Enjoying the ‘privileged’ discomfort

CHENNAI: Molee, it’s already 4.30 am, switch off the lights and sleep,” my Amma screams from the bedroom while I scroll through memes of #stayhome. I spend most of my quarantine days in a state of confusion — when is the right time to sleep and when is the perfect time to wake up and start my day. Exactly, how many hours of gap should I leave between my breakfast and lunch? Should I just iron my pyjamas and wear a bindi today.

Should I eat one dosa less because I am not doing any hard work? Amid all this chaos in my head, if there is something that I have been religiously doing over the past few days and will continue to do till April 14 is taking good care of my skin and hair. I never used to find time to heat the oil, squeeze some vitamin E capsules and give myself a lavish 20-minute head massage.

Sometimes, my dad gives an excellent head massage too. Now, I even have the time to wet a towel in hot water, wrap it around my head and create the spa-like steam effect. I do this twice a week and feel extremely happy about it. Whenever I wash my hands, I also make it a point to wash my face with a mild face wash, use a toner(rosewater) and moisturise with a day cream. A Google search offered me some easy home-based facepack and scrub ideas for healthy and clear skin.

Papaya, coffee powder, lemon or honey — applying them evenly on your face and neck leaves you glowing, I discovered. And then there are the Instagram challenges, which are, of course, entertaining but it’s also creating a FOMO (Fear of missing out) for the not-so-extroverted type. I believe this is because we have a lot of time to think.

For me, writing my thoughts or calling up a friend, or doing a five-minute meditation is helping me cope with the ‘privileged’ discomfort. Reading books, juggling between Netflix and Amazon Prime, indulging in board games with family and trying out some culinary skills including the Dalgona coffee challenge consumes most of my day. The fact that we are all part of a pandemic and the realisation that we would be narrating our days of quarantine later has led me to take extra efforts to make these days memorable. — Ancy George (Write to cityexpresschn@ gmail.com and tell us how you are spending this quarantine)