A part -time resident and a full time ‘worker’ at Karma Lakelands, this place has my heart, no doubt. However, residing here for an occasional night, once in a blue moon was not sufficient for me to experience and do justice to this oasis. March of 2020 presented me with a chance to do so.

Being an entrepreneur and spear-heading the Boutique Hotel KARMA CHALETS located within Karma Lakelands, the Hotel was, and is, my second home. The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic took us all by surprise. Closing our doors on the 13th of March, our team got ample time to make their way back to their respective homes safely. However, I was fortunately at Karma Lakelands when the first official Lockdown was announced on 20th March 2020.

The Lockdown somehow brought us all ‘down to earth’ literally. On Monday, 23rd of March, a friend pointed out – ‘the skies look more beautiful, the sun is shining brighter’. This was just Day 2 into the janta curfew. As the days passed by, nature had time to heal. With humans out of the way, the flora and fauna received the much-needed breathing space – something we had stolen from them for decades now. New Delhi had seen an all time high of PM 999 in December 2019. Just a few months later, due to favorable circumstances, the pollution levels of Delhi were down to 66! A Lockdown meant no vehicles on the road and no factories spewing out smoke. In fact, no amount of human intervention or environmental initiatives would have been able to bring about such a state of slowdown in human activity. Fortunately or unfortunately, the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise, and according to me, the ‘rehabilitation’ of the environment has been the biggest boon of all. The results were witnessed by the residents of Karma Lakelands, without a doubt! Reconciling myself to the fact that I could not return home for that one night finally ended up into a two month long curfew at our villa at Karma Lakelands. Cut off and secluded, I had a lot of time to do my own introspection, which in turn, gave birth to some novel ideas.

I suddenly remembered that I had a Nikon D3 DSLR camera packed away somewhere at our Hotel on the property. An excited trip to the Chalets to collect the camera, as well as ‘The Book of Indian Birds’ by the famous ornithologist, Salim Ali, was the turning point mental state during the days of the Lockdown. While definitely a ‘nature lover’, I was not an avid bird-watcher like my parents. However, these 2 months in isolation taught me to get out on my cycle at 6 AM in the morning and appreciate the little creatures and things around me that we all take for granted. I observed birds endlessly, losing myself in their beauty and grace. The more time I spent around them, the more I learnt about the various names, patterns of behavior and simple characteristics that made each species so very unique.