Lockdown has taught me to keep us busy during difficult times, writes Sheel Dutta

May 18: Mumbai, the economic capital of India has become the center of coronavirus outbreak in India with over 20,150 people infected, 3,498 discharged and 734 dead. Amidst lockdown, though livelihood and economic activities have come to a virtual halt, yet life seems to move on. The present write up is by a 11-years-old child, having his roots in Silchar (Assam), but stays now in Mumbai as his parents work over there. Sheel Dutta, a student of Class VI studying in Maneckji Cooper School, Mumbai shares his experience of the ongoing lockdown.

I realised about the lockdown the day my parents stopped me from going down and play with my friends. My school had closed down much before the lockdown was announced by our honourable Prime Minister. Suddenly, I had a lot of time in my hand. The first thing that I learnt during this lockdown was how to use the Zoom App. My school started online classes everyday for three hours.  Initially, I thought that it would not be interesting, but surprisingly, I and my friends started enjoying the classes. We could interact with each other through Zoom, as if we were sitting in the classroom.

However, still I had a lot of free time and I did not want to sit idle. I am a black belt in Taekwondo and also have been learning to play the guitar. In my leisure hours, I continued to practise both at home. During lockdown, I also composed a song ‘Don’t Give Up’ and uploaded the same in YouTube. Please watch my video and I hope you will like it.

I also started helping my parents in household works like cleaning, watering the plants etc. Since I love cakes, my mother started baking cakes almost every second day. I became the junior baker and helped her in the process. I have lots of board-games, which I could not find time to play during the normal times. So I took the time out and started playing with my parents inside my home.

This period has taught me that how we can keep ourselves busy during difficult times. Stay home, stay safe.