[showboat]

I'm spending the time redoing the things I mastered when I was younger.

• Teaching and practicing yoga - I got certified as an instructor at the age of 22, so trying to teach my 3-year-old now.
• Cooking - haven't had this much fun making pizzas and bread in a long time.
• Cleaning the house - ha, I've never mastered that but gotta help the wife wherever possible, and mainly its cleaning up after myself in the kitchen.
• Excercising and IMF - gotta lose the love handles. Skipping breakfast has helped
• Video chats and phone calls - catching up with people I haven't talked to in ages. This has prob been my favorite out of all the things I've been doing.

[procrastinator]

An additional thing I have to do is cleaning.
Over the course of 15 days, I am doing better than my maid.

I have started to cook. Chappatis are rolled round without protractor or bowl. They inflate like a ballon on burner. Out of curiosity, I pricked them with a toothpick once. It deflated gently.

Also, I am more active on Social media; more video Calls and more Team-BHP ( catch the time of this post )

[charanreddy]

I have taken a turn to the dark side over the last 2 - 3 days.. Playing almost 50 levels of candy crush per day, re-reading team-bhp , watching random YouTube dubbed movies of our dear captain Vijayakanth. I never thought I was a social person, always felt comfortable by myself, but guess not. During weekdays busy with work so not too much there, but I have taken to random snacking :(

[arindam.dino]

Originally Posted by AJ-got-BHP

CLEANING THE CLEANING APPARATUS !

I had the same idea and diligently went forward with it. Words cannot express what came out of the duster. But after re-spraying and drying it in the shade I'm not getting that almost-new feeling. How was your experience..?

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by showboat

[*]Excercising and IMF - gotta lose the love handles. Skipping breakfast has helped

Quick bit of unsolicited advice. If at all you are aiming to skip any meals (not advisable though), skip dinner rather than breakfast. OR have a very light dinner. The body has more time to metabolise breakfast and lunch, rather than dinner, since we sleep soon after having our last meal of the day. Hence the age old saying, paraphrased, breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper

[CarBot]

Ok for me it is roller coaster ride. I came back from US in April 2018 after a span of 6 years. After coming back decided to switch job from organization through which I came back to another big America based IT organization. After joining I was put in a American project and I was also made people manager. Now this year I was told I was being nominated for H1B again. Initial thought was lets see there is lottery process and RFEs etc who cares let them nominate.
Now in last couple of days I got to know I am through lottery and I am feeling sad that I may have to go in a year or so. Feeling good thinking about 4Runner which I owned last before coming back and the thrill of driving on US roads. So all in all mixed feelings.

[showboat]

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

Quick bit of unsolicited advice. If at all you are aiming to skip any meals (not advisable though), skip dinner rather than breakfast. OR have a very light dinner. The body has more time to metabolise breakfast and lunch, rather than dinner, since we sleep soon after having our last meal of the day. Hence the age old saying, paraphrased, breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper

Thanks for the advice. I used to be the skip dinner kind of person but as I got older worked better for me the other way. Im doing a standard 16 - 8 fast, but really works out to 17-7 or even 18-6. So I generally have lunch by 12 and dinner by 6.30 or so. I sleep by 10, up by 5. Gives me enough time to digest and process dinner. Morning coffee keeps me going til lunch!

[Roshith]

Other than spending more time with the family and watching Netflix programmes i have decided to catalogue my Auto magazine collection. Started more than 30 years now it has almost all the Indian auto Mags including the first editions and a few international titles too.Every evening, spend almost an hour sorting it out and have enlisted the help of the wifey too.
Just discovered that my first magazine is Indian Auto Journal from 1986 costing the princely sum of 8 rupees.
Road tests of vehicles like the D1 Sipani , Lamby Polo, Naramada 150 Price, Vespa PL170, Bajaj Sunny and all those lovely advertisements of the Gypsy, Mahindra Jeeps, Rover Montego, Ford Escort etc.
Its really a walk down a different world.
Lets see how it goes. Wil share a detailed thread later.

[bluevolt]

Originally Posted by CarBot

Ok for me it is roller coaster ride. I came back from US in April 2018 after a span of 6 years. After coming back decided to switch job from organization through which I came back to another big America based IT organization. After joining I was put in a American project and I was also made people manager. Now this year I was told I was being nominated for H1B again. Initial thought was lets see there is lottery process and RFEs etc who cares let them nominate.
Now in last couple of days I got to know I am through lottery and I am feeling sad that I may have to go in a year or so. Feeling good thinking about 4Runner which I owned last before coming back and the thrill of driving on US roads. So all in all mixed feelings.

Usually, there is a cooling-off period between back to back H1B filing which I believe you have served that's why there was no RFE.

On a different note, the H1B lottery was conducted on 31st March. Quite surprised you have been notified so early. Otherwise, How soon companies usually notify people about the results is a different game altogether (Read service-based MNCs).

[jigar]

I spend most of my time either sleeping, binge watching or completing my college assignments
In the past 15 days I have finished:





Next up in the list I have Star Trek, The Office and Seinfeld.

