We live in a time where the world is constantly changing. Until the beginning of 2020, our lives were on rollerblades – we eased through multiple tasks with all hair strands in their place. However, a miniscule entity tripped us off our speed; and ushered us (sullenly) into the pandemic affected era.
Bolted up at home, and nothing to do, we had only time for ourselves. With no looming deadlines or traffic snarls, we saw opportunities aplenty. Many built muscles by whipping up the Dalgona Coffee, some exercised their grey cells on family quizzes, plenty took up baking, while YouTube saw a surge of homemade recipes! Instagram and Facebook boasted of food photography skills. Whatever broke was getting fixed through DIY.
Suddenly, the hours spent in making a simple or complicated thing were glorified. And people appreciated each other’s efforts.
The COVID 19 wave hit the economy brutally; however, it built a platform for handmade skills.
As the ebb and flow of positive cases greets us even today, we are trying to bring back a new normalcy in our lives. The world wears a veiled avatar today. With faces flaunting quirky masks, our eyes, too, wears new glasses – we’ve begun to respect the (previously unacknowledged) efforts that go into things that are made by hands of amateurs and experts alike!
The charm of handmade is unparalleled; it always has been. It is only now that almost each one of us understood its value. Some things cannot be equated with money – handmade art is one such exception.
Wherever you are as you read this, look around you… Didn’t you spot (at least) one handmade thing?! The pandemic may have coerced us to go the DIY and handmade way. However, from now onward, continuing that way is a willing choice so many of us have picked.
Trends will continue to trend and fade but handmade has turned into a classic, again! It has always been so through centuries.
Next time you come across anything handmade, do pause and appreciate its genius. Let us play our roles to sustain the craft of handmade!