All Hail the Awesome “A to Z” #AtoZChallenge

It’s finally the last day of March (I’m writing this post a day before it’s published). This month has dragged on and on and on… you get the drift, right? April brings with it a breath of fresh air as it’s the month of warm weather and hope. April, would you please do us a good one and find a way to beat corona down?!

Well, even if April doesn’t give us that, it will provide a healthy distraction from all the negativity surrounding us, with the awesome “A to Z Challenge”. For bloggers, our laptops and online tools have always been our workspace, whether at home or surreptitiously in our offices. Hence, a forced ‘you-must-work-from-home’ lockdown comes easy to us.

The real challenge in navigating the lockdown has been having other family members at home, extra home chores and duties to fulfill and entertaining both young and old family members. Though it’s been nice to have everyone at home and together, I miss having my personal space and blogging schedule in place. That’s where the world’s biggest blogging challenge will help- I will be forced to take time out for myself to write, edit, publish, share, read and connect. Self-care, career progression, writing practice, and networking all in one.

So, thanks to both teams- the international A to Z Challenge and Blogchatter’s A2Z for undertaking this monumental task. Though I’m sure every participant has been grateful to both teams every single year, this year the significance of working online and staying connected with the worldwide community has taken on an entirely new meaning.

Keep up the good work teams- may we all grow from strength to strength together!

As the lockdown throws us new challenges each day, it becomes imperative to look for creative solutions, and that’s where a community connect becomes important.

A couple of days into lockdown, the newspapers stopped being delivered to our homes. Having completely switched to reading an e-paper a few months ago, I never noticed this till today, when a friend asked for newspaper resources on a common Whatsapp group. That made me realise that my in-laws were probably missing their newspapers too! I promptly suggested to my father-in-law that he should download the Indian Express app on his iPad (his preferred newspaper) and taught him where to find the e-paper which reads exactly like the real thing but online. You should do the same, if you haven’t already.

So, here’s my daily tip to beat the lockdown blues:

Download any newspaper app of your choice for yourself or your parents/grandparents. While you may be used to reading news in short, there is something to be said for reading the daily paper. It’s a great way to comprehensively view a day’s worth of news, along with learning new ideas and opinions. The older generations mostly prefer physical newspapers, and they would really appreciate help in finding and navigating them online.

As for the TV show recommendation for today:

A couple of days ago, over on my Instagram daily updates, I had recommended “Alias Grace”- a miniseries airing on Netflix. This is a psychological thriller based on a novel written by Margaret Atwood (of “The Handmaid’s Tale” fame), set in 19^th century Canada. It’s one of the most gripping shows I have seen, with truly mind-blowing acting performances.

Since I’ve already mentioned that one, here’s a bonus TV show for today’s recommendation- ‘Agatha Christie’s Poirot’ played by David Suchet, will give you hours of entertainment! Unfortunately, this series is not available for streaming on most platforms in India, but many of the episodes are on Youtube.

A book recommendation necessarily follows in the wake of the last one- any book by Agatha Christie will captivate you, but my personal favourite is “And Then There Were None”.

Now check out my video for #LockdownWithTheLadyLawyer and follow me on Instagram to stay better connected. Also tell me your favourite TV Shows/ movies/ books/ bloggers with the letter A?

Adios till tomorrow!

This post has been written for the #AtoZChallenge 2020. My theme this year is #LockdownWithTheLadyLawyer, where I’m journaling my thoughts during the coronavirus lockdown, and sharing numerous recommendations that will help keep your spirits up.

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