Lessons from Covid: We can be happy if we keep it simple, says Anita Dongre

The new work life

It hasn’t changed at all. I am still waking at the same time and my work timings are exactly the same, but I do get an extra 90 minutes to myself that was earlier spent on travel to the office and back. That time is now used to chill with the family and play board games and carrom which I haven't done in a long time.

Homebound, and how

In the first month or two we were on a complete break and there was no work from home. So it led to a lot of introspection and reflection. I was reading the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedanta Treatise and just spent time looking inward. We also got Bella, a three-month-old Golden Retriever, who keeps us on our toes.

I enjoy more “me-time” now. Of course, I’ve never been a very social person but it's more welcome. The availability of time is more now because there’s no event or meeting to attend.

The lesson

One has to be cautious before forwarding information to your networks. It is increasingly common to see how fake news spreads like wildfire on messenger systems and there are a large number of people who end up reading and considering it to be the truth without any verification. The lesson: be proactive in filtering out what is not backed by credible research and coming from verified and authentic sources. Else it can be a complete waste of time. Also, my learning during this pandemic has been that one can be very happy if we minimise our needs and keep life as simple as possible.