It’s been a long time since I wrote something or blogged. Have been thinking seriously about starting to write on a regular basis. COVID19 has turned our life upside down. The only way to maintain sanity is to focus on the positives in life and stay away from the negatives. As a result I have drastically cut down on daily news intake and cut down completely on arguing online (on WhatsApp) with friends & acquaintances. It been nearly two months since I started working from home. With the the lock-down and curfews, its become very difficult to go out and meet friends & family members too. While it did not strike me until this point, that blogging about useful activities that I and family members indulge in would be a good way to start writing once again. 
       

My eight year old daughter is having her summer holidays, without her usual summer classes, etc. She has not been able to step outside to play, go and meet her friends on their birthdays, visit malls & play areas; needless to say it’s been a very boring summer vacation for her. As a result, like most parents, I and my wife have been trying to keep her occupied with some usual activity or the other. My year old son is still using the entire day for playing and throwing things around as he like. One of the things that my daughter likes is drawing. She used to go for drawing classes for the past three years or so. My wife also draws from time to time. Since I am working from home, I have made it a point to encourage them to draw/ paint as much as possible. Just before the lock-down started I went to Odyssey and bought some drawing & painting related stuff. In hindsight it turned out to be a very good decision. 
     

  I keep finding  instructional videos for painting for my wife & daughter. A friend who knows about my wife’s interest in painting sent an Instagram link about Live painting instruction sessions conducted by Hindustan Trading Company @ 5 PM everyday during this lock-down. So, I created an Instagram account.   Yesterday my wife and daughter attended the live art sessions for the first time. Due to bandwidth issues, the video kept pausing quite a number of times. So, they decided to follow instructions from the recording of an earlier session about making bookmarks. I have posted the pictures of the bookmarks that they made. I read a lot of books, so they made the book marks as a gift for me. It was about an hour and half well spent for my daughter and wife.