Lockdown - the Saga

In continuation from the Prequel & the Beginning.

End of vacation, time to take things seriously. Even with all the additional household chores, people were becoming anxious about their fitness, kids were getting bored without the school routine, work from home was becoming a pain with all the meetings and status calls, and those who were literally on paid vacation had no clue what to do with all the leisure. Tempers were on the rise and looked like corona was creating additional domestic issues. 

The enterprising fitness instructors started posting instructional videos, some started conducting classes over hangout/google meetings, skype, and even zoom. Schools started giving online assignment and soon came up with online classes with a set schedule. TV channels started telecasting old serials like Mahabharat, Ramayan, Buniyaad, etc. Anything to keep people home and occupied. Slowly a trickle of the morning and evening walkers started cropping up. But not in groups only scattered individuals. People were taking social distancing seriously, initially, it was not that scary but with all the new cases, some closer home, people started behaving responsibly. The daily wage labourers returned to their hometowns, by hook or crook, easing the pressure on the police a bit.

Social Media exploded. WhatsApp was inundated with messages. There was no dearth of theories, solutions, and jokes. People became experts - medical advice, pandemic experts, governance ideas, you name it we had them all - some all rolled into one. Quizzes, puzzles, jokes. memes starting making rounds easing the tension a bit. These were the times I realized so much talent was getting wasted. People were scouring through their contacts and calling long-forgotten friends and acquaintances - the standard topics irrespective of age and gender were - how are you coping, are you getting groceries and provisions, are you getting domestic help. With the lack of traffic, we could hear bird calls and all sorts of things that we were earlier unaware of. For example, I realized the wall clock in our kitchen tick-tocked a bit too loud.

Doomsday predictions, conspiracy theories, natural calamity advisories, pralay sagas, you name it and all laid a stake on the virus. My favourite of all - nature reclamation. As most are aware, in Hindu religion we have a belief - whenever atrocities by a man spillover, God takes a mortal form and rids humans of that villain - the story behind dasavatars. Now it was the entire humanity's atrocity against nature which had to be taken care of. That is the reason we are seeing so many natural calamities like tsunami, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, epidemics and now this pandemic. Makes sense, we had taken nature for granted and in our demand for comfortable and luxurious living, we have overlooked the negative impact our inventions and comforts had on nature. And nature is retaliating.

Apart from this, there were other things that Corona was teaching us.
First, personal hygiene. People started washing hands more often, covering their mouth and nose while sneezing and coughing. Washing hands and feet after returning home. Now that we started I hope it becomes a habit.
Second sanctity of personal space. This is proving a bit tough, but people are trying to maintain distance, it will take some time to become a habit but I am optimistic.
Third, most importantly, it brought families together. With nowhere else to go, families were forced to hang out together. They started watching movies together, talking to each other and spending more time with each other. Of course, there was a side effect to it, quarrels also were on the rise. Especially things were difficult for the newly-weds, with no relatives, malls and movies acting as buffers, they were having doubts on their compatibility.

Things seemed to be coming under control, the new cases per day dipped and things seemed to be getting better. Then the bubble burst. Cases spiralled due to one unfortunate incident and the age-old fear and dread for cops. One incident triggered a spike in the infections and fear of cops and authorities led to those infected into hiding and prevented timely action. The once hopeful situation of nearing the end of Lockdown now seemed to be a distant dream. Where will this lead to? When will this end?

Continued here...

Lockdown - the Beginning

As you all know a deadly pandemic broke in 2020 - COVID-19 and the only way to mitigate it was social distancing. Cities and countries started announcing lockdown to discourage people from meeting and mingling with the hope to mitigate the effect of this virus. India was also not left behind.

In my previous blog, I spoke about the week leading to the lockdown. Now let us get into the details. Once again a disclaimer - my intention is not to undermine the effect of corona nor belittle the efforts taken to keep it under control, it is just to give some comic relief in these difficult times.

Well, PM has asked us to stay at home on Sunday (March 22nd) and then the following Wednesday (25th March) imposed a nation-wide lockdown for 21 days. By then we, in Hyderabad, were already working from home for a week now and in lockdown since 22nd March. So this was just an extension to the situation.

The initial euphoria behind working from home died. For some, it was vacation time, but for most of us, it was still working time. We realized that we had deadlines to be met, calls to attend, status to be given and amidst all this a house to be taken care of. With police blocks in place, the movement of domestic help and daily vegetable/fruit vendors were restricted. This meant additional household work to be taken care of within the limited means, and everyone in the house had to pitch in some way or the other. Wives realized that their husbands were not that useless after all, parents realized that kids can be responsible and kids discovered homemade food was edible.

Of the innumerable measures state took to contain the virus, one was to seal off the state borders but this meant that along with the virus, provisions and groceries were also stuck at the border. Being the end of the month, many households had the same issue with provisions. And for people like me who are totally dependent on supermarkets and Big Basket, the outlook was bleak. Supermarkets stock was dwindling. Online delivery portals failed due to the lack of delivery executives. The crowd was increasing at supermarkets and hoarding started Seeing the crowd I started getting paranoid, what happened to the social distancing call by our beloved PM? Luckily the local Kirana shops came to rescue, basic needs were taken care of but with no supplies coming in, they were also not able to restock. Slowly the law enforcement started coming up with waivers - allowing entry for trucks carrying provisions and groceries, allowing passes for the delivery vans, prioritizing the vehicular movement, allowing for relaxation hours - a classic case of act first think later!!!!!

The law enforcers had a tough time enforcing social distancing. People refused to take things seriously, either out of innocence or out of arrogance. Everywhere they had to be monitored. Markets, shops, supermarkets were given strict orders not to allow people in without masks, there were markers in place to ensure people maintained distance. All this queue system, lack of crowd and lack of noise (no traffic no noise) made my Dad comment that it almost feels like we are in a foreign country, not India.

Uneducated people had no clue as to what a virus was and what a pandemic is. Some educated morons very ardently believed themselves to be immune to the virus attack and that the government knows nothing. Most blamed the police for impeding their freedom. Both the class of people looked for ways to break the law. Poor cops, they were beaten up if they allowed people to go and also if they didn't. To overcome this mess, they did what they do the best - erect barricades. Flyovers were closed, all major roads were blocked, areas were cordoned off from each other. While it was the need of the hour it had its own repercussions as we would witness later (I always wanted to say that in my blog!!!).

 As I  mentioned, it was the senior citizens living by themselves who were the worst affected. Even though the maids were willing to come and help out the elderly, the law enforcers were very harsh on them. Without the delivery guys, they had no means to acquire fresh provisions. My parents and my in-laws were stuck. Given the caution around senior citizens, we weren't too comfortable moving them. My husband and I decided to take care of them separately, he moved in with his parents and my parents moved in with me. This move ensured that we would not be on the list of rising domestic dispute cases!!!

Continued here....