GLOBAL ISOLATION, COURTESY COVID 19

                 

COVID 19 ... CORONA VIRUS ... SOCIAL DISTANCING ... STAY HOME ... STAY SAFE ... LOCK-DOWN ...

These terms have been reverberating in our ears day in and day out for a couple of months now; and will continue to do so for God knows how long!

There have been enough and more opinions from all quarters .....

Why shouldn't I too put my hat in the ring? 

Please, please, don't go away. Mine is going to be a take on COVID 19 in my own perspective.... So please .... keep reading ...

How has the lock-down affected us? ( I am including my husband too - we are inseparables).

Not much, I should say; at least not in a big way, retired senior citizens that we are! Also we are basically home birds and love to enjoy our time in our nest most of the time - except when we go on group tours, once in 3-4 months. You won't believe it when we say we have two international tours in our kitty for May and July - booked in as early as January. Inseparables, we might be, but differences of opinion erupt now and then. Like when Corona Virus had just started clawing into the Indian population, I was apprehensive about our forthcoming tours. My better half, the personification of optimism, asserted that he would go ahead with the tours even if I backed out. God! There was no point arguing endlessly about a hypothetical situation at that point of time - those were early days still. We'd cross the river when we came to it, I felt, and never opened that topic again. Now, we hear these tours are being rescheduled for next year! Guess who's having the last laugh!

Arguments galore must be prevalent in most homes these days, as everyone is cooped up at home 24 X 7. It's less at our home with just the two of us - we try to give space to each other, to minimize sparks from flaring up. But flare-ups are inevitable. Even after PM Modi announced the first lock-down, my husband insisted on his schedule of morning walks, which, he argued were absolutely crucial for his diabetes and hypertension; he scoffed in derision at my suggestion to walk up and down inside the house. Within a couple of days, I managed to convince him to restrict his walks inside our society, and I too joined him for the half hour early morning walks, when there were less than a handful of walkers. And wonder of wonders, he was willing to use the home-made mask. Come Modi 2.0, my husband was in a more condescending mood. To my secret glee, he dropped his morning walks and quietly took up my earlier suggestion to walk inside the house. Such a behavioral change! We can proudly claim to be law-abiding, dutiful citizens of our country, trying to keep ourselves as healthy as possible, not only for our sake but also for our family, neighbors and society at large.

Are we luckier than many others? Definitely. Fortunately we are not in the 'CORONA' war zone .... We are those lucky ones who have to just stay home and stay safe. How challenging is that?  

Well, in our case, we are not saddled with kids, so no worries about how to keep them indoors - entertained .... and help them with online classes ..... Handling caged, cranky toddlers, is even worse.

We don't have old parents to take care of .... well we ourselves are old and have no one at hand with us, our sons and families, settled far away ..... The very thought of global isolation due to travel bans in every country is enough to send shivers, and drive one to desperation or even depression. The best way to stave off these depressing thoughts is to take each day as it comes, stay healthy and let tomorrow take care of itself. And of course, indulge in some hobbies / activities of one's choice to keep oneself physically and mentally occupied.

We don't have to work-from-home, so we have all the time on our hands.... Then are we bored to death? No, not at all ... we have enough activities lined up, so we are in fact short of time at times.

What do we miss? How do we cope up with it?

What we miss most is our two-hour evening outing which used to include a good walk, and innocent / interesting conversations with our groups of friends at the park, and also marketing for essentials. How do we adjust? Simple - as I mentioned, we walk briskly from one end of the house to the other, for as long as we can, rather, till we get bored. Oh, forgot to tell you - we have to take turns, otherwise we'd bump into each other! Socializing is restricted to phone calls - even with neighbors. Outings? Once a week, I make a quick dash to my neighborhood vegetable / fruit vendors early in the evening, maintain social distancing while I grab enough for a week, and pay them the exact change (for maximum hygiene / safety). (I don't have those apps - Pay Tm / Google Pay or whatever - seriously thinking of downloading one of those Apps). Now I don't spend time bargaining. And I go in full gear- no, not body suits. I mean well-guarded with a mask - rather scarf / dupatta. Though I had read and heard that it is only the sick who need to wear the mask, I don't want to take a chance. Yes - extra-cautious, alright. Better to be safe than sorry. And recently, the theory has changed in my favor. Everyone should wear at least some sort of mask.

A bottle of hand sanitizer awaits us at the elevator of our building. Still we have to touch the button of the elevator, which is the worst hazard. What I cringe about is the rigmarole that awaits me after the outing. First wash hands well with soap. Then empty the bags, and put them to wash. Change my clothes, put to wash, the clothes that had gone out. Then I go for a shower. Sometimes, I end up washing my face and hands again with soap.

Then give each vegetable / fruit a nice clean scrub and wash. (My friend told me she uses hand-sanitizer to clean them, I don't, I'm not that fastidious!) And spread them out for drying, before they take their positions in the fridge. Once again hand-wash routine. Hmmm .... Recently, I ordered for veggies from my friendly neighborhood vendor and he obliged me. Bless him .... 

but I had to compromise with the quality .... after all, beggars can't be choosers!

Well, groceries have always come to our doorstep. How was it different this time? Well, it just took a few extra days for delivery (smart me had ordered in the last week of March itself). And the quantities ordered were doubled, so that I could sail through the tough times ahead without botheration. No, I wasn't hoarding. Definitely not, guys.

