Quarantine – Time For Self Care

By Vinay

We smoked the last puff of the last cigarette, last before the weeks of detox to follow. We hugged, hugged tight, I kissed him on his forehead and his lips, a cute goodbye as we will be restricted to meet from tomorrow onwards at least for a while, the lockdown and the fear of those lathis and off-course the family is going to keep us apart for a while, I thought to myself as I took my last ride on my activa back home.
I am back to what people apparently call ” jail” in quarantine, the lockdown being announced my dad’s relieved that I’m home and I will be here for a while.
It never made me sad, the fact of being stuck and having almost nothing to do gave me a rare opportunity to care for my own self.

I slept sound that night thinking to start a different day tomorrow, a day different in many ways, I would wake up seeing my mom taking care of this place , making it the home with her food and also the cleaning procedures she does now, no maids are going to be there it’s going to be busy for her you know.
I will be really idol, so I thought of helping her out, we divided work, “Me bartan dho diya karunga Maa!” we agreed, so half an hour sorted .

My plants in the garden have been really sullen at me , the work I had before is not there anymore, I have to get back to the roots , literally the roots, roots of these pretty plantlets in my garden. Closer to nature away from the capital back to my hometown I felt calm and revived all over again. I spend an hour or so trimming the odd leaves out, watering & potting, making sure they live longer this summer.

I am also famous on Instagram, and yes I stepped back into stupid trend of posting stories on everything I do, my friends online are like-” looks who’s back to business”.

Letting that diva be back on track, more social and active than ever before. My skin went pale as it survived in the capital for some time, all that pollution is stuck in my pores and a beauty pimp that I am, can’t afford things to be that bad. I just got ready with home remedies, and yes, some special recipes, HALDI, BESAN and HONEY being the heroes in all of ‘em!
Time to feel beautiful in myself, all over again.
I am home I got nothing, but my paints and my makeup off-course call my name, and then I say: “let’s paint shit out on the canvas and my own skin the favourite canvas of mine.” Putting the perfect wink on and the beautiful cut crease, perfecting every inch of that super Gaaaayy skill. Doing makeup for my chachi and mommy, making them feel like a little new bud, “mom javani jhalak rahi hai”
we giggled.
I have always been obsessed with curves and body- my health. Couldn’t get all those fancy salad leaves- lettuce and some rocket leaves here in Jhansi off-course, but managed to get enough leaves and greens as the part of my diet chart now Spinach , cabbage, radish cucumber and all of those greens.

I am also up for some good workout session actually- ZUMBA over anything. Moving round my waist with small dumbles in my hand dancing and moving, happier than ever, we got our stress evaporated with little drops of perspiration on our forehead. Working out for me is anytime a good booster and a stress reliever!

I had my cousin helping with me when I rearranged my wardrobe, keeping all fancy stuff on one side my formals on the other , my shoes somewhere and my heels all together.

Some old little clothes were there for discard , it was a great chance to cut. Chop and make some crop tops out of xl sized t-shirts and shorts from old out of fashion, oversized bellbottom pants, and this time I am not getting any scolding from anyone … cause, guess what? dude it’s all a discard.

My every day is so busy that I hardly have time to complete all tasks I dug into at the moment, the book I started to read is midway, the web-series on Netflix is still left, but I sleep sound, eat good, feel good and beautiful, and most importantly the time that I spend with my family is something that I’ve always been missing back away from home.
Every night after dinner, a roof top walk together with daadi- daadu makes them so happy as they spend few more hours of love pampering there kid, and after the walk ludo sessions with cousin, constant fights and off- course the winner race and clash.

I no longer missed him, I no longer missed anything. Quarantine has been in fact one of the most productive times in my life. The amount of paintings done recently is fairly more than what I’ve made in recent times and the poems wrote are far happier and calmer to listen to. This was my quarantine, soothing, peaceful, sound and full of self-love, and now I would love to listen to yours!

love yourself and smile with that rainbow brighter than ever

Happy quarantine
#queerandquarantined