Lockdownton Abbey

Firstly, I need to admit that I haven't watched Downton Abbey. The internet says it depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants with the great events of the post Edwardian-era having an effect on their lives. Something similar was underway during the the Lockdown at our home where the aristocratic brothers (my sons) and the domestic servants (me and my wife) got through an unscripted season of soap opera only to realize that this got renewed for at least another 6 months! (Sigh... ra Narsimha Reddy - forced native language pun placement)

No offense to the Downton Abbey fans, I only used it in the title as it was 'Pun'nable. In fact I have great respect for British TV. There is this one British series I've watched closely and repeatedly (forcefully). It is the wonderful story about this girl who lives in her own little world, a happy family, crazy bunch of friends and the universe conspiring to give her everything. Damn right it is Peppa pig! (I can see some of you are humming its tune)

Coming back to the travails of the brothers and the servants, Its amazing how 6 months just sped past. Between cleaning, food, sleep, home-schooling, staying connected with the family, other household chores.. I think I'm missing something... aah, Work! yeah between all these and raising 2 boys under 6 yrs, we did end up astonished that it was already August.. no September.. Wait what its already October? :O

So yes. we realized that having a schedule and a routine is the most important thing if we had to maintain our sanity and get through this time. That's what we did, tried to enforce a routine onto 2 kids, one who was foraging every possible cupboard for hidden treasure in the house and the other who was just looking up to the only non-boring human in the house according to him, the foraging elder brother.

We gave up on the routine after Day2 and went with the flow.. meaning just let the boys be.. They did what they want, rampaged all around the house. In the process we stumbled across some basic tenets. I thought it would be fun to depict these through sign-boards. It would've been brilliant if my kids could read and understand these signs.. but again it would've been even more awesome if one guy didn't insist on eating a bat in Wuhan! 

Here is a brief list of the signs (put in random order like the thoughts of a 5 year old)

1. Do not use lipsticks as crayons or as any other form of writing stationery  

2. Your younger brother is not a pillow. Don't fling him 

3. For the 675th time, there is nothing new in this cupboard/shelf/storage unit 

4. Don't eat your footwear (even if you think it is tastier than the food we are offering you)

5. 'No school today' can't be used every day.. only once in a while (There is no further WFH option in a home-schooling session )

6. Please don't sit/stand/pee on the laptop

7. There is an option of putting back your toys where they belong and cleaning up the mess

8. You need to wait at least 15 minutes after eating something before feeling hungry and asking for a snack

9. That is just a washing machine. Pressing all those buttons will not make it a time machine

10. Yes that's my office video call going on, remove your nostrils from the camera

I am sure many of you will relate to some of these.. The things we have to do as the world has gone bat-shit crazy. Anyways.. all this is nothing compared to what a lot of people are going through. Thoughts and prayers with everyone who had to endure the real challenges of the pandemic. 

It is important though to not lose sight of the lighter side :) Really feel this Lockdown would've been super boring without these two little humans in the house. Stay safe. Stay healthy! Ciao. I know you are still thinking about it.. but yes the younger one almost pee'd on my laptop.

The spoils of war - Every single day