Quarantine Diaries

                                            Last week two officials of an organisation working in social sector contacted me. They requested if I can volunteer and help them with fund-raising for their initiative. They were raising funds to help out families of stranded migrants. They were making sanitation kits and kits of daily essentials and were delivering it to the families of the labourers who were on their way back home. Much has been spoken and written about the plight of these migrants. What I feel the worst was, they were not even afforded an opportunity to go back to their homes with dignity. When lockdown due to corona pandemic was announced, they were laid off and were forced out of their temporary homes in cities. Having lost their jobs and livelihood options, they started walking back to their homes. On their way back, the cities that prospered on t...

Last week majority of shops were allowed to open. Even shops in red zones were opened. Liquor shops & the unending queues outside those shops could be seen. I have already ranted about it enough in my previous blog. It so happened that I was already not feeling good because for past whole week Mom (hereinafter Aai) could not come home. Inter-Taluka commutation is banned even for government servants & Police has cancelled already sanctioned passes as well. Earlier this was allowed. Since the outbreak of this corona pandemic Aai made sure she comes home once a week. Usually she came home Saturday night & left early in the morning on Monday. For howsoever less then she was there, it was enough for all of us at home to be more than happy & cherish every moment of it. But what a hypocrite policy – inter-taluka commutation is not allowed as it may spread virus & opening of shops (that too LIQUOR SHOPS) is allowed because economy first. I have no issue w...

Monday, 03 May 2020. We entered in lockdown 3.0. How did it start? We could see people rushing to street only to queue up outside liquor shops. The news of opening of shops in general and liquor shops in particular, spread like wildfire. People made sure they get up early and stand in a queue to get their drinks. I wonder if they had shown the same zeal when their families asked them to go out and stand in queue to get some groceries. One could easily see people using their emergency savings to quench their thirst of alcohol. Whether it was right or wrong on the part of policy makers or government to allow such shops, is not a part of discussion here. I just want to try and understand the prevailing human behavioural tendencies in the time of crisis. We all had started getting forwards/ jokes/ memes on social media as to how people are dying to get liquor and thronging streets and shops. Social distancing norms seemed joke to them. Even the scorching heat could not deter the...

     Two days in line, and you come to know about passing away of the two stalwarts. It’s not that we are here forever. We all are going to die some or the other day. But when everything around is gloomy, losing such persons around is not just shocking but also it is depressing. When one read/ hear such news one’s view that 2020 is pathetic and worst year gets reinstated. I too feel the same. 2020 started well but none had iota that this would be devastating year. Corona which was just confined to some part of the world in Wuhan spread like wild fire across the globe had to be declared as pandemic. Now the whole world is under lockdown. When I sit back and look, two months ago life was all normal – alive, kicking, happy and happening. A typical day would start with my whole family around me. I used to work, study, conduct sessions, go and meet up friends, hang-out in some book-café, enjoy “me-time” on bridges or parks or any open public spaces, have hearty ...

It is said that human being is a social animal. And we live in a “civilised society” where everything is by design, wherein a system is there in place having proper structure and function. The basic component of this system is the human being. It is us – the “civilians”. For proper functioning of this system of society, bare minimum that is expected from us it to be civilised and show some civic sense. But do we even know what civic sense is? In a layman’s language it is something basic a human has to have to be able to gel well with the society and something that contributes to the well-being of both – such human as well as the society. It is something that helps in smooth running of the functions of the society. These are unspoken yet commonly agreed norms. We can take some hue of it from our Constitution in form of both – fundamental rights and fundamental duties. It’s not that we aren’t aware of it or haven’t ever read or known about it. We all do about it. Then why do w...

It has almost been a month we are home quarantined. India is under lockdown, Pune city is sealed. So much has happened in past 30 days yet so little is known. All thanks to corona virus!   I have tried a lot to write on this, however, did not publish it in a blog. What to write, how much to cover, which aspects to reflect upon? Seems beyond my reach! So finally I have decided, instead of keeping it in my drafts, I will put it on my blog - everything and anything that comes to my mind including the drafts. To begin with, this is a first of a kind calamity that we have faced of late. I asked my granny if she had experienced anything like this during her lifespan of 88 years. She said, “We did face drought/ famine like conditions, we survived poverty, we survived floods, earthquakes but this is our first time too.” She is yet to come to the terms that a virus is the main cause that has halted the whole world. I remember it was mid-March, somewhere during 14-15 th March...

And now you are free to judge me as an 'anti-national' for defying the appeal. While I stand and affirm to do what is best possible for me as a citizen in this health emergency & fight against corona, I also stand to disobey the activity which does not appeal to my rational and scientific temper. I also 100% support the lockdown & stand also against those social elements which deliberately cause trouble to frontline soldiers in this war on corona.  I am worried about the health of all my people (staying indoors or on their long march to their respective homes). However, I am more worried about the health of people like my Aai who have to deal directly with patients & who are not even armoured with basic masks let alone PPE. Am worried about the life of all those doctors, nurses, healthworkers, sanitation workers, police who are being brutally attacked while they risk their lives for us.  In all this, my lighting a candle/diya can only make good conten...