CORONA Times...

March 2020.. we are making plans of our summer holiday. I have been contacting agents and checking out places to visit in Arunachal Pradesh. Sagar is procrastinating asking for leave from his boss and so we haven’t been able to block our tickets for this trip yet. Sunishka has her exams scheduled in April, but we are more excited in planning this vacation than start studying for our exams.

Friday the 13^th of March, late in the evening, we get the notice from the administration and later from the school- Schools to be shut until March 31^st – in lieu of the outbreak of the deadly virus “CORONA”. 16^th, Monday, Sagar goes to office, only to find out he will be working only 3 days of the week. So it’s a crazy week ahead; with Sagar at home on Tuesday and Thrusday. My activities are on as usual; but Sunishka is at home with enthusiasm and excitement in abundance. All her classes (2 in all) are cancelled until further notice, which adds to her freedom and liberation!

22^nd March is observed as Janta Curfew and we are all at home together and the maids also in their homes along with their families. It’s a start of a long detention at home. Maharashtra seems to be badly affected and thus we go into a Maharashtra lock down until 31^st March. Within a couple of days there was a total Bharat lock down that is announced. Sagar’s office is now shut until April 14^th, and Sunishka’s school has announced online exams.

For the last one year or so, I have been in the reduced pace mode in my life, though I felt I got pulled along to be part of many things, just because of where I was,  physically. But Corona for one, has changed the world around. Life around me has suddenly stopped. From a speed of 100 km/hr I am now on at 10 mtrs/hrJ. There is no-where to rush to, no stress of completing so many things in the given time frame, there is so much of time to relook at how you want to spend your day and when you sleep at night you don’t need to set an alarm!!!  

Corona Rules: This phase has come with some rules (which I think are brilliant!).

-  No sale of petrol: So our trips even to be grocery shop/vegetable vendor/ medical shop (only shops open) are well planned and few. The air is thus cleaner and breathable. Use of petroleum based resources is scare and limited.

- Social distancing: Since the virus is transferred through formites, we have been asked not to be in groups and crowd at places. I used to observe various groups of people based on age, interests, language and profession spread out in the podium of our society. Today they have all vanished. Human noise is taken over by the music of the birds, leaves, wind and water!

- Locked down at home: To control the spread of the virus, we are forced to be with each other all the time at home. Though we have a 3 bedroom house, its ironical that we are usually all in the same room nowadays!!

- Hygiene: 20 second washing of hands and disinfecting anything that you get from outside, is bringing in the old school hygiene back in vogue!

Corona days:

Suddenly out of the blue, when there is a break in the regular schedule; we all go berserk and every activity gets swayed away from its exact frequency of efficiency. Waking up in the morning is staggered from 7 am onwards until 11 am. Breakfast gets substituted with brunch and meals through the day gets brought down from 3 to just 2- Brunch and dinner.

The maids are away and all house work needs to get done-  The 1600 sq feet house starts looking bigger and all the vessels being used in the kitchen, need better management strategies. We decide that I will be mopping the floor and Sagar and Suni, washing the vessels. For both of them, it is a big activity of the day and they seem to go into a meditative stage when at it.

 Cooking.. is the ‘in’ thing. A lot of my friends are posting things they cooked, tried and successfully plated to their families in this quarantine phase. I too decide to learn new recipes and try them out. I diligently write down one new recipe everyday and try it. Some turn out good, some okay and some not so okay. Since we have no options, we all eat them quietly!!! Being in natural food area for a long time now, I am glad that everyone is eating healthy, local, seasonal and at home.

After a week or so, the novelty of this randomness also dies down. Now the wake up time is staggered between 6 am and 8 am. Lungs being not the strongest part of my body, I haven’t stepped out of the house and so, do my jogging route in the house. So its hall to guest bedroom, to study, back to hall, then to kitchen and then repeat. I jog for 30 minutes when Sagar and Sunishka are out on a jog and cycling routine. Sometimes it’s the upside down world in the morning, with Sunishka and me doing shirshaasan and chakrasan. The 11 year old body bends like rubber compared to my 41 year old rigid muscles and fat coated body. However the fun of doing this together, is a never before experience.

