Lockdown Diaries: When a Juggler’s Surreal Deception Turns Into a Reality – Nikita Shah
Some days, she’ll have no idea how she’ll do it, but every single day, she gets it done. Sounds like we are talking about a mother right? No! This is about me because this is exactly how I feel every day. And now with this lockdown grasping its clutches around my life, the feeling has just gotten stronger. I’m a person who has for most of her life functioned away from my hometown, be it for college, higher studies, or job. But even when I was little and comprehension started happening for me in literal terms, I used to keenly watch my mother go about her business of managing things both at home and at her work perfectly well. Life at that point felt like it has been caught in the middle of a juggler’s deception where it seemed like Mum was basically pulling off a magic trick, only that it was too real. But when this lockdown happened, I had an epiphany that I may be practically living the life of my mother sans the marriage and the kids. For her the ordeal was a tougher one because having kids does that to you.
Anyway, it also struck me that someone had very wisely said that look what you wish for, it might come true. So when it was decided that we are supposed to work from home, little did I realize that it would be far from easy and it would turn out remotely the way I had thought it to be. The mere idea of it felt like me the Alice being in wonderland where I would get to explore my other passions of cooking, painting and so on. But I circled back to real life when work from home got into action and after a month of working like this, this experience has turned out to be more productive if not anything else.
The time spent in getting a team together, making them sit for ideation at office, has now turned into ideation and brainstorming over the phone. Team meetings have transformed into video calls. I’ve become more flexible in terms of working while moving around the house. So my workstation is not just confined to the coffee table. I hop onto my French windows and simply love to work with a view while I flex my grey cells for an idea or what a post should communicate. The time spent for lunch has increased since I have to make it on my own; nonetheless the experience gives a sense of satisfaction.
The bonus part of this experience has been teambuilding. For most of the people who may be wondering how that happens sitting and working from home, for me it worked really well, because I started communicating more with my teammates than I usually did at office. Communication has become clearer, the understanding amongst us has become better and it looks like efficiency of our efforts has become higher. The only thing that has decreased is the time spent getting the tasks done because the distractions are lesser. Isn’t that a plus?
My only takeaway from this experience is that for all the people who think that multitasking happens only at office, it’s high time especially men go back to their homes and observe how their wives or mothers juggle among so many tasks. Working from home is nothing short of an exercise every woman does having to flex her brain, muscles and heart.