30% discount with no-contact delivery

I saw a Facebook advertisement for a clothing company offering a good discount as well as first-time shopper benefits and no-contact delivery.

As an impulsive shopper, half of my paycheck used to go into buying stuff (clothes, shoes), pool games, dining out, self-care, conveyance, or petrol. Month-end and salary end would rarely coincide.

Covid-19 and the resulting lockdown have made me realise that my clothes are in the closet and so are the shoes. I am learning to play the piano and started experimenting with food. I have realised that at-home manicure and pedicure is as good minus the massage. Yoga not only gives a good stretch, the lack of blaring music of the gym does have a calming effect.

Birthdays and wedding anniversaries came, and we wished them all the happiness and love and health. Weddings were organized without an exhaustive guest list and we wished the couples lasting love and happiness together with all our hearts. There was no competition about the gifts or the money to be given. And we donated with all compassion to the needy. Organizations ‘restructured’ the salaries and yet month-end did not cause my salary to end.

Lockdown has its upsides and downsides. Memes about the downsides are readily circulated. On the upside, do I really need all the clothes? Isn’t this period detoxifying? I have become more grateful, old times are more fondly remembered. How I got ready for the office and found my honey-lemon-ginger tea made to perfection in the flask, my breakfast packed with a small box of nutritious seeds, my lunch packed in separate boxes with salad and fruit... Ah! those were the days.

Strangely I feel more at peace now. More relaxed.

More is being accomplished at the office front, more at the home front. More is being learned and still more forgotten.

Do I want to go back to the office? Oh God! Yes. I can’t wait to. Will I buy that dress with a 30% discount? I don’t think so.