Well, it’s already been 2 an a half month for my quarantine. Today let me tell you my quarantine story. But before we start let me introduce myself. My name is Shreeja Jha, originally from Madhubani, Bihar but born and brought up half in Durgapur, West Bengal and half in Ranchi, Jharkhand and currently living in London. Popping on to my professional life I am a proud hotelier indeed, currently working for the Park Plaza London Riverbank Hotel as a Senior Guest Relation Manager.
Now, let’s talk about kind of the best period of my life QUARANTINE 2020. As mentioned earlier my quarantine started back in mid March. As I work for a hotel me and our team were informed about the Government Policy for Hotel’s in relation with the entire COVID-19 situation and were given 1 day to close the hotel temporarily. I must say that was one of the most emotional and stressful day of my life professionally. Emotional because it’s my 6th year in this industry and I had never seen anything like this before in my career, it was hard for me and for my team to see the hotel’s lobby in a drop dead silence. And stressful because I did not know if my job was safe and being in a different country alone that was the last thing I wanted to face.
And let me tell you Lockdown was already announced in India at that point of time, So, the only feeling then was the fear of being stuck in here with no Job and a lot of bills to pay.
Lucky enough our government here introduced the FURLOUGH STATUS under the Job Retention Scheme from the 1st of April 2020 where in we will be paid wage at the maximum sum accessible by the company from the scheme which shall be 80% of our wage with up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. Until that day I had no idea how I was going to survive and if I even had my job. However, I can honestly say that I am blessed with really good people in my life personally and professionally whose been there to support me mentally so much at that point of time in London.
If you ask me what I did in 2 an a half months being at home and alone in this country then I would like to keep that long story short and just say that I found my true self in every possible way. I have always had a creative mind and I always wanted to create a new form of art may that be singing, painting, doodling, cooking or dancing. I realised that it doesn’t take too much to be happy although all we need to do is just love ourselves in every possible and do not forget to appreciate our flaws.
If you ask me what message I would like to give to the people whoever is reading this it would be “ Let’s just love more and judge less and not forget to be kind and humble at the same time, there is a lot of negativity in this world but your one attitude can make a huge difference” .
Written by – Shreeja Jha (London)