“No permanence is ours: we are a wave that flows to fit whatever form it finds.”(Hermann Hesse)
During these desperate yet necessary lock-down (LD) days, Tim
is seven-year old Polly’s best friend. Timmy Critch.
Now-now where did he come from! I wondered.
I had heard about Glen, her next door neighbour, who called her “Princess Polly” if he won a game and “Potty Polly” if playtime ended in a brawl. There was Ravi who told her the story of “Uri" detailing the assault rifles and carbines.
But Timmy Critch. He sounded like a dude, dead from the neck up. He liked to snack often and avoid major meals. One hour of her day was spent with him, unravelling her innocent secrets to a good listener.
“Where does he live?” I asked. She looked aghast. “Aita,(grandma) where can a fish
live except in his fish bowl?”
The jig-saw puzzle fell into place. Polly was adapting to the immediate changes in her life, replacing her friends with her pet-fish, waving at her pal on the 13th floor of the opposite building from her 12th floor living-room and following it up with a mobile-call.
From 8am to 12.30 pm her school teacher was on-line streaming enlightenment into the little head, leaving grandma out-of-sync and feeling ancient. In the afternoon, Polly pushed the mop-stick cleaning the house, helping her mother not because she wanted to but because “the country is going through difficult times and P.M Modi is doing his best,"she stated. Pearls of wisdom! Is an accelerated maturity a fallout of the LD?
The father has turned out to be the best dish-washer in town in addition to his work and her mother multi-tasks between office-schedules, baking Cinnamon rolls and doing the laundry. The day ends with the trio doing the zumba workout, leaving Polly elated, smiling and ready for bed.
Will this be the New Normal post-lockdown?
A new quietude has come into our lives. The need to blow-dry our hair, thread eyebrows, contemplate what to wear are non-issues. The realisation that we can subsist with little, that, maybe, we were becoming greedy and living unnecessary king-size lives has somewhat settled in. Many will disagree on this but most will agree that the world is weathering a fierce tornado in the wake of which things will not be the same.
To break the boring sameness of living during this period of lock-up and lockdown, (where it’s possible to lose your marbles,) the virtual world is playing an amazing role. A poetry session on Skype with my three friends was refreshing and revitalising. While she read out lines from “Jejuri” by the bilingual poet (Marathi-English) Arun Kolatkar I was happy reciting Neruda’s love poems.
Organising a weekend Google-meet party with the family scattered across the globe was easy as a pie. The effort was Lilliputian!! The need to cook elaborate dishes, starch the linen , spruce up the living-room and over-see that the right towels were on the right rack became superfluous. Yet the joy of laughter and good cheer left my adrenaline pumping and energy level soaring.
The unique experience of attending a funeral Pray Meeting on Zoom Apps was poignant to say the least. Friends and relatives from California to Cambodia were there, lighting a candle and sharing the grief, leaving me misty-eyed. We were with the family and yet not there.
These were new episodes and vicarious pleasures got through the digital world which was beyond comprehension a few months ago.”Staying Alive”, without going bananas, was possible.
This historic experience of 2020,(a date easy to remember) has brought out the best in some….. Lessons learnt, skills acquired, discipline et el and also the worst in others…gorging on food, sending fake news, black-marketing …endless. Social norms will change. We’ll think twice before visiting the “Puchka Walla” or even a posh mall. Washing hands with soap for 20 seconds and sanitizing our mobiles ….will they become our second nature?
Is a New Order in the offing? Am I happy?
I am seething with anger with whatever, whoever!! I am sad and worried that the C-Virus may go round the globe twice-over in 24 months. I am worried that millions will fill the ranks of the unemployed and go hungry. I am worried that the tentacles of Death will snatch away my near and dear ones. I am worried…….
"What will be left of all the fearing.........? A dash ,one or two inches long , between the date of birth and date of death on your gravestone. "(Eckhart Tolle)
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