Friday, March 29
01:55 AM

When life throws lemons at you…

27 May 2020

Priyanka Singh, a nursery teacher, seems to be enjoying the roller-coaster ride that the lockdown has brought into her life. From shuffling between roles as parents to colleagues at home, she and her husband have been trying to make the most of their time together with their daughters. With uncertainty of the future looming large over their heads, Priyanka has been dreading many things at the same time, but she is hoping that this would pass soon. Here’s what she has to say:

As I felt imprisoned, locked in my own abode, bombarded with constant saddening news of people being infected and losing their lives, on one side, and on the other, my partner choosing to follow his entrepreneurial dream at this moment and time, I could only pray we survive this holocaust. 

I had to put an end to this feeling of helplessness before going insane. I consciously reaffirmed self, saying that ‘Life is beautiful’ and thinking of the proverb, ‘when life throws lemons at you, make the best possible lemonade’. However, I thought, easier said than done, the lemons will be sour. 

For someone who would hardly stay at home, we would now spend 24×7 under one roof, and the same was with my daughter. Our worlds would converge, I desperately needed a plan to keep us all busy before the ‘tsunami’ struck us. I dreaded, thinking about the fights, boredom and all the repercussions that await us. 

Professionally, I had the responsibility of leading 40 children, as a kindergarten teacher and coordinator. We had to ensure these angels felt connected, even though we would shift to online teaching. My husband began setting up his ‘tech venture’ and my daughters commenced their online classes. It was a fresh beginning for all four of us, this included my elder daughter studying Engineering in India – the first time ever that she was away from us. 

We started shifting roles from being family to colleagues and visa-versa – my home became a virtual office during the day and an entertainment centre during the night. In order to go online, we literally had to video shoot every day for my following day’s session. I would act and my husband would shoot and edit. Oh, what fun! 

We would sit for hours, brainstorm ideas for my husband’s business, often joke that we have chosen the best possible time to venture out and how crazy this can get. We would toss and turn with sleepless nights, trying to solve the riddle of what lay ahead in the future and, at times, watch a marathon of episodes on Netflix till dawn.

We had our share of disagreements and mood swings. Surprisingly this quarantine allowed us to introspect, empathise and nurture our relationship. A paradigm shift, one can certainly turn sour lemons into sweet lemonade. 

© 2021 Apex Press and Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Mesdac