Hello everyone, hope you guys are spending this lockdown time creatively?
On 25th when the entire nation was summoned to a lockdown to control the spread of COVID 19, all our personal and work plans went off the window. To be honest, work-wise, initially, I felt a little relaxed. Finally, I would be able to lay in my pyjamas all day in my bed, WORKING, of course.
But, do you know that feeling, when you want something badly, then you get it and you don’t enjoy it anymore?
Yes, this is what happened and the lockdown blues started taking a toll on all of us on the second day itself. We were all chatting with each other on our workgroup where Kartik, our Group Head, told us to join him for a conference video call.
My first thought, “no, I don’t want another work brief.” Oops, this was my second thought, first was, “Will have to change my tee and make my hair, Uggh.”
We quickly connected over the video call and he was gleaming.
“Let’s beat these lockdown blues with the beat baba!” he quickly said.
“Quarantine has taken onto him,” is what I thought to myself.
Ignoring all our weird expressions, he went on and revealed his ‘Quaranbeats’ plan!
That evening we connected yet again over the video conferencing and there he was, the beat baba, Varenya Joshi, a well-known percussionist and poet.
After a quick introduction and the mandatory talk around coronavirus, Varenya told us his plans for the session.
We were instructed to use any object we see in front of us to use as the instrument. In percussion, one can use any instrument that makes a sound when it is hit, shaken, or scraped.
And we began the session, totally out of tune!
Nevertheless, he didn’t give up on us. After a while of jamming, we did get better and Kartik had another idea to wrap up this rejuvenating session. The “Go corona, go corona…” rap.
Listen to us trying (and miserably failing) to match the beat with the lyrics at 31:38.
While wrapping up the session, Kartik disclosed his intention of this session, “Guys, this was a curated experience from my side for all of you and would like all of us to do it more often, every day if possible. Each one of us will be curating a fun learning experience for all the others during this lockdown.”
“It’s not only fun, but it can also help us keep the anxiety at bay and can help us learn so much about ourselves and each other,” he added. Two days later, on 27th, we had come up with another interactive art session with Aditi Agarwal, a feather artist.
No points for guessing that the theme for all of us to produce an artwork was coronavirus. Aditi gave us the liberty to come up with our own topics and Avinash, our Team’s Shutterbug, had a pencil and a blue colour-pencil and so he suggested to draw Doremon. LOL!
The beauty of the workshop actually lied in the fact that we were creating something within the things and means available to us and this, in its essence, was truly liberating.
I do not want to ruin the fun for you. You can see the art pieces we created from 55:00 and onwards.
But, for me, Aftab’s mountain calling travel picture was love. *wanderlust*
The next session was something we desperately needed. Yoga Pranayam.
Need I say more?
Conducted by yoga practitioner and coach, Rupali Banait, the session was not only physically unwinding, it was mentally calming, too. For hand stretching, she had some crazy hand twisters. Check it out at 18:25.
We concluded the session with Brahamri pranayama, and it was tranquillising. I slept peacefully after the session for two hours straight.
BTW, we didn’t know that our sessions had caught the attention of the local press, too. Yay!
These curated experiences that we have started to build a healthy interactive community of like-minded people have really helped us maintain our emotional well-being in these gloomy times. It is only now that we understand the importance of magnanimity and bond of mankind.
We hope, like us, you would too use your quarantine time to build yourselves. And, if you are interested to join us in one of our sessions, we’ll be happy to welcome you. Comment below or DM.
P.S.: You can also suggest us which session should we plan next.
