A quarantine baby born to tell stories that need to be heard
Named Quaranshine, the show highlights a few stars turning the lockdown on its head.
The month was April 2020 when the world had well settled in lockdown due to the dreaded COVID19. I got this itch to do something with my time. Let me remind you that I had already been home for about 7 months and was content with keeping busy around the house. But the situation of doing little ‘professional work’ got me a little restless largely due to one reason. My husband. He began working from home in early March and spent most of his days on calls and simply being productive. Not that I didn’t think he was being productive at his physical office but his busyness was unravelling in first of my eyes. I missed working just because I watched him do what he loved every. single. day.
I spent days on end thinking about what I could do with the little resources at my disposal. I did not, I repeat, did not want to leave the confines of my home. I toyed with the idea of a IGTV show for weeks before I even shared it with my husband and by mid-May we had a chat about it. John has been nothing but supportive since day 1. Pushing me to do what makes me happy. I discussed it with a few friends who calmed my nerves and that was all it took for me to draw out a plan.
After multiple names that sounded ok-ish, the one that stuck with me was Quaranshine. Since this was a show where I would highlight the work a few friends were doing and excelling at during these tough times, Quaranshine sounded more fitting with each passing day.
So sometime during the end of May dived right in and requested my best friend to join me for my first episode. Personally, I think asking her to be my first guest was a great idea because it turned out to be just us having a nice conversation, though I have to add that I was beyond nervous. I made John arrange a set for me and get out of the room since I wanted no one to watch me do what I was about to do. I was a wreck on the first episode. I began questioning my life choices. LOL. But it went pretty well… I couldn't help but think of the quote by Carrie Fisher, “Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.”
I hope you take the time to listen in to this one, even if it’s only for a few minutes, because it was a labour of love. And also born out of immense discomfort. It was about P (that’s what I’m going to call her here) travelling to the US to vacation with me and a few relatives just when the world was locked down. And when I say ‘just when’ I mean the morning after Donald Trump made the announcement of a lockdown, P got on a flight to take her long-awaited vacation! We never got to meet and she spent her vacation in lockdown with her relatives.
That marked the beginning of a journey for me. I drew out a content strategy, began talking to friends who where braving odds to fight the situation in their own little way and set out to enjoy myself. I did two live shows every week for about 6 weeks and during the time I spoke to a few who had not (and to date haven’t) seen their parents in over a year, while others were running businesses on bare minimum even as they tried to save jobs. I spoke to a friend who was separated from her husband in other country, and a teacher who started a new year without ever meeting her students. These were just a few but each story was more encouraging than the other.
Long story short… no big deal. Just ordinary people living extraordinarily.