Year 2020 started with a bang, by the time it was March 22nd we were actually banging our plates from the window to motivate and thank our medicos, who were to start this long battle against The Novel CoronaVirus, when I say long I mean really long battle, Corona is here to stay for a long time.
Life changed as soon as the lockdown was announced. No classes for a long time, not even online classes forget about the physical classes, everyone home, the complete family which just increases the kitchen time. We are 4 of us in my family and to come to a common dish liking was a challenge. Standing in long queues for the ration was a new experience, to top it off, planning and buying also was a challenge, yes as we wanted to try and avoid going out more frequently, but it was fun. Maggie noodles only one packet to one person. Need I say more about the ration, no but it was a different experience. 
The lockdown also stopped the maid from coming, initially it was like, great this way at least I will exercise but as and when the days started getting into weeks and weeks into months, I started missing my lady Friday. I would have done anything to have her come back to work. It is better to walk and cycle trying to lose weight rather than do sweeping and swabbing.
Since people had a lot of time on hand, facebook was active.everyone you knew was on facebook now. People sharing recipes, some trying to sell their products whereas some trying to sell off their business, furnitures, cars etc, some trying hands at new ventures and the list can go on, but the point that I am trying to make is that, I enjoyed the lockdown period, as I had my boys and my husband at home. On any other day we all would be busy with our work, office and college, but this time all of us were home and we enjoyed every bit of it. Lots of Netflix, Amazon prime etc. My husband would be on tours for 3 days a week and this lockdown he was home 24/7 people would feel cramped but I enjoyed every moment with him being home. I had a preview of my retirement with him. Boys were busy with their own things but having them around meant a lot.

Corona or covid is one such topic which can be discussed on many forums, but I will leave those to the concerned people, I just want to share my experiences as a trainer and a teacher. See  you after a break.

I am back, long break na, but what do I tell you, it has been more hectic than any other normal days. As I had mentioned earlier Corona can be discussed or debated on many forums but I would like to write about the trainers and teachers.

Online teaching or training, A boon or a bane???? Mixed opinions, right??? Given the circumstances and the situations no one can say any one, it is going to be a mixed opinion,but then let’s look at the weightage. I would be of the opinion that it is sad online classes are to be conducted. I also started online classes with my students and was a bit anxious for the first time. I am used to preparing power points so that was easy but then my powerpoints are more of games and activities and that was a challenge that how do I plan my activities online. Keeping them engaged became difficult initially but then slowly over a period of time I started understanding the small tricks that could apply to keep them engaged. At  first I would get upset with them, they would not answer, log in but not be present to answer if asked any question, find excuses like internet connection is not stable etc. It was very frustrating, maybe this is too less a word, but then I tried to understand that they are behaving their age and how any student would behave. Let's face it that if we as adults were affected they as students, youth or young were also affected because of corona. The age when they would love freedom, space for themselves, not have somebody constantly telling them to do this, do that etc.