How to deal with being stuck with your significant other this quArantine

Okay, for starters, just be thankful you aren’t stuck alone, okay? Unless you were about to break up the night before the lockdown began, and somehow just felt really sleepy and decided, oh well, I can do this tomorrow.

But let’s admit – it isn’t always a heavenly abode, being at home with the person that you now sometimes convince yourself that you absolutely love.

But we’re all figuring our way around it, no?

1. Have your own dedicated space. Or if you’re living in a Mumbai pigeon hole, your own dedicated corner / kitchen stove / time on the pot. Anything to make you feel like you have a few moments, all to yourself.
2. Eat your salads and soup. But learn to eat the oil-dripping pakodas too. (And to be fair, it’s actually easier to learn to eat oil dripping pakodas than to learn to eat salads).
3. Divide your chores. Try not to keep a tab the one day you did the dishes AND mopped the floor while the other watched television.
4. A friend and his wife are now deciding on chores they both hate, via friendly games of table tennis, loser takes up the chore. Not sure how friendly those games stay, when there is toilet scrubbing in the mix.
5. Dear Men, try not to crib about the amount of hair you find floating on the floor, which have a weird habit of sticking to the mop and only letting go when you pull them out by your hand. Yes, we know we lose hair. But tomorrow, when you won’t have any on your head, we’ll still be nice to you about it, and pretend you look as hot, even when half bald.
6. Working out together is great. It gives you something you can both take joy in together, and helps with overall fitness, keeping away depression and anxiety, and the whole jingbang list. But you know what, letting the other person sleep, sometimes does more for your relationship than working out ever could.
7. Watching good shows / films helps. It enriches your mind and soul, together. But watching trashy shows / films – clutching each other and laughing while watching something like Splitsvilla – priceless.
8. Try not to let your arguments escalate to the point where one person feels compelled to bang the door and get out of the house. Firstly, you can’t really get out of the building, so you’re basically stuck meandering between your house door and the building gate, in a germ filled elevator. Secondly, it’s really hot outside, and you’re just going to feel like a fool for stepping out, and will probably come back home to a smirking spouse. This is what that time on the pot is for, people. Seek your space.
9. Meditate. If nothing else, it’s 10 minutes where you don’t have to listen anyone else.
10. Be kind to the other. Take a shower every day.