Thirty days and counting.....

Thirty days have passed by.

Spread of Covid 19 has brought the entire world to its knees… I believe at least our generation or may be a generation before us had not seen a time where most of the population across the globe is witnessing house arrest. Schools have been closed for nearly one and a half months, bedrooms have been converted into office spaces and venturing out feels like stepping into the battlefield with minimum or no defence

I had moved to Jakarta ,Indonesia with my family in november and weekends meant exploring the new city.. New pubs and restaurants, places of history..beaches , volcanoes… we visited them all.. Beginning march things began to get bad here as well as back home.. Though a total lockdown was imposed in india..indonesia still insisted on stricter social distancing.

1 week into lockdown

Initial days when social distancing/ lockdown was imposed, we were glued to social media and the internet for news updates..

Unlike our family back home, news channels on television were not our cup of tea as we could not comprehend bhasha indonesia as yet.. Facebook was the most interesting place to be.. Just one week.!! I repeat just one week and I had observed that my friends had gained expertise on politics, economics, health and medicine, ayurveda, homeopathy all of it together😮…!!! Amazing isn't it ? Not to mention the saree challenge and numerous challenges women were participating in… (yes..yes I agree I was an active participant too!!) Women surprisingly find unique ways to get going…!!

The first week of lockdown was easily gulped by most of us.. The break from routine, no need to wake up early, rushing to work, long hours of traffic..finally someone had given us all an indefinite exemption from all of this..At personal front , i got accustomed to new technology and world of resources that was available at one click. One among them that i need to mention is ZOOM.. Call me naive, but I hadn't heard or used this app before the lockdown began. Now even my three year old knows about it, as his virtual classroom knocks in at this app sharp at 10 am every morning.

The virtual conferences and boardrooms were helpful in keeping up with the business activities. Had you ever thought you could literally attend all of it in your shorts and pajamas ??

Panic buying was another highlight of this week, the fear of things running out and never refilling made most of us stock up things at home the ones we needed and also the ones we didn't.

The instagram feed used to pop up with my friends posting their television screens on their stories and informing the world what they were watching and moreover to imply that they had subscriptions to netflix, hotstar, amazon prime and what not.. Though how many of them are borrowed accounts no one knows 😄

2 Weeks into the lockdown..

One week went by in a jiffy and the second week started to hit the nerves.. Uncertainty, growing number of covid 19 cases and being home-bound had been causing it all. Though there were ample reasons to be grateful ; being healthy and safe, having enough to eat and store; to quote a few. However, complaining is a common trait of human beings. So it went on.. We started missing going out for dinners and drinks, sightseeing was a distant dream. Yes we were complaining of the inadequate facilities and unpreparedness of the government.. The world had their eyes stuck to numbers, hundreds were converting to thousands and thousands to millions in a few days time. Doctors, police, cleaning staff, essential services delivery personnel, bankers all of them have been working relentlessly against all odds to save the world from its doom.

By now my expert friends had developed a new skill..The Art of Cooking.. All the master chefs had now held thier kadchis n knives strong and dressed in the aprons they tossed , turned, fried, baked…from Italian, chinese to north indian, south indian to thai to street food, desserts, cakes.. My insta feed was a food fiesta now.. It was an undeclared competition to which all of us were participants.. This was the time when social media introduced a ‘ulti pulti dalagona coffee’ , which I often misread as a dragon. Honestly speaking, I tried hands at many ..posted all of them ..but i did have a list of blunder recipes too..planned something, executed something else and the result was a disaster.. Of course I didn't talk about it on social media.. Who posts a burnt bread or a mithai gone wrong.. That would have harmed the so-called perfect image of mine…(which does not exist ).

Around the same time there was a rigorous discussion going on to investigate the actual cause of the spread of covid 19. The new Sherlock expertise we all had acquired.. From China's wet markets disaster to its use of covid 19 as a bio weapon, even the rolling out of 5g networks, everything continued to make rounds as a probable cause of spread of the dangerous coronavirus.

Back home our parents who had never stayed home for so long ever were in continuous touch to ensure our well being and likewise. Ramayan and Mahabharat telecast on television took them back to their old days when they were young!! They had now begun experiencing a trial period of retirement. How can I not mention our honourable prime minister's weekly tasks to keep the people back home united and appreciate the frontline staff in the time of crisis.. Call me a bhakt or whatever you like to.. Idea appealed to me and though miles away in a different time zone, we did participate in them.

This time we did realize the movement of the week.. It was comparatively slow.. Yet the hope of a sunrise kept us going through the dark night.

