What I did when I could not travel

How I am not travelling and still living

Today I am going to talk about what I did when I could not travel, if you have read the previous blog (How I did not travel) you should have some idea, however still let me give you a little detailed version of how my life has been without travel.

The lockdown in India started in March2020 and just like everyone else I was also under the impression that this will just be a matter of couple of months before we get back to normal, however we soon realised this situation is not changing anytime soon, Work from home is the new normal, mask is the new trend and the most alcohol consumed this year is only by our hands.

My initial days in lockdown were just like the rest for the world’s population, Working from home, watching news, being scared to go out, cooking experiments, home workouts and what not, however soon all these things started to fade away and days started to get boring, how I conquered the boredom is what I have written down and I am sure all of us had our own way to get out of this routine.

During this lockdown period I did multiple things starting from Morning Run to Book reading to Badminton practice to writing blogs and many more, I would like to take you on my lockdown journey and below is what I did and How I survived and still surviving this Lockdown.

It was April2020 (one month into lockdown) when I was finally able to go to my hometown after arranging the approval from the authorities and once I was home I was given all the love and affection by my mother mostly in the form of good food, I will not deny I enjoyed every bit of it and it was becoming visible in my body weight.

I was home for one month now and I could notice that I was gaining weight rather rapidly, I had to do something because this is not how I like myself, it was the beginning of June when I decided to start off by running and let me tell you after almost 3 months into close to zero physical fitness running seemed like a long gone dream, However I began, every morning 5.30 AM I would start off by walking and eventually run a bit.

In the beginning I was hardly able to run for 2Kms but I still kept going and my pace and distance kept increasing, slowly but steadily.

It was July end when I was successfully able to run for at least 5Kms at a stretch, also at a similar distance there was a small hill and I decided to have a target of climbing that mountain in 1 go, also the benefits of morning run were becoming visible.

I also realised the morning run keeps you active for the whole day and as hard as it might sound, once you get into the habit of doing something it’s no longer a struggle for you.

Now the time was September and I was able to start my run from my place to the hilltop in 1 go, I had a sense of achievement when I first reached the top of the mountain and saw sunrise from above, now reaching the top before sunrise was my daily affair and the next target was to go home running.

Just so you all know, I did achieve that too by October and now my daily morning routine included leaving the house at 05:30AM, a run for 5Kms, witness sunrise from hilltop and a run back home(another 5Kms ).

My journey to increase my distance and pace for run was not easy, I was not doing it for some competition and my intention was to be in a better shape and to have something to look after daily.

Even though I was spending almost 2 hours every morning with my run routine, I was looking for something else apart from office work from home and run, Hence I decided to start reading books, again.

Now book reading was my second new routine and let me tell you getting the hang of reading a book is not a one day affair, it takes time and I will not deny but in the initial days I got bored and sometimes even dozed off while reading, this changed around the time when I was half way through my first book and now I have finished reading my 6^th book recently.

I started reading books daily and since I am more interested in history and biographies, I decided to go for history books to keep it interesting for myself.

The books I read during lockdown are:

1. The Diary of a young girl(Anne frank)
2. A short walk in the Hindu kush
3. Why I assassinated GANDHI
4. A flying kiss to the sky
5. Think Straight
6. The Saraswati Civilisation

Also, along with book reading I decided to pause my run schedule for some time and I started playing badminton with one of my school friend, we are in the same city and both are working from home, one day we were just sitting and chatting over chai and decided to start practicing badminton, started after Diwali we are now 2 months down the line playing every morning, when I started playing badminton I realised there’s a huge difference in just running and playing a sport, but I can say now that we have now increased our game timing and we have better rounds and more efficient game sets.

I also started writing again after so long, what you are reading right now is also the product of one of the many things I started doing while in lockdown due to COVID-19.

Since we are almost 1 year down in lockdown and we know it is going to be long before we can actually go back to normal, honestly I don’t think this is going to happen anytime soon and this is becoming a new normal, all we are left with is ourselves, lots of food, good internet, gadgets all around and lots of time to spend.

It is easy to just sit around and watch TV all day long or maybe spend your time on social media or you can choose to do something new or maybe start off with something that you always wanted, you can even resume something that you used to do long time ago and never found enough time with your regular regime.

The key is to spend your time doing something that you enjoy, now don’t get me wrong here as I am not saying spending time on phone or watching TV is bad because I also watch TV sometimes, I am a movie buff and always take out time to watch a good movie or a series or even a documentary, the key is to be content with what you do and not regret that you did not do something when you had the time.

It is February 2021, my school friend/badminton partner has joined back work and hence I have started spending my morning time running again.

Now after almost 1 year in lockdown I have started travelling a little bit and started exploring my own city because I left my hometown more than 7 years ago and things have changed here, roaming around in my own city gives me the comfort of my own city and experience of finding something new, sounds fun, right? Well it is, you should try it too, explore your hometown and even if you do not find anything new you will definitely relive some old moments and refresh your memories from past.

Now we are in March2021 and that is 1 year in lockdown with limited access to outer world, even though people have started going back to normal we should not forget the threat is still active and we are still getting cases every single day.

So here’s what my lockdown without travel looked like even though I don’t have a lot of travel tales like before, I still have a lot of experiences to share and I will keep finding something or the other to spend my time while it’s unsafe to be outside amid COVID-19.

I would also like you to share your experiences on how your lockdown is going, what you did and doing to cope up with this, hoping to read some amazing lockdown stories.

We will meet again with a new story and a new experience, till then.

KEEP TRAVELLING || KEEP EXPLORING || KEEP SHARING