By Juhi Bansal

Read Part-1 here.

I am not what you would call materialistic especially when it comes to buying new things however, I do feel attached to things I own- my jewelry, my bags, my shoes and most of my clothes. I can’t bear to give them away and when I do share them with my sister they come with a very clearly articulated return date.

And that’s why the last 3 months have been transformational (and I don’t use the word lightly) -they truly were.

K, Iy and I moved to a new city with just a handful of clothes and bare necessities. We left behind a house full of stuff (we thought we needed), our cars, my cherished possessions, iy’s dear toys, our trusty staff, friends and our well “settled” lives. We lived, made merry, went by our days with nary an itch for any of those things.

The lockdown has taught me many things (including baking banana bread and getting by without a pedicure) but the one thing I am ever grateful for is the realization that “possessions” are transient and only bog you down. Without the tug of “your own house” and “nice clothes” and other adornments- the whole world is practically your oyster. We met old friends, made new ones, and went to fancy restaurants and holes in the wall kinds, slept on new beds, cooked in strange kitchens, never once itching to dress up or longing for a whiff of the familiar. The feeling is not new, we’ve been experiencing it for more than a decade now but with the monotone of the uneventful weekdays thrown in- it has only grown stronger.

Why can’t we continue to live like this? Why do we ever have to go back to decking up to meet friends, live at “home” or eat familiar food?

What is your one realization courtesy the lockdown?

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