Dear Meesho Diary,
Lockdown has not been the easiest thing to live through, and even though I am currently weathering it all alone, I am lucky to have lifelong friends who find ways to keep in touch — even the ones living in other continents.
Bulk cooking, meditation, dancing and some semblance of routine have truly kept me sane during this period, but I think the biggest stress buster in my life right now is my furry son.
I am a cat dad !!!
My day begins and ends with him now. In a way, the lockdown gave me the extra push to adopt a kitten and so all things considered, I guess lockdown is not all that bad.
6 am — Cat dad duties beckons
I wake up to the sound of my adorable kitten Ginger who is an early riser as usual. I start my day by heeding to his demands for food. Once he is well-fed, he finds a cosy corner to chill in the house, while I turn to the Headspace app and do some light meditation. Meditating is a newly developed hobby, and I have come to realise that it really helps calm my mind. So, I do it daily around 6.30 am.
9 am — Planning my moves in chess and for the day
With two of my closest friends in the US, our college gang of four play some competitive four-player chess around 9 am. This is our time to bond and update each other on what is going on with us. But also, winning is super important to us, and if we can’t, we gang up on the best player and call that a win.
The chess game usually lasts for about an hour during which time I munch on an apple, and I log in for work soon after and prepare for the Tech team’s daily sprint meeting. As a Software Development Engineer — II (SDE- II), I have some individual tasks that I need to complete before the meeting so I wrap those up quickly.
11.30 am — Brunch and sprint
I am intermittent faster, so instead of having breakfast I brunch around 11. 30 am, and as per custom it is a simple dal and some ready-to-eat parottas. As it turns out, bulk cooking works best for me, especially during the lockdown. Ginger has his lunch around the same time.
Sprint meeting begins around 12.30 pm and this is where we discuss our daily targets and deliverables. Currently, I am working on revamping the Meesho app interface, and it is super impactful, exciting work. This requires me to collaborate with the Product Manager and other developers quite a bit as well.
Since we are all working from home, the Tech team as a whole is focused on communicating constantly, with daily synch-ups and biweekly one-on-one meetings with our manager, who in my case is VP — Engineering, Chetan Kalyan. He is ever ready to help with any roadblocks when it comes to work. We also have regular Tech All Hands to discuss the roadmap of the Tech team. All of this helps us function just as well as we did when we were working from the same physical space.
5 pm — Snack and string
After a very productive work day, I snack a little and play with my kitten for a while. Owing to my dietary restrictions, I try to have my last meal of the day — some fruits and a light meal of dal and parotta left over from lunch — before 6pm.
Since the lockdown began, I have been working out everyday using Cult.Fit, and one of my favourite things to do, is to dance my heart out. At 8 pm, one of my favourite instructors and dancers, Naveen is leading a session and I join in on the fun.
9.20 pm — Virtual gaming and Ginger time — again
My former colleagues — current friends — and I have this very specific time to get together virtually for a ruthless game of Ludo. It started off as a one-off thing, but soon became a tradition and is now part of our daily routine. When we play, we are also talking about everything under the sun, and it is truly one of the best parts of my day.
I then turn my attention to Ginger, who is in a playful mood and play with him for a while before hitting the sack around 10.30 pm.
I am living a pretty good lockdown life and most if it is thanks to Ginger, who I adopted from a friend of my colleague Nikita Dawda, Category Manager at Meesho, whose cat gave birth to four kittens. All of Ginger’s siblings are still up for adoption, so if you are looking to give a kitty a forever home, Meeshoites reach out to me or Nikita on Hangouts, and others please reach out to me in the comments section below.
Until next time, Dear Meesho Diary. I hope you get to hear from another Meeshoite about their exciting day at home soon.
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