Lockdown Diaries Nominee#19- Lockdown Tales By Jivjot Kaur Walia

I can still recall being so scared that I was sweating all the time that day. I could hear my heartbeat as I went in the cab to the North Indian Restaurant, it was our favorite place for family dinners. My children had to meet him for the first time. ‘Him’, or Mr. Siddhanth Aggarwal had been my neighbor for the past five years and I? I am Vinita Gandhi, Fifty-five years old, and a widow. I have two children, married and living in Mumbai.

I live alone here in Pune, and when the lockdown happened, it wasn’t an easy time for a lonely, old lady to go through. No children playing in the nearby park, no evening walks with my friends anymore, and being distant from my family for more than seven months wasn’t easy. I happened to have collapsed one day and to my luck, Mr. Siddhant had seen me through his balcony and came as fast as he could to help. He picked me up, helped me lay on the bed. My sugar levels had dropped down.

I had developed a crush on him. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t liking the loneliness around me from the past ten years. For an aged woman in India, that too a widow, developing crushes on men even though of her age isn’t considered ethical howsoever modern the country has become, so I convinced my brain not to dream anymore. Days passed, Mr. Siddhant visited daily to check on me. Sometimes he made soups or his mouth-watering lasagna for me. One day, he visited me, this visit wasn’t ordinary. He was wearing a shirt, had roses in his right hand, and the plastic box of lasagna he had prepared in the other. He came inside and offered the delicious lasagna. He came near me, pulled out the roses behind him, and said,’ I Love you, Vinita’. I just couldn’t help staring at him. His eyes were gleaming and I couldn’t help taking the roses from him and saying those words back to him. It was exciting until the questions, ‘How is everyone going to react? Will my children accept him? What will my children and grandchildren think of me?’ popped.
I suddenly moved away, Reality had hit me hard. Siddhant however isn’t the man who believes in these stereotypes. He convinced me that ‘ I didn’t have to explain my self to anyone and I have the right to live my life as I want.’

The essence of love after ten long years was like regaining life back. The lockdown was removed and it was time to meet my family. My cab had arrived at the restaurant finally, I could see my children sitting on the table. I met them, we sat, started talking and laughing but my eyes were stuck at the restaurant’s door. After few minutes, I could see him coming towards me. He stood next to me, all of them were staring at us. I showed them the ring Siddhant had given me and quickly closed my eyes so I couldn’t see their reactions. To my surprise, their faces were gleaming with joy. My children rushed towards me and hugged me. I guess they had understood the feelings of their mother. They congratulated Siddhant and we had an amazing dinner.

My children and Siddhant have grown very close, my grandchildren love him. The lockdown couldn’t have been any better and I thank God for all of it, for letting the loneliness of my life escape and letting love re-enter my heart

ReachIvy.com organized an online blog/vlog competition to provide people the unique opportunity to share their lockdown stories using their creativity. The competition met with a fantastic response from participants across 4 continents, and our jury has handpicked the Top 50 entries from them for the Popular Choice Award 2020!

The above entry has been submitted by Abishai Basumata from Siliguri, India. He is an 18-year-old student of Delhi Public School. Kudos to Abishai for this beautiful piece!

Show your support and help Abishai win the contest by liking this blog post on all ReachIvy.com’s social media platforms!