Life during the lockdown

This all rounder keeps herself busy with many tasks in day

or

This all rounder puts her life on fast forward mode

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, April 16

For government primary schoolteacher Sukhbir Kaur, who is also a mother, TV anchor, social worker, the lockdown does not mean that her life has locked down. The fact remains that this is the time when she has found keys to put her life on the fast forward mode.

From day one, she has kept herself busy by either helping the poor whose lives have got stuck in the labyrinthine lanes near her Ram Sharnam colony house or imparting online lessons to her school’s 80 odd students.

“Teaching is a passion for me. On the very first day when the curfew was imposed, I made up my mind to do something constructive. Otherwise, I would have slipped into self-induced hibernation. Some of my students called me up and said they wanted to make best use of the time. They did not want to sit idle and just twiddle their thumbs throughout the day listening to sirens of ambulances and police vehicles. That is when I thought of teaching online. I consider myself less of a teacher and more of an awakener,” she said.

Unlike a normal working day, which is spent in teaching at the school and completing unfinished household chores, Sukhbir remains busy with making people aware of the significance of social distancing through her self-made video and audio clips. Besides, she also informs the administration through video-conferencing about areas where people gather in large numbers. She takes online classes and visits narrow alleys to tell people that “they should not worry as the pandemic will surely blow away”.

“Some us remain busy complaining, some remain busy doing something constructive. I am into the latter. The satisfaction I get in remaining busy is immense. My life has suddenly developed a hectic pace,” she added.

After dusk, she spends some quality time with her family members, which she used to miss before the lockdown. But she has a regret that she is not in a position to devote time to her hobby of anchoring panel discussions on Doordarshan.

“Earlier people remained busy with their pose rather than their purpose. Now, the disease is threatening mankind in a way no other catastrophe has done, people have changed and their priorities have changed. They are no longer busy with their pose. Now, they have a purpose in life to defeat the disease,” said Sukhbir as she readies to take another online class.