Thread by @sowmyarao_

Seems like this phase of the lockdown is ending slowly. Here are some very local, very online things that helped me get through the lockdown. Parent-friendly, Koramangala friendly.

1/n

Food: I got the OPOS 5 min cookbook from Amazon via Prime Reading. (so... free I think?). Lifesaver. I believe the man who started this movement and his FB group aren't well liked? No matter. OPOS style cooking saves TIME.

Highly recommend. No learning curve. Noobfriendly.

Veggies and Fruits: if you live in Koramangala, cannot recommend enough Arafa Fruits/ Veggies near Sowbhagya / Iyengar Bakery in 5th Block (bonus Bakery makes stellar egg puffs)

+veggie shop hear Nakoda Medicals at Wipro Signal.

Both solid high quality well stocked.

(hard to believe I went almost 3 years in Bangalore without really buying my own fruits and veggies carefully but yes I did. Mostly outsourced to in laws)

Kids screen time: Coco Melon and Chu Chu TV are regular favorites. My particular favorite is Cocomelon ofc.

Lovely illustrations, pleasant tunes, lots of good social messaging (eat veggie, brush teeth etc) and soothing colours!

Info bells for Kannada /Telugu.

Again, this lockdown really forced me to watch along with the kid, and I'm now a Cocomelon song and lyrics expert.

Kids content is surprisingly nice? Very sweet, full of great messages, super music?

However some weird YT observances:

There's this song called Daddy Finger/Mommy Finger /Sister Finger which is about the fingers of the hand. It's RIDICULOUSLY popular? Each channel/person has their own riff on it.

Home videos in the 1000s for this song.

Plus, ASMR type spill, burst, scoop videos of colorful gems, stones, paint, beads, are so popular with this age group.

Recommendation engine full churn on this. Not sure why. It's nice to watch tho.
Weird but true.

Washing vessels. Once I switched to OPOS + cut down on Chai (cleaning the chai vessel is a major PITA) most of the washing became soak, simple 2 sec scrub and dry.

First time in life I read knstructions on the VIM liquid pack. One teaspoon in a bowl of water is actually enough!

Cleaning the house. Nothing no hacks no efficiency trick nothing. Floors get dirty. Have to sweep and swab with some disinfectant daily.

Unfortunate loser who didn't have gala mop, regular mop sucks.. Did it old school style hands and knees with broom, dustpan and pocha cloth.

Apparently we use Lizol jasmine.
No complaints.
Pocha cloth is some standard scotch Brite. Eh whatever.

Post all this I did one hot water footsoak with salt crystals, Scholls scrubber and st Ives hand and foot cream, once every 2 days. Self care ftw.

Had a lovely aromatherapy diffuser set from Good Earth

goodearth.in/catalogue/sham…

Used it daily in the house. Plus Cycle agarbatti.

The fragrance made a key difference to mood.

Praise be to the heavens for Acid Fat Salt Heat and Samin Nosrat. Kid loved the show. Kept us sane for a few mins here and there. And that brings me to the second no hack no efficiency part of the lockdown...

Doing it with a 2.5 year old.

At 2.5 a kid gets the basic blocks of life. But not nuances.

They want to imitate heavily.
They have short attention spans ranging from 30 seconds to a few minutes.

This isn't a good kid bad kid thing, it's just how they work at that age.

My son knows Amma and Appa leave for work. Nanny and gramps are around during the day. Son goes to to school, a nap, lunch, then apartment park or a long walk/ tricycle. Snack.

Then it's evening, Amma and Appa come home and then more play.

So home time is seen as play time.

His routine was obviously drastically altered and kids react to changes in routine pretty poorly. Their lives need structure.

Dealing with a startup, husband's work at a startup, international travel quarantine, no help, a messed up toddler routine with no school or nanny.

Crap

Feeling better saying all this out loud. I can't, looking back, expect that I also wanted to be ace productive and socially connected. This is way too much for one normal adult in normal times to do.

In a pandemic? I should have never unpacked my laptop bag. But such is life.

It's been 6-8 weeks of constant jealousy and heartache.

At the food pics and the baking pics for sure. But mostly at the productivity and fitness pics. At the work champs.

At the men (yes this is petty I know) who have stay at home /light no stress job partners.

So yes. Next time there's a a lockdown, despite a million people already saying it to me I now finally will

1. Opos stuff.
2. Buy gala mop
3. Love myself more
4. Make peace with slow /no work for a bit.

(and eat egg puffs. Lots of egg puffs)