The 9-year old in my house is building cars and planes out of previously ignored Lego and Mechano sets. Interestingly, his joy in his creations matches his happiness when he would earlier call out the models of the cars before they passed our building. My son, recent-graduate-turned-professional, who is holed up in his New York City apartment, declared last week that he was bored of screens! He had to resort to reading books. That is a measure of the change that is taking place daily.

The children in my gated colony are cycling as all contact sports have been stopped. The 6-year old who overtook me as I was walking was cycling with so much fervor at her new-found independence. There are so few cars on the road inside the colony that the kids are all on their own bicycling the way it should be.

Neighbors, who have only waved to each other in the past as they rushed to their various commitments, are talking to each other from across the road as they walk for exercise and recreation. People are stepping in to work together to help others, offering to patrol the colony for safety and running errands for senior citizens. When my neighbor’s daughter visited her mother, she chose to meet her in the colony park in front of our building. They had a mini picnic sitting 10 feet away from each other!

It is possible to hear birds chirping all the time! The clouds have excited the peacocks and they are making such a racket that one has to explain to people (on calls) what the noise is!

I had the chance to catch up with 4 college friends – in different parts of the world – on one ‘happy hour’ video call last evening; this is something we have been meaning to do for years but never managed. Also, ended up setting up video calls with family members and celebrating a birthday online.

For my ‘online’ work meeting, I already saw rosier cheeks and calmer colleagues. The rest, even if mandated, is going to help everyone emerge stronger and hopefully full of enthusiasm to rework and rebuild.

There seems to be kindness all around – almost everyone I know has assured their help that they would be paid even though they cannot come in. I am hoping that the government will follow on its promise to help the daily wage earners who are most impacted. Even the strays are not being neglected.

There is nothing positive about a pandemic but finding the silver lining in this cloud would make it bearable.