How I spend my lockdown days during the Covid-19 pandemic?
By: Jairam R Prabhu
Tags: Covid 19 Crisis, Journal, College, Covid 19, Lockdown

How I spend my lockdown days during the Covid-19 pandemic?

This article is about how I spent my time at home this covid-19 pandemic, ie through certification courses, blogs, writing, cooking, movies etc.

Dated- April.

Many of you asked me a suggestion on what all to do, what I do and also review on the blogs they started as well. So I am doing this as a part of my Journal blogs, quite out of my conventional monthly journal series. Unlike many of you, I am confused about how to channelise my time not because I don’t have anything to do, but because I am overloaded with work and things to do.

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My last Journal

It was on 10th March, the Kerala Govt declared Holiday for all schools and colleges due to Covid 19 epidemic. That evening I was busy editing the Covid 19 article of Sagar Suresh Kumar to be published on MUNner’s daily. I helped him with getting some facts from News article and he gave his research biology, medicine and virology. The Covid 19 cases were about 70,000 that day, which is much less than what New York State has today. The very next day WHO in a Press Conference declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Just a week later the cases doubled to 140,000 and as I write this article, the cases cross 1 Million in total.

Just after the holiday was declared I was in chill mode, I spent the first few days like there was no college ever after. I watched a lot of Youtube videos. I also restarted playing Computer which I didn't do for a very long time. For a week I and my brother were alone at home. Only after the lockdown was declared by Kerala, and Janatha Curfew my mom and dad stayed at home.

Here are a few things which I did and some I continue to do.

Teaching 10th-grade stuff.

I am not a tutor. I love teaching! I am just teaching my brother who just got his 9th std results and got 10th std books. My mom didn't want to keep him idle, so she asked me to look after his studies especially Social Science because he is doing Byju’s program for science and maths. Also, Social was my favourite. I began teaching history, considered to be the toughest and boring. I taught him European Nationalism and how countries were formed in Europe. Soon after that, I started teaching Indian Nationalism and later on Political Science- Power Sharing and Federalism.

Soon after, the lockdown was extended till mid-April my mom asked me to teach him maths and science as well. So I began with Chemistry- Periodic Classification of elements and started Organic. I really love Organic Chemistry. Physics I taught Light-Reflection, Refractions, Lenses and Mirrors. Without wasting time I also covered Linear Equations in two variables and Real Numbers.

Playing games

It sounds weird but something I put down just because I didn't have enough time. I restarted playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 where we drive trucks across the Europe-I love that game as I love travelling and I love roads.

I also restarted playing Paladins.

College work- Assignments and Online work

Networking miss just in the first week itself gave two assignments. Soon after that each teacher like competition, are keeping on sending assignments. Algorithms, we are asked to do one short assignment every day. Also have SEPM, Web, Mobile Computing and Networking assignment as well.

Cooking

I really miss restaurant food now, it has been more than a month since I am eating only homemade food. My parents didn’t allow to eat outside food starting from 10th March. I curse myself for ignoring a lot of restaurants in the locality when there was no covid.

For years, I have consistently been able to manage myself alone at home. At least making dosas if there is batter at home, sandwiches, egg etc. Since quarantine started my urge to explore more food increased and also my urge to cook and eat as well. So within a short time, I tried out many dishes- Chily Potato, Chapati, Potato curry, Egg roast, Paneer, Egg noodles, Chocolate cake, Gobi Paneer, Momos, Biriyani, Pasta, Gobi-65, cake, panipuri etc.

Delicacies tried out

I am still determined to continue improving cooking and eating throughout the lockdown and post lockdown also.

Youtube

Since starting I used to watch a lot of travel videos and things like that but since pandemic, all bloggers are like corona! corona! so I partly avoided many channels.

Apart from my old set I started watching infographics show and vox for covid updates. Also, Shekhar Gupta Sir, a renowned journalist is doing a very good job by doing Cut the Clutter series on youtube on his own digital news channel ThePrint. They have very good news articles and I have subscribed to them on Telegram.

My favourite Digital News, The Lallantop publishes Netanagri story every Saturday where it’s Editor in Chief Saurabh Dwivedi sir and Senior Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai Sir talk on the various important news happening in the country. They have answered two of my questions on the platform and I am very happy about that. The Lallantop was declared as the best Digital news channel Hindi and Rajdeep Sir won the Lifetime achievement award for journalism from INBA. Rajdeep Sir has worked for TOI, then for NDTV, and later started his own TV news network CNN IBN, which later was taken over by Reliance. He now is in Editorial team of India Today TV. The Lallantop has 15 M subscribers on Youtube and is really a very good channel.

Online Courses

The far most important and the most exciting way I spend my time.

