Pause, Retreat, and Breathe

We are all under a global lockdown, some of us have never experienced this before, we are so used to “hustling”, that we forgot ourselves and our families. Most days looked like this for me, I woke up played with the dog for a little bit, had a masala tea or two (I am a bonafide tea lover), then rush to get ready, have a hurried breakfast with the news blabbering the background, and then commuting to work in a car lost in my thoughts while music played in the background. Everything we once loved or love is playing in the background. My company has the privilege of allowing us to work from home at times, especially, a good blessing given the traffic situation we have had in Delhi in the past. 

I would have my laptop in front of me those days, sit in my PJs and allow my Netflix to autoplay a series till it would ask me “are you still watching Netlfix?”, of course, I am watching you, and also watching my laptop screen, my phone screen, my tab screen. I wouldn’t know when it would be evening, only when my dog would walk into my room that I would pause at that moment. 

That was just a day or two in a month, yet I was hustling and moving, never not in motion! Other days would include a drive which could range from 40minutes to 3 hours depending on the traffic, the amount of alcohol had by a random truck driver who realizes he is going to crash his truck into the highway and decided to Fast & Furious it on the road and eventually fall horizontally on the highway and blocking traffic for at least a few hours. Not to mention bikers who ride like they’re all the Ghost Riders out chasing the sinner and lane changing like crazy!

I would just block them out by listening to really loud aimless songs or listen to a podcast but that would never be enough, the traffic always made me go bonkers, especially during the summer months when even a fully air-conditioned car felt like an oven.

We never really paused, we let our passions run wild in the background and only work became a priority. I called myself an animal lover but only gave my dog ten minutes a day. I learned how to bake, only ever made cakes once a quarter, like it was a quarterly report on my hobbies; I learned to paint but never really did it ever again; I have 3 kilos of raw soap, I learned how to make soaps, promised myself that I would make them for all my friends, only did it twice. What I really did was be on top of my mails, the first thing I checked every day was Outlook, I was on top of my work, my campaigns, my meetings and that’s what really mattered. 

Now we are under lockdown, I still get up at 7, my dog goes crazy seeing me, she doesn’t know why everyone’s home. The world over dogs have gotten their prayers answered, while cats think someone conspired against their favorite sleeping spot. Now, I have time to actually watch television, I realized how funny Seinfeld really is, how subtle are the camera movements in The Office, exposing me to a new world of shows that I never knew, even though I am watching these shows all over again. Its this pause, it’s the retreat we all took to fight this virus. Retreat means to fall back and also a fancy place to go for a vacation. I used to be envious of staycations, as I always wanted to experience the wonders of a hotel and to not step out for anything. We are all now in staycations at our own homes, we need to pamper ourselves, find ourselves, and maybe just maybe stop hustling. Hustler means an aggressively enterprising person, but hasn’t that aggression only brought us here? We aggressively used plastics and poisoned our fishes then that plastic came back to haunt us in a matter of years as micro-plastics in our food. This aggression melted the ice caps, made us hungry for power, we made humanity obsolete. We fire people and don’t even think twice, because it’s a “business decision”, but who’s running the business? Secondly, who’s your customer? You lay off people and reduce their buying power, thereby, shooting your business in the foot. Look at the retail apocalypse, brands older than time died in a matter of days. Why not learn from them and pause ourselves? Find an alternative, try not hustling for once. We are here in this lockdown because of hustling!

Lord Krishna, is famously known as Rannchorh, because he fled the battlefield, let's learn from him and flee for a while, you aren’t required to fight any great wars, only required to stay at home and be safe. Don’t hoard, just get what you need for survival and take this time to pause yourself and your hustle. Try finding that child in you who looked forward to the summertime, this is your first adult summer holiday. Go find your Archie comics stash, your board games, your trump cards, your Uno cards and most importantly retreat and find yourself!