Tag: Corona

Memories, Gratitude, and a Prayer!

This year, 31st Dec, most of the world will be doing what I have been doing every year for a decade and more – Just staying home! After my son was born, we never went out and I personally was never inclined to play tambola, dance to a DJ, and eat cold snacks, in our housing society’s open air arrangements.

We usually had travel plans for the first week of the new January and it compensated for not going gaga over New Year Eve’s celebrations. We will be sorely missing the travelling part.

I do have fond memories of celebrations in some of the best night clubs with friends, and in cold winter nights in cottages in the hills from my singleton days. Lessons learnt in this strange year is when you have the time and opportunity, do what you want to do, specially celebrate occassions. Memories are important; create them as you go.

As a young parent, I would be sad that we could never celebrate like so many of our friends who could manage babysitting or childcare arrangements to party or travel. I felt I was missing out on something but with time I compromised. Somewhere down the line, so many things, including the transition from an old year to a new one stopped mattering.

Most people around the world will feel this – the piling of days and the transition into a new day – without the fireworks and the joyful comfort of close ones. Many will be grieving. All will be fearful. Yet, in the corner lingers hope that the next year may be gentle on humankind.

The eve of 2021 may have a bigger and better celebration if we are victorious in our battle against the novel Corona virus. Next year, the son will be older, and I may be able to venture out and celebrate the way I like -with a plan, good company, a nice and warm ambience, scrumptious food, and definitely dressing up! Until then, it’s me and the cosy blanket and not a care that the clock strikes 12!

Oh wait! I do care with the realization and the gratitude that my family and I made it safely through a difficult year in the pandemic. And a prayer, may next year be kind to the world and let it heal!

A Lockdown Story

Here is a lockdown story. In July 2020, when the lockdown was slowly being lifted until 8:00 p.m. the husband and I ventured out in the car to shop around for a new bicycle for the son. It was an uneasy feeling. There was police force all around and people were roaming without masks in the suffocating summer sizzle, congregating around juice counters, and paan shops.

It was already 7:45 p.m. and the fear in the air was comingling with the viral threat. Police personnel on motor bikes were ordering roadside hawkers to shut shop before the 8:00 p.m. curfew. There was this tired looking man carrying some plants on a rickety bike. I could hardly see what plants he had. I noticed a curry leaves plant that I wanted, even though I had already ordered one from NurseryLive.com.

I hadn’t got out of the car until then, considering that I fall in the comorbidity category but something clicked and I went and bought this plant from that person. I asked him to keep it in the car trunk. He handed me some change and I was so afraid. While I fumbled for my sanitizer bottle, a policeman was hitting his lathi on the poor man’s bicycle. He quickly scuttled away.

It was dark. I hadn’t checked the plant quality. I wasn’t bothered. I just wondered how these daily wagers and people without regular income were making ends meet. For around 10 days, I watched the curry leaves plant settle in it’s new home, while I also kept a watch for Covid symptoms.

In September 2020, our State opened on weekends; until then we had weekend lockdowns starting Friday, 9:00 p.m. When the lockdown was finally lifted, there were no feelings – what to do with the opening up, where to go? But if we don’t go out, poor people like that plant seller, for whom hunger was a bigger fear than the police, than Corona, will continue to suffer.

We are a developing country. Though we also have some of the richest businesses in the world, a majority of our population struggles to make ends meet. These poor people are the ones with the biggest hearts. That evening, that plant seller on a bicycle gave me a healthy curry leaves plant for just Rs 60/-. Today, it flourishes and provides, and may it do so for a long time.

Questioning 2020

Days merge into nights
Darkness abounds
In low hanging clouds
of Truth and Dare;
Who survives, who dies
What are the real numbers
Which are the unspoken lies?
Is it a viral microorganism
That kills humanity today
Or is it the murderer in man
Hiding behind another name!

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