[Safety is Param]

Originally Posted by CarBot

Ok for me it is roller coaster ride. I came back from US in April 2018 after a span of 6 years. After coming back decided to switch job from organization through which I came back to another big America based IT organization. After joining I was put in a American project and I was also made people manager. Now this year I was told I was being nominated for H1B again. Initial thought was lets see there is lottery process and RFEs etc who cares let them nominate.

Off topic, however, if the highlighted aspects are "clear", then chances of RFE are close to zero.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

This Lockdown has been very useful for me as I was able to complete a lot of pending works. Chief of which was reviving my very old VHS tapes which were infested with Fungus and I thought they were done for. Fortunately you can revive such tapes, so don't throw them away !.
.

Wow, good to see that you VCR/VCP is still in working condition, and hey I also see the good ol' CRT TV!

... brings back the memories of furry head cleaning tapes and head cleaning fluids!

[akshay87kumar]

These days, I am spending time with my photography gear. Now that the human activity has subsided significantly, there is a marked difference in air quality, and hence the visibility of stars. On a typical day in Gurgaon, it would be possible to see 2-3 stars through naked eye. However, these days, the sky is generally full of stars. A few days ago, I was able to photograph the saturn, jupiter, mars and pluto in conjunction with Sagittarius constellation. Making the best use of this time!

Attaching some pictures for your viewing! Ofcourse, this is not the same view to the naked eye. Other pictures are available at: https://akshay87kumar.com/astrophotography

[CarBot]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

Quite surprised you have been notified so early. Otherwise, How soon companies usually notify people about the results is a different game altogether (Read service-based MNCs).

It has been 2 years since I came back so yes cooling off period is over. This year the process has changed, the lottery was all online. My Attorney got to know on March 31st via USCIS website. I was notified on Friday April 4. Now companies have to file actual H1B papers and fees within June 30th.

Originally Posted by Safety is Param

Off topic, however, if the highlighted aspects are "clear", then chances of RFE are close to zero.

Yeah all hilighted aspects are "Clear" with client letter etc all in place and US salary in 6 digits, but still you know how USCIS buys time with RFEs.

The desi mentality is whether to go to US or not. I feel I earn a decent package above 25lakhs here in India, now how much more can I save leaving family, friends etc all here in India. Sometimes I feel stupid but I am sure everyone who plans to go abroad feels the same.

Sorry that I have deviated this thread from what we are doing during lockdown to what I am worrying about in this lockdown.

[AJ-got-BHP]

I have traveled the world in these 10-12 days time !! I am serious. All on the internet though and have planned some trips. Don't know whether the economic breakdown would allow finances to actually materialize any of the plans

Another thing I have managed to do is help wifey make some Dalgona Coffee and Chocolate Donuts at home ! Sharing some pictures :




Relishing the indulgence and compensating by walking twice a day on the terrace to burn some accumulated calories !

Originally Posted by Mr.Bentley

Look what I've managed to assemble!
Good old lego in new clothes by Xiaomi.
Next goal: disassemble and re-assemble it into a new model.
After 3 hours of childhood:

Thanks for bringing this to light ! What an amazing build up that is. It is identical to what we used to have earlier named LEGO Mechanica/ Technica. Never knew Mi Xiaomi had anything like this on offer.

After seeing your post, I have managed to find my set preserved in a plastic box. However, not finding the manual to it. Will take up this project with my 4 year old son during this lockdown. Thanks once again.

Originally Posted by INJAXN

Now during lock down, engaging my 4 years old daughter is getting difficult day by day. All her toys are in Pune, out of which we miss Mega blocks the most. We are trying keep her screen time limited to 60-90 minutes. To keep her engage we are doing following :
- Draw picture of her favorite cartoon characters and color them.
- play Doll house with her mickey mouse club house kit.
- My dad drew a board of Chausar ( and old Indian ludo like board game) and started playing with her.
- little writing practice.
- I read her few books, mostly Pepa pig cartoon books. Have downloaded old India classic tales 'panch tantra ki kahaniya' on Kindle, will start with that today.
- Next we are going try paper craft.

I am sure it must be a herculean task without her things being around. I must say you are doing a fab job. What you can also do is :
1.) Blow Art using water colours if there and a straw
2.) Planting a Plant and asking her to water it regularly
3.) How about making Snakes and Ladders and playing the game too. A Good number/ counting practice as well.

I hope this helps

Originally Posted by arindam.dino

I had the same idea and diligently went forward with it. Words cannot express what came out of the duster. But after re-spraying and drying it in the shade I'm not getting that almost-new feeling. How was your experience..?

Firstly, welcome to Team-BHP !! Good to see another Calcuttan joining the Forum ! Hope to catch up with you soon in some of our meets.

I guess you omitted reading the instructions on the Duster Cover and on the Duster Rejuvenator. This is what I usually do :

1. Wash the Duster after taking out the plastic/ wooden handle
2. Kept it overnight submerged in water
3. Next Day gave it a wash again and the results are equally bad
4. Left it for 24 hours to dry normally under the sun clipped it to the grill
5. Next Day Sprayed the Wax and Left it to dry for 1 hour, again sprayed the way and again left it to dry for 1 hour and then again repeated the process

.
By the End of Day, your duster is ready to use and the results are fantastic/ better than original !

I have 4 dusters and I did the same for all including the Hand Duster for Interior Cleaning.