Jahanara Alam, Fahima Khatun and Salma Khatun take to cooking, music and carrom during lockdown

Despite the fact that the COVID-19 lockdown has shut down all routine activities, it has sure brought out sides to people that lied undiscovered. Take the case of Jahanara Alam, Bangladesh’s seam bowler. She is using this time to get better at cooking and she has a helper at hand – YouTube.



“As I am staying alone, I have to prepare my own food. So to pass time and keep myself busy, I am trying out new recipes from YouTube,” she said. “I made Jilapi, bundia, and biryani lately. I also made hilsha polao, for that I needed sweet curd, that too I made myself seeing the recipe from YouTube.”



Apart from cooking, she is also trying to stay fit by running in her apartment building’s staircase.



“I run in the staircases early in the morning. I try to lift heavy things; I do some free-hand exercise; that’s how I am trying to keep myself fit.”



Cricketers’ busy lives mean that they seldom get to spend time with their families. That’s precisely what Fahima Khatun, the leg-spinner, is doing currently.



“After getting selected for the national team, I hardly could share the table with my family members during Ramadan,” said Fahima. “Whether it was domestic matches or national team’s tour abroad, I could hardly even spend the Eid with them. Now I am sharing that time with my family members.”



What’s more, Fahima is also a poet and singer and she has been focussing on writing poems these days. “As it’s the holy month of Ramadan, I am not practicing music. But I try to play with words in solitary times. I already wrote two or three poems also.”



Meanwhile, the captain, Salma Khatun, isn’t too far away from trying out various things, either. She has been following the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s directives for the cricketers, but has also found a way to relax with cooking and carrom.



“I am staying at home, following the guidelines prescribed by BCB,” she said.



“Sometimes, with the family members, my nephews, I am playing carrom. As restaurants are closed and I also have time, I made puri and moghlai paratha at home and my family members liked that very much.”