Well, the stuff was delivered at home close to midnight by my overworked grocer (bless him!). I can't wash the plastic bags containing lentils / grains, can I? So I quarantined them - I let them sit near the entrance, right where they were put - for three days. 

After the third day, I emptied them into the bottles / containers ... the virus must have 'died' by then (as per my research). Lock-down period - so no visitors, so the groceries did not have to face any stares! I was asked why I didn't clean the plastic bags and empty the groceries in containers and wash my hands with soap. Good question, to which I have no answer.

I miss my group at morning yoga class and the interesting exchanges and updates, but I don't miss yoga. I have no issues doing yoga all by myself, unlike some. On some days, I do yoga in installments, as per my convenience, that's all.

So we have our exercise, all right. Fresh air? We spend our mornings and evenings on our terraces. Once upon a time, we used to browse the newspaper while 'breakfasting'. 

Now we watch the birds - flying from branch to branch - we never realized our trees hosted so many parrots and tiny birds, not to mention crows, pigeons and sparrows. We lend our ear to their chirping which form a morning harmony! We have been getting closer to nature, I should say. What we miss is the kids' shouts and hoots as they'd play on the society ground. Not a kid, mind you, not one is seen around. How the parents manage to keep them occupied indoors is beyond my comprehension. Kudos to the kids! Actually they are more disciplined than the adults, who step out on some pretext or another, valid or otherwise.

I miss my maid, of course. Thankfully, I am not overly dependent on her - I had her just for dishes and sweeping-mopping. We voluntarily proclaimed a lock-down on her. Now my husband and I are putting to test our 'maid for each other' status. One does the dishes, the other does the sweeping. The rooms enjoy the luxury of 'mop' only on alternate days. Basic cleanliness is maintained. Anyway, thankfully, no visitors are expected! The dishes - most of them are sparkling clean but not all .... the frying pans ('kadhais') and 'tawas' have started getting sticky and have started crying out for my maid. And my gas stove is not so spotlessly clean .... But you know what? I am so happy with the limited wastage of water and dish-washing soap. Just looking for positivity ... everywhere. No offence meant to my darling 'Woman Friday'. Of course when she returns - don't know when that is going to be - she will definitely give me guilt by saying, "What happened to the gas stove - so oily and brown! The 'kadhais' and 'tawas' .... Shae ... look at the floor - so dull...". But at least we are managing ... without her .... and without cribbing. And we have learnt to live without her. And our schedule is not governed by her - our timetable is entirely our own. 

With this current stalemate, I am seriously giving a thought to investing in a dishwasher and 'robot' (the super mopper).

How do we spend time at home? Basic exercises, home chores. Then planning and preparing interesting, healthy snacks, with limited resources and restricted extra work. Then spend more time pursuing our hobbies - mainly singing (more than ever before) and writing. TV viewing? It's been minimal - always. So movies / even 'Ramayan' and 'Mahabharat' are not in our viewing list. News we watch, three times a day - just for ten minutes each time. Otherwise it gets quite depressing. Social networking? Yes - as usual.

Calls? Yes, more than usual. The world has become more virtual than ever before. Video calls with family, several times a week. Catching up with a handful of friends every day for exchanging notes. At least we should not forget voices, and the art of communication. With masked faces moving around, and stay-at-home schedule, we are likely to forget our friends / acquaintances when we meet them - who knows when! With beauty parlors and salons shut down, it might be difficult to recognize them, forget about their figures, with exercising, jogging ...all having gone for a toss!

I need to add this too - we had our New Year - of different states lined up during March - April - Telugu New Year, Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, (25 March 2020), followed by Baisakhi, Boishakh, Tamil New Year, and Vishu (14 April 2020). Of course everything was low key. The New Year of Keralites is called 'Vishu'. The night before Vishu, every family lays out the 'Vishukkani' - a spread of grains, pulses, vegetables, fruits, cash, flowers, mirror, in front of Krishna's statue. Usually whole vegetables and fruits (common in Kerala) are procured for the occasion. Due to the pandemic this year, we had to forget about the golden yellow 'Konna' flowers and 'vellarikka'. Watermelon was decked up instead of vellarikka. 

Carrots, tomatoes took the place of snake gourd and ash gourd. Adjustment - that's the key word. So I grabbed whatever I could from my vendor and laid out a colorful spread. I was happy with what I managed - at least there seemed to be enough. There were exchanges on social media - of pictures of 'vishukkani' of friends / relatives. Looking at the near-perfect 'kani'of a friend, I suspected her of posting a photo of last year .... and I was right! Poor thing, she was so disheartened by this year's 'apology of vishukkani' that she didn't click the customary photo for sharing.

So that's about how our life has changed. Being retired senior citizens, our outings had been minimal even earlier - limited to essentials. So if there are no movies, no malls, no restaurants, no social calls - at all, we don't feel deprived. But then, my wardrobe has gone totally neglected - it's a month or more since I delved into it. It's nothing more than home-clothes these days for the stay at home schedule.

We are extra cautious while handling our gadgets - if anything were to go 'kaput', then we'd be left in a soup - be it a mixer or a tap! Most importantly, we are trying to handle ourselves with care, being biologically fragile.

Let us count our blessings and take everything in our stride. After all, what is expected of us? Nothing much, except stay at home. Count it as a boon - you are getting family time on a platter, unexpectedly. Make the most of it. Be positive. Aren't we luckier than those right in the CORONA war zone ....?

Before signing off, my salute and gratitude to the CORONA warriors - the doctors, medical staff, hospital workers, police, media persons, and all other staff who risk their health to offer us their services.