3 weeks into the lockdown

Staying at home had now become a routine, we started to run out of the food and grocery stocks that were piled at the beginning of the month. We had no option but to go out and fetch the essentials.. Mask, gloves, tissues, sanitizer we carried it all to the supermarket just like a combat team entering the zone of war.. All this while we had been receiving bundles of advice from the social media school of learning. Whatsapp leading the charts.. So sorting , disinfecting and cleaning the grocery was a must do. Also around the same time we had the news reports talking about nature rejuvenating, and animals were now wondering where the humans had disappeared.. When pondered upon, we have the realisation that this is a result of our selfish and irrational style of living on this planet. We never considered other creatures a part of it and now it seems that it is their revenge..they are immune to the pandemic and we are locked at home.

Can't go out...bored of all the challenges...what do we do next?? Hmmm.. think...think.. LUDO KING.. This game came to the rescue and who cares which part of the world you are.. Join the room and let's play… Thanks to the revolutionary invention of smartphones and the internet.. Imagine if there was a technology distancing along with social distancing what you’d be doing?

Nonetheless online gaming became the new time pass..How can i forget to thank the meme makers and tiktokers who had been working round the clock to keep the world entertained with some great and some awful jokes and videos.. No harm done in saying they helped to tickle the funny bone in the hour of crisis.

4 weeks into the lockdown

By this time the epicenters of covid 19 had been shifting places, at one point in time one felt that Italy would be the country worst hit ..but then United States started grabbing attention not only because of its shooting numbers but also … emm well i don't have to say it further smart ones can interpret the clue.. There was news trending on twitter that scientists are rigorously working and testing the medication/vaccine for coronavirus. Some theories that malaria medication hydroxychloroquine (a tongue twister to pronounce) did work in the line of treatment for a few patients.. But the research on its cent percent effectiveness still needs time.

It was the time when most of us had started falling on patience.. Some of us fumed against china and participated in social media movements for boycotting china, chinese products, chinese apps..etc

On the personal front we all must have faced (yet never expressed ) the moments when we were engaged in heated arguments with each other… It is nothing but the result of staying together for so long..All the bigg boss fans reading this will agree with me. . However, what amazed me the most was the speed at which the arguments resolved.. The fights which would otherwise go as long as a fortnight, resolved in a day or sometimes the same day!! Unbelievable! .Lack of available options to run away my friends.. The men stuck in the house had no office ..no pubs to go and no friends to meet.. And women could no longer sing “mai maiyke chali jaungi tum dekhte rahiyo..'' So what's the option mates..??? Patch up.. This also reminds me of all the jokes,images, videos and animations which spoke volumes about how poor...bechara man was made to do all the household work while the women were the brutal dictators… All of this a LIE.. huh… No offense to all you gentlemen who followed the advice of the uncle from Ariel's advertisement and indeed shared the load.. But confess it , you must have done that out of choice , unlike the torture shown on the images and clips. This was also the time when i reconnected with the oldest of my friends with whom i had lost touch for ages.. Since all of us were working from home.. A quick call was always available unlike the busy office days.. Some of us celebrated birthdays and anniversaries just like the old days when there were home baked simple cakes, samosas and other favorite foods on the menu served with lots of love…💓

The phase of life we all are into, is something that we have called for. Yes there are perils ..large scale harm that the covid 19 pandemic. People are dying, the economy is crashing.many of us fear job security..we have already agreed to pay cuts...hospitals are flooded with patients..and there is uncertainty as to when all of this will come to an end. We might have the power and weapons to destroy earth in a single attempt .. but alas!! look at the potential nature poses.. It can bring mankind to its knees with a tiny microorganism. And we are ever busy in declaring our superiority to the other. I don't know what actually caused the spread of novel coronavirus, if it's the bat , or the laboratory or anything else.. One thing I know for sure is a consequence of human selfishness, where we seek self benefit and take others for a toss..if we do not come more learned and aware out of this crisis, then doomsday won't be far..Sustainable development and coexistence is what we must be aiming at. I am sure this phase shall pass too.. We have won battles before and shall conquer this too..but it must not wash away the learning which is attached to this lesson of life.

My take away till date is:

Happiness resides within ourselves.. We search it aimlessly in things and places.. It's our state of mind and we control it
We can survive without the lavish lifestyle we all are used to..
Brotherhood and a helping hand makes us more humble.
Create more medicine and research more on health than weapons.
Nature is far more powerful than we assume.
When environmentalists and ecologists requested everyone to be cautious and look for the red flag...the kind of havoc we have been creating on this planet..we called for all that is happening to us.
I pledge to be more cautious, to be generous to other beings on the planet.

Before I end this blog.. I wish everyone good health, stay at home guys and follow the guidelines.. Plan ahead and think what NOT to do once we get over with COVID 19.. I am including a few pictures below .. some are the blunders i did.. Some attempt at the craft..and some sunshine… none of them is perfect ..being human ..you see :)