I have already completed 3 courses on Udemy for free. One with Certificate was on Birth of International Relations in Europe (1815–1914). This course tells you how the concept of International Relations and Balance of Power in Europe came into existence. This was similar to the subject I taught my brother- Nationalism in Europe. The second course was on Political Science and the third one was on Data Science.

On Coursera, MEC students have an offer, you can give your names to your staff-in-charge and access free courses. I enrolled in Data Science with Python and one Corona one and the other Diplomacy and UN.

The last place where you get free courses is Amnesty International Academy. I took a few short courses there too. You also get a certificate on selected courses.

Also, Internshala was giving away free courses for students from Kerala, so I took the course for Digital Marketing which is a course on Blogs, SEO and Google Analytics. An emerging engineering requirement at the same time, no coding is required.

Why Certificate courses?

There are a lot of things which we learn from University Syllabus and there is a lot of things which may not know but maybe required. You also need skills to stay in the job market especially Corona Season, and with a recession on the doorstep. In order to prevent that from happening, you need skill and knowledge. Take a course eg- Data Science, you will never get to learn in college, but there is a lot of scope in it. The only way you get that knowledge is from courses. Also, these certificates can shine your CV, especially if they are from Coursera, Udemy and Internshala. Also, these are very important for your application to both domestic and foreign universities, if you’re changing your field say Humanities or Finance. You have good courses here. With Amnesty Intl course you can get easy access to any International Organisations. Try to enter these courses anywhere in the resume or CV.

Why I do a lot of courses?- I like to learn new things. I explore my interest, I get knowledge and earn skills. Thus I am able to share that knowledge. Also, academic subjects don’t interest me. I also may change my field of study.

Movies and Series

I am not a movie maniac. I rarely watch films. But with constant pressure from my brother, my parents took 30 days free trial for Amazon Prime. We watch one film every day. I also watched a few documentaries on Iran Nuclear Plants and also on Operation Foxley.

I almost finished watching Pokemon and completed X&Y, my favourite cartoon.

Miscellaneous

Out of all these things, I also was able to participate in online contests like NOESIS by Mixed Signals and CONOSCENZA by IEEE. I took part in an IEEE PELS webinar on thermonuclear physics.

At home, we also video called grandparents who are their native place, and also my cousin in Melbourne.

Books

Completed Marxists Political economy, I rate the book 3/5. Also completed the book on Economics of War, Peace and Terrorism- an American perspective.

MUNSOC

It was by luck that IntraMUN got to wind up just in time two days before educational institutions closed sine die. So I thank the entire team for putting in a lot of effort for the event. I thank Allen Joseph for all the sincere efforts.

So, talking about MUNSOC and its activities, we had a small collaboration with IEDC where we released a few articles on Social Distancing and Panic buying. MUNner’s daily is releasing two articles every week and that is one of the most active blogs in MEC. Also, we started a quiz series on our Telegram Channel which was indeed a grand success.

My article on MUNer’s daily!

Online MUNs

A new and interesting concept. I attended VMUN, PINK MUN, TKM MUN, MEC E-MUN, Unnati-E-MUN and planning to attend a few more.

Blogging and Writing

This the last section and I am including this as the last topic. I wrote a lot of blogs and kept it for future publish. I have many articles enough for two months at least. I published your feedback article, taking consideration of your feedback and also answering a few FAQs. The other two publish included- Two opinion articles- One on Munner’s daily on Capital Punishments while the other was on my own blog publication on Why BJP will continue to stride on its success.

I also took part in the YouthikiAwaaz 12th anniversary celebration on their platform as well as on Instagram live. Also, I covered IEDC MEC’s activity against COVID on Online Manorama and The New Indian Express.

Self-Quarantine days are one of the rare time I had ever got. It may not be the best moment ever, but it is enough to make an impact in my life that I will never forget. I don’t see classes starting anytime soon and this status quo will be maintained for now. I am happy enough to stay at home, pursue my passion without any disturbance also I don’t regret missing college too. Certainly, these moments will stay in my heart and thus I decided to document this. It has been a long time since 4 of my family are together for such a long time- 3 weeks over.

I started my own Blogspot! Do follow me there too.

My advice will make maximum use of this time to keep yourself entertained and to do something which you wanted to do always or something which you will never be able to do. Most of us will directly set foot to the job soon after college and you won’t time for anything, even for your family. Also, use this time to sharpen your skills and bring up a passion or build your career which you wanted to pursue because career is not formed by your degree but by your skills. That is why people are losing jobs, they will find it hard to restart their career because they were dependant on something which they thought was permanent, say like Travel industry which people once thought to be evergreen field. Now, only people with skills and passion will survive and everyone who entered jobs with nepotism and luck will be thrown out. Many companies have already fired employees. You need to prove that degree is just a piece of paper and ability is something more important for a job.

Do what you guys love and this time is solely for that. Don’t take extra tension. Utilise this time for learning. And do comment on how you guys are spending time in the comments.

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