- Binge! Binge! Binge!
On a normal college-day schedule, we’ll spend the night away binge-watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine, complaining the next day whilst missing the 9 AM lecture and bragging about our body’s ability to function in three-hours’ sleep. Now, all you got to do 24*7 is to binge your heart’s content out, and with absolutely no one asking you to go out. Aditi Gutgutia, a student of Lady Shri Ram College spends her time binge-watching on CID, reliving her childhood, you see.
- Reconnect With Your School Friends
People change, old bonds break and there is no shame in trying to reconnect with them (unless they are toxic, then stay 3000 light-years away). They are probably just one call away and equally bored switching from one app to another. My personal favourite would be playing online games with them, online quizzes, drawing oranges, carrots, and bananas.
- Read & Write!
That Agatha Christie that you bought from a book store in Kolkata is waiting to be touched, felt, explored, devoured. Open your bookshelf and finally finish that book you have been postponing since you started college. Great reads produce great writers, don’t forget to write, other than being a great coping mechanism and an outlet to channelise your deepest thought, writing is relaxing. As Prabhanu Kumar Das has been productively utilising the uncalled for breaks diving into his literature. “I have been reading my usual college readings, trying to expand on my understanding of marxism, reading Lenin, some Bukowski, I have been writing articles and poetry.”
- Journaling
We wouldn’t have ‘The Diary Of A Young Girl’ unless Anne Frank journaled through the holocaust. Record. Write. Vlog. We are narrating the tales of COVID-19 and quarantine ruining our attendance and non-existent social life. Shakir Subhan or the ‘Mallu Traveller’ continued to vlog as he was admitted into an isolation ward at a government hospital in Kannur. Several patients have been regularly tweeting or maintaining blogs, tracking their symptoms and giving regular updates.
- Do-It-Yourself!
Those aesthetic notebook covers, t-shirts, gifts, phone covers, that you saw on a YouTuber’s video, do it, girl! All of us are going to come out as chefs and bakers with the over the top Maggi experiments and mud cakes. With time by our side, unleash your hidden creative genius and explore. Experiment and be the Rancho you always wanted to be, like Akshat Arora says, “I am so bored out of my wits that I uninstalled my Windows, downloaded Linux and then downloaded Windows again. My laptop hates me now.”
- Meditate
Quarantine can take a toll on one’s mental health, increasing anxiety and making it extremely stressful for some. Center for Disease Control and Prevention enlists a set of guidelines on how to manage and cope with building anxiety and stress. Meditation can if not cure but reduce and help one calm their senses. Amidst raging fear, hysteria, and deaths, it is essential to look after one’s mental health too.
- Chill Minus The Guilt
An idle mind is a devil’s workshop, or is it? Productivity guilt teaches you that it is pertinent to keep on working, be productive, produce any physical or tangible change. The pandemic hysteria can be too drastic on one, it is alright to sit idle, stare at the wall and contemplate one’s existence. Take a break. Year-long we are overwhelmed with assignments, internships, society, for once, as we are asked to stay put, in silence, do that, minus the guilt.
- Clean & Organise
Our life is a mess doesn’t mean our rooms have to be, too. Clear that wardrobe, fold that bedsheet, clear your study table, organise your bookshelf. My friends and I have uncovered childhood mark sheets and assignments from the bottom of our school bags. Help organise and rearrange the house, help your family out, stay hygienic, clean and sanitize!
- Look Out For Others
Elderly and the immunodeficient are vulnerable to COVID-19. Keep your parents and grandparents under check, look after yourself, self-care is essential. In times of such dystopia, it is all the more important to stay strong and fight this together.
Students of Mumbai University were met with an unforeseen postponement of their examinations, Nandini Sukhija, a student of the same, says, “I study a bit because my remaining four exams got postponed. Since all my family members are working from home, we usually find time to play cards or Ludo. I plan to spend a self-care day, using face masks and hair care products. I might as well start with a new tv series.”
Feature Image Credits: Anukriti Mudgil for DU Beat
Anandi Sen