LIVING THE i LIFE: ‘I am learning baking and cooking from my daughter'

My husband is at home with me. Our younger one is studying in Hyderabad but was lucky enough to return to Chennai for an internship. So both my children are at home with me now. The fact that everyone is here makes a huge difference. With the lockdown, it’s a big plus to have my daughters at home. One of them is studying culinary arts She’s always making delicious meals for us. It’s a nice phase because we finally get to see her skills at work. I have an organic garden on my terrace. I work with a gardening consultation business called Green Goddess. It’s a blessing. I’m getting most of what I need fresh and daily. I have greens coming out every four days. Every summer, I try to close down my garden, but we’ve replanted and resowed the seeds. Some of them, like the ladies fingers, have begun sprouting now. Frankly, there are many who want to learn gardening. I have a WhatsApp group with people all over India. I had a spurt of calls asking me how to start gardening now. In a way, it’s really nice to share whatever little I know. Our normal workdays are so busy that we never got the time to try things we wanted to do. Even during the lockdown, I am still doing what I was doing before the lockdown, while also following my passion. I have always accommodated time for passions. Right now, I am focusing on gardening. I’ve also started baking and cooking. I’m learning a lot from my daughter. I used to write a little earlier. I used to write my thoughts, and I’ve gotten back to it. I used to read a lot, and if I disagreed with the book, I’d wrote it down. Now also I’m getting a chance to read, and my viewpoint on some things have changed with age. I haven’t experienced any anxiety or wanting to return to the former situation. That’s because my days are so full. I’d leave my phone and come back to 200 messages. People are sharing old photos and it’s a lovely experience to go through it. I think we should make the most of this time, invest in hobbies, passions and relationships