JOIN USCOVID-19: 'After the lockdown, home has stopped feeling like home'
By Dhrithi Shashibushan
After our annual exams were cancelled on March 13, I was overjoyed. Little did I know then, that my happiness would soon give way to an endless sea of boredom. After being holed up inside the house for more than two weeks since the lockdown was announced, I must say the place has stopped feeling like home.
People say home is where the family stays together but after my recent experience, I beg to differ. I think home is a place where the family can stand each other’s presence.
Right now, in our house, we are driving each other mad with our constant presence. Entertainment has proved to be a major problem over the past few days. My parents seem to place writing articles, solving Prodigy for school, reading online, working on my blog and even watching movies under the same category.
However, I have found some less enticing, but practical options to engage myself. I have taken up close-up photography, not to mention (grudgingly) helping out in household chores, if only to get my mom off my back.
When I pictured my holidays, I imagined sleepovers and endless Netflix sessions. I do have the latter though, but it gets boring after a while (shocker, right?). I was looking forward to gabbing with my friends, as we plonked on the couch and stuffed our faces with food.
All I do now, is fight with my brother, who seems to be getting more irksome by the second. All his ways of having fun either include me (I do not want to be part of his antics) or disturb me. His obsession with video games, which leads to him hogging all the gadgets in the house, really doesn’t help his case.
The lockdown is necessary, and everyone ought to follow it but that doesn’t make the situation any more bearable. The rut that we are stuck in, makes me feel like my exams were never cancelled.
Outside the house, I still see people on the roads, wearing masks, walking their dogs, and going to the grocery store. I envy them but I am sure that to them it is just a chore.
This situation probably won’t change for some more time and I shall wait patiently until then. I am willing to sit tight for a few more days, if it means I can get back to a home that binds me to my family. Not by constraint, but by choice.
(Dhrithi Shashibushan is a student)