It’s time you stayed safe at home, too

While the quarantine can save you from the infection outside, it’s another story that it can also expose you to so many hidden shades of yourself, in front of your family. This stay-at-home session has resulted in the grand expose of our habits, our abilities and our shortcomings. Earlier, it was the children, who were being checked on everything. Now, it’s time the adults at home are on their radar.

The past four months have brought out the darker side of my culinary skills, which were better off covered before. Going back to the basics of cooking has put my image in a frothy soup. While I struggle to make a perfectly shaped parantha, I sense the impatience of my husband hovering around in the kitchen. As it is, it’s not easy cooking on the gas burner in these hot and humid conditions.

This is a struggle that I don’t want my children to see. My attempts at putting a meal together on the dining table is becoming increasingly arduous. Perhaps, the problem of cooking is not so big, as much as the frequency of it. Everyone starts feeling hungry at different intervals, and it becomes tricky to cook something that appeals to all. For those who have had the best of pasta in the world, my pasta will never taste as good. Well, nobody is complaining because they can see my efforts but it does leave me a little sheepish at times.

On top of that, the posts of my friends on social media only adds fuel to the fire. I realised that we women are multi-talented. If we are unable to go out and flaunt our fashion mode, we switch to cooking mode, and easily dole out delectable dishes.

One day, the outhouse in my backyard came under the prying eyes of the idle souls loitering in the house. Well that area was not something that I was proud of, but it was still close to my heart. It had all the stuff which I might just need some day. Both my children sauntered into the prohibited area and had a hearty laugh at my hoarding abilities. I could faintly hear them chuckle that it would be a good idea to open a museum for household antiques.

There is a small room attached to my wardrobe. It’s my comfort zone, where I usually dump my things and put them in place at my own sweet will. Now with everyone at home, it was the mother of the house who had to keep her corner in order.

My husband too was having his share of misadventures. The over busy father of two, was no more in a rush. Moving around in a track suit, it was a drastic change from the elegant lawyer’s robe. It did not take long for our naughty duo to discover that he was an atrocious player of card games. The fact tickled them to bits and they would squeal and jump every time they would beat him at the game.

But all our experiments, trials and follies have been worth every moment that we have spent together as a family. We have realised that none of us is infallible. It has in fact strengthened our bond of love and friendship. This stay-athome period has certainly been a blessing in some ways.

ALL OUR EXPERIMENTS, TRIALS AND FOLLIES HAVE BEEN WORTH EVERY MOMENT THAT WE HAVE SPENT TOGETHER AS A FAMILY