My Lockdown Highs

My Lockdown Highs.

20 April 2020

One thing for sure we welcomed the year of  the  Metal Rat on 25 January and Lilian Too the Feng Shui master said  it is going to be an exciting year with a bit of good and bad. Even I could predict that ! But I’ll give it to her - while the whole world is holed up in their homes fighting the invisible enemy , that for sure has made us rats…we like it or not !

It is 8 in the morning  and  I sit here on my grey and turquoise couch and  CNN’s Don Lemon appears irate and sad as he describes the grim situation of the US in want of real leadership. Some 50 odd News channels are discussing Covid19 - the virulent virus that has brought  the entire mankind to its knees -the rich and the poor alike.Amidst the conspiracy theories, the number games, struggling nations, quarantined runaways, PPE clad front-liners, masked men and women I switch off the telly to what my Montesorrie teachers described as ‘pin drop silence’. It is eerily quiet. 

It is eerily quiet outside.  Haven’t  heard  my little  neighbour Sia giggling and laughing. It's been quite a while. Her mother is afraid and so am I, and I am guessing so is the whole world.  I spot a nest in the  garden. No soul in sight, this emptiness  steers me towards my smartphone for some connection and sanity. I  put up a status on facebook - ‘Lent and Easter right in my garden in these distraught times’ with a photo of  two pristine white eggs on a matted bed of straw and twigs. It is like  God has given me a wake up call . I try to give it a spiritual  interpretation - 

‘All things God Wills.’ We have forgotten to respect and revere what  is ours. Forgotten to sieve and filter the bad and in the confusion stumbled on with want of wisdom and buckled under worldly pressures. In the din and bustle of this unending demands we have forgotten how to live, merely surviving the benchmark created by the rats in the rat race. Forgotten to love , nurture and appreciate - this world and the people in it. It is like nature trying to reclaim what is hers and when she does that ,we are  to hide in our burrows giving this world time to heal. So I choose to stay in and do my bit . Some funny guy rightfully said  “You have got once in a lifetime opportunity to stay home and save the world. Don’t screw this up”

Lockdown - Day 26 officially but it is Day 37 for us. Sitting in,way before our Prime Minister knocked some sense in us. With Rahul away from home, I mulled over this novel  situation and realised that I had a choice  - to cry and cringe or to laugh and binge! ( Poor Joke or PJ that was !!) Discussed  it over with my teenage boy and girl that we would make it the best days of our life. The virtual school is a blessing for them - routine learning  and discipline is priceless with dedicated teachers over virtual learning portals. I am not far behind. I liken myself to  David with that slingshot out to conquer Goliath. Awkward and exploring I trudge on. Privileged to help children and grown ups alike to weather the storm.

Tis Easter ! The nest in the flowerpot lay empty and the hatchling have flown off the nest. We gave an EWTN propelled prayerful closure to Lent with a virtual Easter lunch with family ,with some eggs and  fresh fish delivered to our gate (not to our doorstep!) by our good frends. Living off my humongous freezer, the dwindling stock of fresh fruits and dairy -   the dormant innovative chef and baker in me played ‘peek - a -boo’ and it has been  like magic !  My green patch supplies our micro greens and herbs and some organic tomatoes, spinach and what not. Virtual lunches is our new found love. I sit on my grey and turquoise couch and chit chat  with my  family and friends far and near. I have that weird urge to hear their voice. We are all just living it. Witnessing a pandemic and praying and trusting all will be well and that we will survive to tell the story. 

My hygiene quotient is spiralling out of control . With no maid in tow I am the queen of my castle. I wash clean and sanitise  ever so often as instructed and my hands feel dry and rough and raw ! I think of my mother -in -law who must be over the moon that the entire world is washing their hands and not stopping at that ! The virus has normalised her OCD and I hear  she is gleaming day in and day out ! My very own parents are safe and secure up in the mountains away from the viral onslaught. I humbly  bow at my Alter for such blessings.

While I stay in , introspecting and recalibrating my life I realise that I have to slow down and listen to what the world is trying to tell me. I have to slow down and remain that way.  I have to simplify my life further and remain that way. This brings about a sense of peace within me.

20 May 2020

Lockdown Day 56

  Still sitting in  and in the days gone by, I have made an 650 kms inter state travel to be with Rahul. It was a door to door travel with no human contact whatsoever. Driving North through the NH 3 I witnessed hundreds of thousand of migrant labourers getting home on foot, on auto rickshaws and trucks - India the land of the diverse and the poor. Could see the hunger, pain amidst the  determination to get home.Such basic human instinct  and yearning to be home in times of  unforeseen fear and crisis .Peering out of my spacious air-conditioned SUV I have multiple questions racing through my  mind. My grown up kids sleeping to the soothing whirring of the engine and I am thankful and grateful but it is  all so unfair - all teary eyed behind my shades. Life could not get worse than this - the vulnerable  and the poor ,the victim of the virus and the harsh government policies that has paralysed the very essence of life.

 Physically cut off from the human race - time and again reminded  of how we have become our own enemy. I hear Viveka hum a Billie Eilish tune to her Ukulele and life is still good. So good that we four can still sing and dance and choose to laugh and be happy.If you  can laugh  and be happy then there is Hope. Pin your hope on that  far off rainbow. Proud to see Rahul involved in his CSR and Crisis Management - taking care of the front liners. Over my light clicking of the keyboard Rahul talks to his mother - a lively conversation from what’s for dinner to family and national politics! Hoping and planning  to meet family and friends when things get better. Sight pinned strongly on the far - off rainbow beyond the fog and rain.

As the  virus blends into our world , we  continue to sanitise and wash and wipe , coming to terms with the the reality and  learning to adapt and adjust to the new normal. My sight strongly pinned on that  rainbow - I choose to believe that a cure is not far behind and we will come out of this kinder and stronger, connected and considerate. 

Claudia Joshi

Corona Warrior :)