If there was one thing that the nation collectively felt when the 21-day lockdown was announced was the gnawing feeling of ‘what are we going to do now?’ Boredom has hit everyone and even the busiest of people have had their plans fall apart. Suddenly, no one has anything to do and even the internet seems boring now. However, there are a few fun activities that you can do offline and spend your time. Here’s how to survive the quarantine:

• Cooking: You don’t necessarily have to cook elaborate meals for the entire family when we tell you to cook. All you have to do is take readily available ingredients and whip up something new. Cooking can be very interesting that way and in this period, your entire family will love eating whatever you cook. So you can go on experimenting.
• Art: You can learn painting or calligraphy while you sit at home. While Youtube videos are great at teaching these skills, you can do it without the help of the internet also. Just let your creative juices flow and draw up something. You can also just take a colouring book and start working on it.
• Photography: With our mobile phones having advanced quality cameras nowadays, one doesn’t need a DSLR to be a photographer. You can spend time clicking anything; the people around you, food, scenes from your window, objects and then you can spend time editing it.
• Spending time with your family: You’re already doing a lot of this without even trying. But try spending some quality time with them. There is nothing quite as interesting as conversation to pass time and once you start talking to your elders and the younger ones, you’ll realize they have a treasure trove to talk about.
• Indoor games: Now is the perfect time to learn all those games that you had been putting off. You’re probably tired of Ludo and Snakes & Ladders but now you can learn the more extensive games like Chess and Carrom. Together with everyone, these will be even more fun.
• Reading: Whether you’ve been a reader or not, now would be a good time to cultivate this habit. You can start by reading a simple book that you like and slowly build up the habit. Or simply start reading newspapers and magazines. Now would be a good time to get some current affairs updates.
• Cleaning up: You can finally clean that room or cupboard that you had been putting off for so long. You can even start with cleaning your entire house. In times of a pandemic where sanitation is important, cleaning up is a great thing to do. You can even rearrange your room with some DIY stuff.
• Self care: Whether it is acne or weight loss or clearing up your skin, you can now try out all those fancy facial masks and home made remedies that you were saving up but could never actually do. You could come out of this quarantine with a transformed look.