A NYE is the time to indulge in the biggest party of the year. A night when people like to party hard, celebrate as if there is no tomorrow. The NYE of 31st December 2019 was no different. But little did people know that they were literally burning thousands in welcoming a year which they wished never existed. By March, COVID-19 had started taking baby steps into the Indian subcontinent. While some firms were still busy doing employee surveys, others had triggered WFH as a precautionary measure.
2 months of national lockdown in India (1.3Bn people) was perhaps the most uncertain time of our lives. We could not step out for anything, there was little or zero knowledge on this virus. Worst of all, there was no remedy available thus far for this disease. Fear of an untimely death had struck everyone. Being confined to our homes, our lives took a drastic change forever as we now co-related with the pain of wildlife kept in zoos behind bars. With housekeeping services being unavailable, family members started taking turns to help in daily household chores. Although e-commerce had pick up pace in India, this lockdown accelerated its growth by at least a few years. From milk to vegetables, to medicines & water - we had now completely become dependent upon e-commerce for our daily lives. Stock market had crashed across the globe to levels last seen a decade ago. Never before had I seen the front page of The Economic Times regularly focusing upon something apart from financial news, as the largest space was now reserved for the horrific news on new cases, deaths etc. Despite all the chaos within human circles, I was happy to see the way nature and wildlife were rejuvenating themselves. Images of a deserted Marine Drive in Mumbai, a cleaner river Ganga due to lack of pollution, wildlife freely roaming on roads with humans locked in home posed a thousand questions to human species.
WFH had its own challenges as we started getting used to Zoom calls, adjusting camera positions, desk heights for virtual meetings and collaborations. To overcome the boredom of lockdown and encourage people to stay at home, Doordarshan aired the popular series of Ramayana and Mahabharata. These two shows alone took the TRP ratings of Doordarshan to record levels across Indian TV space. Days when people found it tough to pass spend time, these shows gave them something to look forward to for a good four hours.
WFH was quickly termed to be the golden time of our lives which should be used to re-connect with our family and loved ones, learn new skills. After a point of time, it started feeling like a new social pressure to post about a new skill learnt. Family video calls quickly became an order of the day. People who earlier met only once in a year were now having face time on a weekly basis. In my family, we started playing online group games like Housie (Tambola), Ludo with members based out of different cities of India. With ample free time, post office hours and weekends were now utilized totally for my website redesigning, blogging and lots of online chatting. Birth of two angels (nieces) in Bangalore brought along the good times as I now witnessed the growth of newborns from the closest quarters. Cheering up, making them sleep were the toughest and loveliest moments of the day. With rising cases, we decided to move back to our hometown, Calcutta. We reached Calcutta a day before the festival of Rakhsa Bandhan. Since we were under strict home quarantine, I could not celebrate the festival with my dear sisters. This surely was the first time that I did not meet them despite being in Calcutta :( Nevertheless, thanks to my ever loving sisters, I could at least enjoy the savories made by them.
Being in a complex, I had the luxury to feel the vibes of steeping outside my home as I freely roamed about the inner perimeter of my vast residential complex. We have a small in-house waterfall and floodlight enabled playground wherein I sat, dreamt and wrote under the beautiful moonlight. Mummy was very happy, for now she could celebrate all the major festivals of our Gopalji with all the pomp and decorate the temple being immersed in her bhakti. In her words, ghar ka paisa ab vassol hua (money spent on the house is now put to use). Monsoon brought along with itself the pleasant weather giving a relief from the otherwise scorching humidity. For the first time, I had seen the sun set on a regular basis, each of which gave away a beautiful thought to ponder upon. Plus, I now had the opportunity to cover my checklist of delicious, mouth-watering food in Calcutta. 2020 birthday bash was quite memorable too. It started off with clubbing the previous night, a brunch the following day, surprising events by family and ended with a melodious karaoke evening. Never did I imagine to have the best birthday party during a pandemic. My reason to always miss Calcutta has been Krishu (my little heart), my sister and my nearest family members. With reduced distance, meeting them on a regular basis became a monthly affair as opposed to an annual exercise. I now had the luxury to attend the most important family events of the year which were earlier out of question.
Since moving to Bangalore, never have I had the opportunity of being in Calcutta during Durga Puja because of QE work pressure. This time we warmly welcomed Maa Durga to our complex with a common prayer - please get us rid of this virus and save the world. The complex was beautifully lit up to welcome Maa for a 9-day festival (see a video here). Thereafter, Diwali brought alive the otherwise sleeping, self-proclaimed caretakers of environment. Despite several months of reopening of industrial production, construction, other festivals and different modes of transportation in use, suddenly these people realized that bursting firecrackers on one particular day will alone lead to a spike in COVID-19 cases. Consequently, we had a no-noise Diwali for the first time. However on the brighter side, this is exactly how we had been celebrating the festival of lights over centuries. Click on this link for a small poetry I wrote on this occasion - Youtube video.
With constant pressure from Mummy, I finally practiced driving a car on the streets with the help of Mamaji and my cousins. I had an aim to overcome the street fear by Diwali so that I can self-drive and thereby visit my relatives for the festival. Thanks to my brothers, my family is now confident enough to allow me to drive a car (more details in next blog). As they say, if you can drive on the roads of Calcutta, you can drive anywhere in India. A visit to Park Street during Christmas is like a must to-do thing here. It has a different vibe during this time of the year. With reduced cases across India and being bored at home, I went on a short family trip to Gangtok during a long weekend. It provided a much needed break from the restricted life till date. Playing in snow, clubbing, losing money in a casino all added to the fun. Sadly with increasing cases, the festival of Holi was a low key affair. One more festival came and went by while I was in Calcutta but I still couldn't enjoy it the way I had done all my life.
Time waits for no one. It keeps moving at the same pace, unhindered by world wars, financial recession, and even global pandemic. It's hard to digest that the human race is still unable to overcome from this crisis, with herd immunity still a distant dream. Between 2016 and 2020, I would have hardly stayed in Calcutta for >60 days but this WFH has so far enabled a stay for more than 9 months and counting. Unless I permanently settle back, I would take at least 18 years to spend the same time in Calcutta again (other things remaining constant). I remember telling Mummy that I would be only ready to return back to Bangalore once I celebrate a year of festivals in Calcutta (Rakhi to Holi). Having celebrated Holi as well and the ongoing vaccination spree, RTTO can be implemented anytime soon. I am indifferent to working from office/home. However, my fear lies in once again starting a life from scratch in Bangalore. Although, I had never managed to settle down in Bangalore till date but still there was a small level of comfort with the city. But now having spent a year in Calcutta, it's gonna be all the more difficult than even the initial migration in 2016. I left Calcutta to finally enjoy my young, bachelor days, but this stay has made Bangalore quite less attractive for me and Calcutta all the more special. It feels like something important is being left behind.
This pandemic has different lessons for everyone but there are three lessons that stick out for me:
1) Being self-satisfied is important for a peaceful life. Even the richest feared more about being infected from this virus rather than losing money.
2) All these long-term,10/20 year plans are useless. It's no point thinking that far for the small, little things and moments of life. Do not miss out on celebrating these small moments for the ultra-long term goal.
2) Be grateful to God for being amongst the privileged class - no job loss, no pay cut, WFH in an AC room, comfort of a home away from the work city and most importantly the presence of family who care for you unconditionally.
A small poetry as an ode to 2020 - https://youtu.be/3fdrQ7UmxhQ
