Kolkata: Situations like this make family bonds stronger

Kolkata: It’s been a week since the beginning of our confinement at home, and we have avoided moving out of the house.
We live on Chakraberia Road in a complex, that had already prepared for another round of strict restrictions the moment the partial restrictions were announced. We have arranged for our help and cook to stay with us and our driver is staying in the quarters that the complex is providing for private drivers and male retainers.
Both of us are working from home and find ourselves spending the entire day attending meetings and calls on our laptops.
Till Friday my son had his online classes. But now his summer break has started. He is preparing for SAT, so that is also keeping him busy. He has an asthma issue so we are doubly careful and have done video consultations with the doctor. My husband is a banker based in Mumbai. Sometimes the work pressure gets overwhelming and then we take breaks to chat and loosen up. Situations like this definitely makes our family bonds stronger.
We are getting all groceries and vegetables home delivered through e-commerce vendors and fruits from the local vendor who is doing doorstep delivery within the permitted hours. Though we have a live-in cook, we also sometimes try our hand in rustling up meals after work. Even Rohan is learning to cook nowadays.
Having my husband home for such a long stretch is a positive during this confinement. Last year when lockdown was announced, he could not manage flights to come over here and had to stay back in Mumbai. All three of us do breathing exercises and yoga in the morning. We are also doing online exercises to keep fit.
Our boy is ready to take the leap for higher education and like every mother I too will have to go through that empty nest feeling. So I am utilising this time to be with my son as much as I can.
(Vineeta Agrawal, an investment consultant, spoke to Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey.)