COVID-19

Looking at the title, anyone might comprehend that this blog is about COVID-19, unfortunately no. This blog is about the skills that I learnt and improved during the Janta-curfew.

My plan for janta-curfew is this:

Cooking:

During the evening my mother called me from the kitchen “Rohit come here”. I stood a tile away from the kitchen and asked her “what happened?” She replied saying that she had a headache and asked me to make coffee for her. I was baffled because I didn’t even know how to boil milk; even then my mother wants me to make coffee for her. Due to the reason that she had a headache, I asked her how to do it. She gave me some instructions and she left. Those steps were difficult to follow than my Chemistry teacher who speaks in a voice which can only be heard by the first bench students even when I sit in the first bench. With a lot of struggles I successfully boiled milk, and then I added sugar and coffee powder and stirred it well. I served the piping hot coffee to my mother. My mother drank the coffee and thanked me for an excellent coffee.

The next day my mother was heating Pav and she got a call, she told me to help her with cooking and she left. For a second I was out of my mind, the sound of the door closing brought me back to life. I examined the tava, butter, pav and the plate. With high hopes I started heating them and it turned out to be pretty good. Feeling like a head chef I tried crazy ideas like flipping the pav with the tava itself and adding butter like a chef which also turned out to look and taste good.

The next day after I made pav, my father came from office and was looking tired. I asked him if he wants something to eat he asked for a half-boil. I did make it without breaking the yolk and it was perfectly cooked with the yolk wobbling and jiggling around. He wondered how I was able to make it perfectly, I told him that during my vacation after my 10th boards, I went to visit my uncle in New Jersey and he taught me how to make a half boil.

Conference:

I am part of the Gavels club which is a club for people to join and improve their speaking skills, and due to this epidemic we weren’t able to come together for our sessions. Hence we planned to do a video conference. I was the moderator for the conference and had to make sure everyone joins and the meeting runs smoothly. I tried Skype but that’s very difficult to add everyone’s email ID, there may be few guests who just join for a session or two so their email ID’s must also be added which will be difficult. Then I tried Zoom, the problem with Zoom is that, when the number of participants is greater than 3, the conference duration can be only 40 minutes in the basic plan. Our sessions will last for around 2 hours hence that was also ruled out. With a lot of trials we ended up using Cisco Web-ex. Web-ex had all the features that we required. The night before our session I and few of the coordinators and Toastmasters had a meeting to check if it is audible and all the required features are available. The next day the meeting was very smooth and without any disturbances the session was wrapped up well. I was appreciated for my work of trying out different apps and finally deciding on one and testing it in the night before, joining an hour before the session to guide and help everyone join faster to start on time.

These were the things that I did during the first three days of curfew. On a lighter note, my lucky number is 3 and the third alphabet is C. I have learnt to Cook and to conduct a Conference call. To relate to the heading, social distancing is good for you, your family and others. Stay safe and stay healthy.