Stop complaining about sitting at home, urge TV actors.

MUMBAI: With the entire country on lockdown, we are unable to go out, spend time with our friends, eat out. Every day feels like a Sunday, doesn’t it? Well, this is what our favorite TV actors have to say about this. 

Amrita Prakash: Actually, as actors, we work 7 days a week. So, we don't even have Sundays off. So, this lockdown does seem exceptionally unnatural. However, I consider myself privileged to be able to practice social-distancing. We're part of a society that is not severely impacted financially by this lock-down. And according to me, people complaining of inane things like not getting to see your friends, going out to eat, or boredom- are extremely self-entitled and disrespectful. You're extremely fortunate if the only impact this lock-down has is on your social life. And, in spite of being able to stay safely indoors, eat three meals a day and have a roof on your head, you can still find it in you to complain about things like boredom. You need to re-evaluate your position and use this time to grow- physically, mentally and emotionally. This lock-down does not owe you any 'novelty'. For me, Freedom isn't being able to see my friends and go to malls. Freedom is the opportunity to protect me and my family, with a roof on our heads. I count my blessings and I don't think we have any right to complain about 'boredom', at this time. That's grossly obnoxious and deserves zero empathy. 

Rishina Kandhari: Since the day the lockdown was announced, I haven’t stepped out of the house. Also because my mom and I stay on the same floor and same building I don’t want her to work in the house. We don’t have maids right now so from that day, I have been doing household work of both the houses. I am doing dusting, washing utensils, cooking, taking care of my pets and coming to mom’s house and doing the same thing again. I am handling both the houses single-handedly. My husband Vishal is helping the needy. Every morning at 10 am sharp, he leaves the house to distribute lunch and dinner to at least three thousand people in a day. So he is been busy with that. I am the one who is taking care of both the households; mine as well as my mothers. The whole day becomes very hectic for me and at the end of the day, I get really tired. All I want to take a hot water shower and crash on the bed. 

Parull Chaudhry: Happiness lies in your owns hand, no one else can make you happy. We used to be so busy, we didn’t even have fixed Sunday offs and suddenly everything comes to stand still and we are just completely homebound. I have seen many actors cribbing that we don’t get time at home usually. Here, we are not speaking about 20 or 30 years back when we don’t have the technology. I mean if you are missing your friends, you can video call them and talk with them as long as you want. I don’t understand how people are getting bored because there are so many things that people always wanted to do. Think about the hobbies you wanted to pursue but you didn’t get time. Connect to people you haven’t been in touch with, it's very important; like your college people, school mates, grandparents. I am not feeling bored at home and I don’t mind spending more time at home because I have a lot to do. I prepare my own breakfast, I workout for one and half-hours daily, I watch TV and many more things. 

Kunal Thakur: In a profession like ours, we work on Sunday also. I completely do understand that a lot of people have nothing to do nowadays. I stay alone at my place so I have a lot of work to do like washing clothes, dusting, washing utensils, cooking, workout, talking on the phone, following the news and many more things. I don’t think it is important to go out at this point of time. I do miss my friends, I miss going out for films, eating food outside. I hope everything gets normal soon and we all get back to our work and do good things. 

Rahul Sharma: I don’t think so Sunday is that important in an actors' life because there are very fewer actors who get off on Sunday. In today’s scenario, we are not on vacation, the whole world is facing a crisis. I am trying to keep myself mentally strong. Our freedom is lost, we can say that. I miss my shoots, gym and if we don’t follow this, then the situation will become more worst. There is so much work to be done at home. I particularly have divided the work so I don’t get bored. I do meditation and other spiritual and religious activities and these make me feel happy and good. I am learning to cook, reading books. I feel that if we have got a chance to spend time with our family members and with ourselves, then why not make the most of it. 

Vikas Sethi: At the moment, it's safe to be home...it's not boring. We are fighting an unknown enemy. Besides that, I am doing lots of things at home like cleaning, cooking, reading books etc. 

Amal Sehrawat: The biggest quality of human beings is adaptability, so I believe sooner or later, everyone is going to adapt to it. In this hard time, I request everyone to extend a helping hand to the needy, keeping social distancing in mind. As far as spending time indoors is concerned, I am having a good time with my family, our bond is becoming stronger and all of us are enjoying each other's company. To keep ourselves sane and active, we all follow a routine. I am practicing monologues from my favorite films, reading biographies, seeing interviews and live sessions of my favorite personalities and working out regularly. My wife, Neha is busy doing household chores and is still following her fitness passion by being creative and using household items as her exercise equipment. My child, Krishay attends online classes. We also sit and play together. 

Rohitashv Gour: For the last fifteen years, I am spending this kind of life in which I have shot daily. There was a time when I used to shoot for fifty long hours. Then later,  the association made a rule of working only limited hours. While shooting regularly, we used to feel that we should get time off. Doing something regularly is boring, this is a human tendency. When used to shoot regularly, we used to feel that at least one-off we should get, but it wasn’t possible and now we have got this forced holiday. We have done all our pending work, rested after a long time, taking care of health, watching films and web series and many more things. I am the kind of person who is relaxed and is looking for new things. 

Vijayendra Kumeria: The lockdown has given us a lot of time to relax and we have got plenty of time to be with our family and self, do things that we miss in our busy lives. Of course, I miss going for the shoot and my daily normal routine but I don’t want to crib about being home as its the need of the hour. I have taken this loss of freedom in a positive way. I have learned 2 things which we all are forgetting these days and they are waiting and being patient. We have to wait and be patient and come out of this situation as winners. 

Mohit Malhotra: I agree that every day feels like a Sunday now since it’s a lockdown but I guess we have to accept this situation. Instead of repulsing on why we are not going out, we can make the most of it. I know it can get boring eventually. How many movies or TV shows can you watch? These are the few things you can do. Be grateful that you are getting to spend quality time with your family and having yummilicious home-cooked food. You can pick up a new language to learn in this free time. Duo lingo is a good app for that. You can learn to play a new instrument or learn cooking, there are so many lessons available on YouTube. You can read books. It’s the best use of your free time. Play board games with your family. It’s so much fun doing that in the evening over some snacks and lastly, be grateful for every moment given to you. At least you are safe and not battling a deadly virus.