Covid-19 is a personal boon!
By: Arbaaz Dossani
Tags: Lockdown, Time, Co Vid, Productivity, Technology

Alright, alright! Let me clarify myself before you call me selfish, ego-centric and what not!

Hear me first please!

The world is in a sorry state because of the CoronaVirus pandemic, affecting hundreds of countries, millions of lives and billions of dollars in commerce. In my country, daily wagers are travelling thousands of miles by foot to reach back to their native so at least they will have the bare minimum to survive. So yes! Covid-19 is a global curse and every country in the world is pushing itself to keep the damage to the minimum till vaccines become available.

But I prefer to look on the positive side of the story. A little introduction about my work, a 5+ year full-stack developer working across technologies to bring the best web and mobile experiences to your device! Great, right? The problem: I live in one of the most densely populated city in the world, the dream city of Mumbai. Born and brought up here, I always knew the city inside out to its stretches and currently my home and workplace are at the extreme points of the city.

This means I travel 3 hrs both ways in packed trains morning and evening, draining most of my energy during the time. It is so bad that sometimes I do not even get to open my bag and check my cellphone. Oh! Did I also mention cracking my Macbook Air screen while getting into the crowded train last year? It is that bad.

Exactly Like this!

Because of this daily routine of long-distance travel, I am never a 100% productive at work (obviously) and have almost no energy returning home in the evening. Don’t get me wrong, my workplace and family are completely happy with this little superman effort that I put in every day, but it felt incomplete.

I have been following the rise of Covid-19 since last December and even after early and good preventive measures, it has managed to reach almost all known countries and in my opinion for a very long period (until, of course, the magic vaccine arrives).

Since the mid of March, most of the city is under complete lockdown which means that an advisory was circulated that everyone needs to WFH (Work From Home) until further notice. Many companies started firing employees left, right and centre. I was fortunate not to be a part of that list.

Quickly enough, I realized that I would not be travelling 3 hours a day every day! See, a personal boon! I immediately started setting out new schedules for myself. The outside world was deserted, I call it a silent apocalypse. But inside of me, there was a new little excitement about happily missing the 9:14 am jam-packed local train.

I felt so much weight lifted off my shoulder, just by the thought of not having to go through that tiring routine again. At home, I knew there would be many distractions and my productivity would never be able to match the one in office. At least, I thought I knew. And I had a really good reason for it. Lovely parents, a caring wife, and a 2-year-old always wanting to cling on to my call and laptop are certainly a blessing, but also a distraction.

I quickly understood that I need to set apart some ‘ME’ time to be undistracted. 4 AM time for me is that time. I find great peace being an early bird, and getting most of my chores done before everyone is even awake. I compensate by going back to sleep around 10 in the night.

Early morning, I easily get 3 hours of that undistracted time in which I can complete the majority of my office work. The only points that I leave are the time for meetings, discussion with my coworkers, and other miscellaneous work-related activities.

Now, now! I have almost a full day for myself to do all the things I was dying to do when I had no time! See, Covid-19 is a personal boon! I don’t find my baby a distraction anymore. He is the one whom I can play along whenever I want. Hell! I have started tutoring him at home since all playschools are shut as well. I have time listening to my parents’ stories watching all the albums, praying my Namaaz 5 times a day, cooking with my wife and repairing all the kinds of stuff in the house that have needed my attention for years!

It is an obvious point that we all want this pandemic to diminish ASAP, but a little part of me wants this WFH to continue forever! Impossible, but I am living my dream until it lasts!