Amazon prime has been another partner in crime this quarantine. Dinner is usually accompanied with a mutually agreed upon movie that we all watch together. When, ‘out of house’ entertainment is stopped, this is an easy way for the mind to go leaps and bounds without an inch of physical movement. So we range from animated movies to Marathi movies, to Hindi movies and even Malayalam ones! Again this phase is dying down and from an audience of 3 it mostly comes down to 2 or 1 sometimes.

When you are really without all the outside attractions, there is nowhere to go, but within. So a lot of new poets, writers, artists are being born. Whatsapp and FB are filled with these nowadays, and they are not enveloped with any motives, but rather plain urges of expression. And it’s amazing to notice these talents that were hidden behind all the distractions, routine and professions of everyday life. Like when the vegetable is rightly cooked and starts leaving the oil behind, our house hold is also releasing all creative juices through music, painting and writingJ

Its April 2^nd today and Sunishka has started her online examinations for class VI. I have not been a great advocate of this education system and every time question myself, especially when exams near.  But thanks to Corona, this also has changed- An online, MCQ examination pattern for 1 hour which is not mandatory. She is on cloud nine. She is preparing for only those subjects that she likes and is not worried about the whole concept of ‘exam’..  A new experience and something to keep her engaged until the 15^th of April!!

Corona Observations:

It’s not that it’s all rosy and fun always. Each of us is different and the space called ‘home’ has meant different things for each of us until now. For me it is- solitude, for Sunishka- friends and craziness, and for Sagar -stress buster. But now since 15 days, the world has shrunk and all the expectations have come crumbling within these 4 walls. The husband , wife, inlaws, and kids are realising eachother’s requirements of being part of an ecosystem called ‘home’. With the reduced pace and space, we have nowhere to run away to. So ‘tolerating’ is now giving way to ‘understanding’ each other.

My home other than the concrete walls of 7^th floor apartment I live in, include spaces where I have been contributing a lot of time towards. These include 2 rivers close by my home and fields of 2 farmers we work together with. But these homely spaces, for a change, do great with the least human interaction. So I, for one know that, this skeleton service of human interference outside our concrete homes, has helped the other creations of Mother Earth breath freely and without fear this past 2 weeks. Birds are returning to roads where they used to have their erstwhile houses on, and the river is flowing steadily with less thrash being thrown at it.   

This virus has brought with it a whiff of equality. Unwaxed hands, undone upper lips and eyebrows is all okay, because I know everyone is like me. There is no innate urge to prove anything to anyone, because, everyone is on the same boat. The fear is also equally spread. The language you speak or the posture you pray in doesn’t matter to the virus. We are all in it together. Flattening of the world and globalisation has some new entries into its books- virus, fear and panic.

The urban city is a model of the global world, where we have labourers from every other state working together. I stay in Pune, but have maids who are from Karnataka. My sister stays in Karnataka and has maids from Orissa and West Bengal! Today, the globetrotting labourer is either stuck in a non-native city without work, or has returned back home to his fields and family.  And the urbanite citizen is left working on his own, connecting people and things using the non personal entity- internet!

Like vanity has lost its charm, so has money lost its magic! The tinkling sound of our bank balance that gives wings and the direction to our dreams is a now stranded. There’s a lot of money in the kitty now, but sadly nothing we can do about it. Barter is making a comeback, where people are unable to source things because of production and logistics issues. The basic needs of food and shelter are respected more than ever, because that’s all that we have now!! ‘Greed’ lifestyle has slowly moved to a ‘need’ lifestyle.

All these transformations from my home to the outside world are being guided by ‘fear’- A very powerful weapon to make any change happen in the shortest possible time. But I wonder if this weapon will bring about any permanent change in the way we live our lives going forward? Or once the calm sets in, will we be back to our lives of tolerating, exploitation and greed??

I know I am going nowhere this summer and I will have to wait some time to witness the scenic beauty of Arunachal. But in the bargain I have got some unexpected days of family and me time. A fear filled fun time that gave me a new perspective of health, happiness and togetherness.

Somewhere in my wishful thinking, I yearn for a 2 month lock down period round the world, every year going forward where the family gets time to bond with each other and not worry about trying too hard to live. Fear definitely would not be the driving force, but just the plain joy of living and a finding a new definition of ‘being alive..simply’!