An Extrovert's Paranoia Over This Pandemia

        All my life I’ve been told that I am an extrovert. Everytime my friends would say that I have all the traits of an extrovert, I would deny it. Well, I guess it took me a pandemic to understand my need for human connection! Now, I don’t know how you guys view an extrovert but, let me tell you to my best understanding-anyone whom you can/could classify as an extrovert.

For starters, anybody who’s in desperate need of human connection at this time around, would definitely be classified as an extrovert. I know, that’s just generalizing but, let me help you understand this by explaining how I’ve personally been dealing with the whole pandemic. A normal day for me would be getting up, taking a dump, brushing my teeth and going outside for a cup of chai (recent love for Irani chai) and breakfast. As I had my chai and breakfast (mostly with my flatmate), we would have fun random conversations, look at other people and sometimes even get into some serious conversation. Interestingly, my flatmate mostly prefered to be alone and/or have a silent breakfast but, there I was bugging him always. Life kinda changed as soon as the lockdown was announced (and it was announced way earlier in Pune). Suddenly, the chai shops that we went to closed, the roadside breakfast shop closed and my flatmate also left for his hometown. I desperately wanted to go out and have a cup of chai, eat poha or vada, walk the streets, hear people honking and cursing each other but none of that was possible now as everyone were just locked in their homes.

I understand that you can order food online and still get that eating ‘outside’ food feel, but I just miss the feeling of going outside and eating. In the evenings, I would go out and eat pani puri/momos/something new. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do love to eat in the house, I do enjoy cooking (somewhat) but, there are some days where I would just want to go out with my friends and eat something from a cafe/restaurant. As of now, I don’t mind just going to my friends house and eating the food that they have cooked. But of course, not only is that impossible, it would also be extremely wrong to go out at such a time. Even though I am an extrovert, I would love my bike rides (with or without a friend). The best part of my day was going to work on the ‘Thunderbird’. I would enjoy the nice long ride to the office. I would intentionally take the inside roads where there are trees just to enjoy the shade and the cool breeze. I still remember those weekends where I would take the bike and go to some trekking place or Mumbai. Now that my entire area is on red alert, I can’t even take out the bike to get groceries. It’s just laying there feeling sad (Yes! I have a cute weird relationship with the bike). If I was given an option to take a cab/auto or ride the bike, I would always choose the bike in a heartbeat. There was so much joy in seeing other people drive/ride and suddenly, it’s like an apocalyptic movie.

         Initially, I didn’t like the fact that I would be staying in my house 24*7. Not knowing what to do, I got back to Instagram, started checking everybody’s stories and I saw how people were either doing something new and/or getting in touch with their friends. I thought to myself, hey! I can take this time out to finally start reading books and get in touch with my old school friends (who I hadn’t spoken for years and years). I did every possible thing in this lockdown, I worked out, I cooked, I spoke to my friends (literally everyone I knew), I read books (not very successful), I did a heck lot of grocery shopping, I worked (yes, work from home), I ‘reflected’ a lot of things in my life, I watched T.V shows/movies, I attended webinars, I attended various workshops and I heard like a million songs (not literally) but, everything eventually felt boring just because I couldn’t share it with anyone next to me. I was in desperate need of human contact. I was sick of being inside the house and just doing the same things over and over again.

          Over the past few days, I have come to an acceptance that I am an extrovert, I do need people around me. Unlike introverts (I know that you’re loving this time being all to yourself and social distancing), extroverts build on the energy of people around them. I know that and all I can do is empathize with you all. Unfortunately, I do not have any advice or any sort of conclusion. The only thing that helped me until now, was to accept it and do everything to ensure that I’m happy (well, almost everything).

P.S If you have a friend who's an extrovert out there, I’m sure he/she/they would be extremely grateful if you gave them a call or even dropped them a message.

Stay Home. Stay Safe. We are in this together.

P.S Since I love listening to music, the song I would suggest (somewhat in relation to this post) is: Baatein Karo by Vayu.