1) No out of country, out of province vacations: We would go out of country (India, UK, France, Mexico, Cuba, etc) at least once a year but zero since Covid(C). We would travel to USA to visit family at least 2-3 times and zero since C. This has possibly saved us a few thousand dollars but left us feeling terribly bored and apathetic. But we did visit a lot of Provincial parks in summer of this year and so that is a positive. The favorite of mine was the Sandbanks one in Picton county. I loved the sands there! I also loved the Rock Glen Conservation area primarily because I loved finding the beautiful fossils which are millions of years old!
2) Gained at least 3 kgs of weight and my husband who never had a stomach before has a round big belly now: I have not exercised more to compensate for the reduced activity due to C ; I have not reduced my food intake because 'I am expending less energy' because I am not 'going to work'. This has lead to weight gain. As a consequence of weight gain, I finally started Yoga for the first time in my life. But after a few days I stopped. I believe that my knees which, were hurting sporadically before, started hurting more consistently after I started Yoga.
3) I feel my brain is slowing down.
I am not able to remember (immediate and recent memory is affected) For example, I go down to get something from the kitchen..I see unwashed dishes and start washing them, then do something else (Stimulus driven behaviour than goal directed behaviour!) and come back...without fetching the object I went down for!
I take a longer time to plan and then the planning is of poor quality and more errors. I seem to have forgotten important details or steps in the sequence of the plan and end up taking more time to do things or more errors.
I have become more clumsy...I seem to bump into things or not grasp an object by being off course by a few cms. I know there is a term for this in neuropsychology, but I can't recall it at present.
I have tried (inconsistently of course! I lack the discipline to be consistent and persistent and hard-working) the following to exercise my brain. For the first time I did 100 piece jigsaw puzzles and am still doing them. I am reading articles on my subject. I am learning new recipes. I am creating stories to tell my nephew. I am reading a lot of novels.
4) We got our garage fixed. (This cost way more than it should as we hired a guy who charges a lot per hour but is so slow!)
5)I have sort of cleaned my basement and for the first time in my life, threw out some things...which is a tiny but difficult effort toward reducing my hoarding tendencies...one small step toward sanity and away from the madness of hoarding.
6) We have not bought any clothes since March 2020 and I have tried my best to avoid buying other things too these past ten months. I suppose, this has lead to more savings which has gone towards our mortgage.
7) I have finally decided to start private practice..the sheer boredom of working less when working from home has lead to this decision. I had toyed with the idea of private practice for many months or even years but now this boredom has forced me to get off my lazy ass and start.
8) I am unable to comment on the impact of C on my relationships within and outside my family. I don't think it has changed much. I still keep in touch with friends and family on phone. Thankfully my relationship with my husband with whom I am now, 24/7 is still good. I know that sadly, some people are feeling stifled at home, stuck with their family members without a break and some relationships have been negatively impacted. I am missing getting together with friends but in Toronto, I have very very few friends whom I visit/ invite home. However in India, I had a lot more friends, the ones you visit/invite home.
9)Wearing the mask :I dislike wearing it but I do wear it. I believe I look prettier with the mask on! I look younger and as the mask covers my bad/indifferent nose and I believe I have nice eyes which is the only part of the face visible with the mask on!
10) I have learnt a lot about myself. My strengths and weaknesses. The fact that I was under the false belief that retirement would be full of fun, relaxation, doing my favorite things, etc. I realize that I really need to go to work to have a sense of purpose. I really need to have a routine 'imposed' on me as I do not have the self-discipline to impose a routine on myself. I realize that I need work to enjoy a break (like weekend). That endless weekends or free time is not fun at all.
I am looking forward to the TV shows(comedies), movies, novels(crime) which will have this Covid year woven into them. I am trying to recall any novel or story with a Covid like thing influencing the lives of people. For some reason, I cannot understand why...a short story and a novel keep coming to my mind in the context of Covid's impact on us...but there is nothing like Covid in them. The lotus eater by W.Somerset Maugham and The lord of the flies by William Golding.
I know there are novels, stories and movies with a Covid like scenario but nothing comes to mind now...I have never read any of them or cannot recall at this point in time. I wonder if novels written around the time of the Spanish Flu have depicted life impacted in similar ways as due to Covid?
If one read the article "Epidemics and pandemics in India throughout history: a review article by G.Swetha, Anantha Eashwar and S.Gopalakrishnan in the Indian journal of public health research and development, Jan 2019, one can see that Covid is not the first. I wonder what novels in India, cover life of ordinary people at times of pandemics.
Some novels set in times of pandemics and epidemics similar to Covid are to be found in article at this link below
https://www.vulture.com/article/best-pandemic-books.html
The novels listed in above link are (if the link does not open for you) below
A journal of the plague year by Daniel Defoe
Pale horse pale rider by Katherine Anne Porter
The plague by Albert Camus
The Andromeda strain by Michael Crichton
The stand by Stephen King
Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel Marquez
Journal of the plague years by Norman Spinrad
There are a few more in this list but I feel too lazy to continue!
The link below give novels in Pandemic times in India
https://www.purplepencilproject.com/disease-pandemics-indian-literature/
some of the novels in this list are
A ballad of remittent fever by Ashoke Mukhopadhyay
A life misspent by Suryakant Tripathi Nirala
The final contagion by Tim Murari
Twilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali
The Calcutta chromosome by Amitav Ghosh
The other novels in the list are not in English.
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