Surviving the apocalypse – An introvert’s account

I’ve always been an introvert. Ever since I was a child, I have always preferred being alone or if I had to be around others, I preferred a very limited number of people. Being around more than a few people is tiring.

Silence is my favorite thing in the world. Listening to others go on about one thing or the other is my biggest pet peeve. In fact, if there’s one scientific and medical breakthrough that I’m fervently hoping for, it is the ability to switch off my ears whenever I want.

I dread festivals, especially the noise made by firecrackers and deafening loud-speakers all over for some religious reason or another.

Enter Covid-19 , one of the biggest crises that we have ever faced in our lifetime.

The first couple of months: February and March 2020 were ok, the seriousness hadn’t really sunk in but public gatherings were discouraged. This was music (silence) to my ears. I actually quite liked the idea of a pandemic if it meant people employing basic civic sense.

Then came the lock-down and work from home directives.

This caused a mini panic of buying and stocking essentials for a couple of months. We got used to it quite soon though.

Work wise, this meant being at home in my PJ’s, having the freedom of being able to sit on the sofa, bed or workstation and working in silence. It meant not having to listen to things I didn’t want to listen to.  No disturbance of the cleaning crew, no ringing of scores of phones around me and no one talking about their kids, neighbors, in-laws and what not. Not even the noise made by shoes pitter-pattering all around or the banging of desks and drawers.

My productivity increased, I no longer had to wear earphones most of the time.

There were a lot of technical snags with getting used to VPNs and the whole working remotely thing, but we got through it, colleagues helping out each other. It made me appreciate what a wonderful project team I had. We worked alone and collaborated over messaging apps and calls when needed.

It made me appreciate my wife more and I realized that she would make a great colleague.

Both quietly and happily working in our own bubbles.

The best part of working from home meant not having to commute 2-3 hrs every day.

This gave me more time to do the things I would normally not have time for.I played and finished 2 long PC games, I read 7-8 books in a couple of months, I started learning things like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and most importantly, I started this blog.

With time, the novelty started wearing off, the lock-downs seemed unending and the cabin fever set in. I started realizing how much I missed the feeling of wind on my face while being in a car, how much I enjoyed walking and being out in the sun whenever I wanted. Here again, being an introvert helps a lot, all I need to do is chat with family and a few close friends that I’m blessed with, walk a little in the society premises and this is enough to keeps the hounds at bay and recharge me.

Being an introvert and loving being alone has been a blessing in these trying times.

Another thing that helps is making an effort to be positive and thankful. Thankful for being lucky enough to be able to work from home, being lucky to have small but magical group of friends to chat with (we introverts don’t talk if we can chat).

This pandemic is tailor made for people like me. Let’s hope it goes away soon, but the benefits of no large gatherings and 6 feet distancing remain forever.

More importantly let’s hope that there’s never a crisis where we are forced to mingle. Ugh, that’d be unbearable.

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