Lockdown had been a difficult phase for everyone. From students to employees, and businesses to industries, everyone and everything were facing the wrath of a pandemic. To prevent the spread of the COVID-19, the governments of many countries across the world had to announce lockdowns. Under the lockdown rules, the citizen had to stay inside their homes, and can only step out in case of emergencies or to buy essential things.
While everyone was cursing the lockdown, it also had another side, which was not too bad. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, when families don’t get enough time, lockdown brings the opportunity to spend some quality time with our closed ones. Many people utilized this free time to develop new skills, discovering new hobbies and enjoying different pastimes.
Let us discover what activities people tried to combat the boredom and negativity from their lives during the lockdown.
Learning Cooking
#LockdownCooking became the new trendsetter during the lockdown. Looking at social media feeds, it was easy to assume that every family had found a chef or a baker. For many people cooking had been a new endeavour. Even those who couldn’t address the names of common kitchen ingredients tried their hands at cooking. With online video and recipes at their disposal, many people turned out to be the chef of the family.
Joining a Book Club Online
Many people joined and started an online book club where the readers could explore and find the books on their preferred themes. Booklovers hopped Instagram to join reading communities and got recommended several titles that they otherwise might have never tried. Moreover, an online book club offers various opportunities to know like-minded people.
Gardening
Gardening has emerged as interest among the youth of the country. As people were compelled to stay confined to their homes, they found gardening as a new domestic hobby. With more free time at their hands, residents started taking an interest in nurturing their kitchen gardens. One of the contributing factors that boosted this interest is the doctors’ suggestions to eat healthy and immunity-boosting foods. With the rise in this home gardening interest, many gardening eCommerce companies witnessed the surge in their business during the lockdown. According to Snapdeal, an eCommerce company, the overall sale in the gardening section was more than double during mid-march to mid-May.
Over these two months, people bought vegetable and fruit seeds, including Brinjals, Bitter Guards, Bottle Guards, Coriander, Chilli, Lemon, Tomatoes, etc. According to Snapdeal, tomato and lemon seeds were most-searched-for seeds on the website. Another popular product among Snapdeal customers after these products were combo vegetable seeds.
Besides seeds, there was a massive demand for plants like Holy Basil (Tulsi), Water Hyssop (Brahmi), Winter Cherry (Ashwagandha), Heart-leaved moonseed (Giloy) and Lemongrass. Nursery-owners also admitted that after a massive fall in their business in April, they started receiving orders for these plants daily.
Playing Games Online
In the difficult times when everyone was losing hopes and finding it hard to stay positive, online games became the saviour for many individuals. Online games became a source of entertainment for netizens. The fun was not only limited to individuals, but the family and friends, who were divided with the distance, used to connect over online interactive games like Ludo King, Monopoly, and PUBG.
With the increase in online gaming activities, online gaming ventured witnessed phenomenal growth.
Besides online games, a considerable number of people also routed their ways towards online casinos, to play games for real money, and earn some exciting prizes.
Yoga and Meditation
Practising yoga and meditation helped people in a lot of ways to keep calm and stay positive. Surrounded by the negativity, many people found yoga as the best things to keep their wellbeing and mental health in check. Since many studies have revealed that practising yoga regularly improves concentration, relaxes pain, manages anxiety, increases cognitive health. And this fact increased the interest of many people in yoga during the lockdown.
Craft and Painting
Crafting and painting drew the interests of many residents, locked inside their homes. Many took online lessons to learn crafts, starting from knitting to woodshops. Whereas, others found painting a soothing technique to ease anxiety and combat boredom.
So, these were some new hobbies, and pastimes that became the saviours during the lockdown in the country.
