Sharing most of the parenting duties nowadays!

HYDERABAD : Our team and clients are distributed across three continents — South East Asia, North America, and South America. As a result, odd office hours, commute, meetings, offshore travels, never allowed me to spend much time with the family, especially my daughter. But against the sad backdrop of the Coronavirus, I am re-discovering the pleasure of spending time with my wife Eileen and two-year-old daughter Chaya in my house in Gachibowli.

I now enjoy waking my daughter up early in the morning. I read books to her, and love sitting down to eat breakfast as a family. Sometimes, I go sit next to my daughter when she drinks milk in the morning. We do not say anything to each other, but it is just the presence that makes it all worthwhile I am not a good cook myself, so I have not really tried my hands in that particular art. I help my wife with the prep work instead. But in terms of dishes, we have gone to the basics. With the limited domestic help available, we are not focusing much on experimenting with new dishes. By that I mean basics. Mostly rice, daal and eggs, food that takes not more than 40 minutes of time to cook. Instead, we are devoting much time to keeping the house functioning and spending time with each other.

On the professional front, I have realised that this work from home is quite different from the usual work from home we often opt during various emergencies.It is hard to follow a traditional eight-hour workday at a stretch now. Whether waking up early or sitting up late, work hours are quite fragmented nowadays. With all the bad news about the economy and the world at large, it has become really crucial to keep our team away from anxieties.

It is my job at this time of crisis to keep them connected and as anxiety free as possible. We volunteer to help designers outside of UXReactor by managing an online reading group on LinkedIn under the hashtag #uxreactorcampusoutreach. It helps designers discover and learn new design concepts. As a team we do weekly virtual meetings and do online challenges to keep us connected and healthy during this challenging time.Prasad Kantamneni, co-founder UXReactor, a user experience design firm