The whole world is shut down for the renovation and rejuvenation of ecosystems of the Earth. COVID-1 9, a disease caused by a coronavirus that emerged in the Wuhan city of China in late 2019s is just an excuse, as actually, the world was getting more polluted by anthropogenic activities and so to combat it, the Nature wanted entire humanity to go under the stage of dormancy for some months. India is also under complete lockdown to recover from the pandemic as soon as possible. As an optimistic person, I took this as an opportunity for developing my emotional intelligence and self-consciousness. The lockdown has given me the time to sit with nature and talk to it. I have scheduled myself to clean my room every day, help my mom in her cooking and invest some time in my garden taking care of my plants. I also started to grow some veggies in my garden. As a PG Student of Environmental Science and Technology inclined towards Environmental Biotechnology, I always wanted to learn the art of composting. Every day, I am collecting kitchen waste, chopping it to a maximum, mixing it with some cow dung slurry, and feeding it to the earthworms present in my garden. How beautiful it is when you feed your Earthworms and in turn they give you vermi-compost which is a nutritious feed to your garden plants and vegetables. My heart fills with glee when I see my onions, coriander, holy basil, tomatoes, leafy greens, and beans blooming beautifully. Now, when I am growing my food and feel blissful about it, I have really developed a soft corner and empathy towards the farmers as they toil day and night to grow food for us. Most of the time, I sit in my garden and talk to my plants and guests who are visiting it regularly. My new guests are honeybees, butterflies, sparrows, crows, and the nightingale. My heart stiffens when the nightingale sings a melody in her beautiful voice. It’s okay that I am not able to go out of my home but I can go within. Yes, I am also spending time practicing yoga and pranayama to develop my spiritual intelligence. This is a small story of mine. In this way, I am knocking down the lockdown to a maximum!

(The short story is a winning piece of Kaltakmak 1.0, competition hosted by VYAPTI Foundation)