BENGALURU: Good morning, Bangalore.
As I was sipping my morning cup of tea standing on my balcony, I suddenly didn’t feel like doing my morning affirmations. I am a practical and logical person and belong to a world of allopathic medicines, books and scientifically viable explanations and answers. Frankly, affirmations make me feel a wee bit silly. Despite my reservations, I still fell into the trap of doing a few illogical things.
I was willing to give anything a shot because clearly the world had turned itself on its head! These were strange times and clearly we fell asleep in one world and woke up in another and all my nightmares about being trapped in the twilight-zone were coming true! I was convinced that if the ‘twilight’ door would open I would step into an unknown world filled with chaos, people speaking in an unfathomable tongues and doing unspeakably evil things. Well!
My nightmare came partially true because those ‘creatures’ let loose a virus so vile and potent that staying away and not touching each other became an act of love!I think everybody has had enough. The paralysing fear psychosis that gripped us has loosened its stranglehold and I definitely see people making small forays out of their homes.
Though, I am grateful that 70 per cent of the traffic cacophony has reduced since educational institutions and most corporate firms have a work from home policy, but the economic devastation that the retail businesses are suffering is almost paralysing. We are lucky enough as customers to have an online option, but there is a huge difference in browsing, choosing and then buying. Take a small act of buying vegetables or fruits, many of my friends would prefer the option of looking, choosing and then buying. (Also veggie and fruit vendors are notorious for slipping us some rotting produce when one isn’t looking!).
One can avail of shopping online, one might argue, and indeed the youngsters opted for that even before the lockdown. I don’t agree. For generations now, the whole process of ‘going shopping’ had more a social significance than a practical one. Friends would make plans to meet, making time from their busy schedules; even the prospect of taking ‘phoren’ visitors and relatives shopping was mostly a pleasurable activity. Nothing can beat the umpteen cups of coffee imbibed while choosing through reams of silk sarees touching the material, marvelling at its rich colours and textures… and then stopping by for lunch at a favourite restaurant and ultimately coming home and re-living your experience while going through your loot…. sigh! I openly admit I miss that.
The whole six months of staying home, cooking, cleaning, re-discovering your family, talking about how we are lucky enough to re-think and re-evaluate our lives is fast waning. The time to pay back loans and interests looms large with no prospect of any economic relief or incentives from the government. Slowly I see a change coming over the gullible and generous middle class who were always taken for a ride. I may be trolled for this… but in the end, the two ends of the spectrum always end up better off. One end of the spectrum fortunately or unfortunately, deal with larger families that they are eventually responsible for and to the wily and smart government it means a bigger piece of the vote pie. On the other hand, the ones that wield the mega bucks have everyone eating out of their hands. It’s the striving masses in between that try hard to work and survive with their dignity and generosity intact.
Though I acknowledge there is a lot we could have changed about lives before, but I miss fact to face meetings (I abhor Zoom calls), I miss watching a play in a darkened auditorium, drinking chai from an earthen cup, eating and drinking without sanitising everything, and the prospect of working, earning a living, and jumping into a vehicle with the wind in my hair. My son has gone to Greece to ‘un-depress’ himself… Even I want to!