Quarantine Diaries

It said that every “obstacle” that you face, brings hidden “opportunity” for you. So true it is! When we were busy living our fast-paced lives, we all faced “obstacle” in the form of “lockdown”. Corona pandemic reduced our pace of life drastically. It was as if a fast running car was brought to halt suddenly due to unforeseen pothole or speed-breaker on the smooth road. Initially everyone was overwhelmed by the unprecedented situation. Concept of “lockdown” was new, so was “mandatory work-from-home”. It took weeks to digest the overall happenings around and to adapt to those. Needless to say everyone went through emotional rollercoaster – happy, anxious, sad, overwhelmed, depressed, fearful and what not. I am not exception to this. I too went through all this. From struggling to put simple time-table to fulfilling additional responsibilities at home, every single thing was challenging and mentally taxing. However, it was the same time that afforded me opportunity to sit bac...

है राम तेरी भूमि में सब लोग कमजोर खड़े है, सरहदों पे भी तेरे नाम के चर्चे है!!  क्या बताये हालत-ए-वतन, यहाँ तो बस गरीब ही शोषित है,  बाकि तो सब पकवान और क्वारंटाइन challenge में विलीन है!!  राम भूमि की तरफ तो ये सारे शोषित चल पड़े,  न जाने कितनी लंका दिल में लेके वापस आ पड़े!!  शायद तुम बस एक समाज के लिये हो  बाकि तो बस एक माया है,   तुम्हारे नाम का सब कुछ बन गया  पर उसमे तुम्हरी छाया कहा है ? देखिये प्रभु आप की दरवाजे पर खड़ी है आप की वानर सेना,  पर क्या करे इस सेना ने कोई यूनिफार्म नहीं पहना!! कम से कम अपने भक्तो का तो ख़याल रखना, अपने एजेंट लोगो को बोलना  इस भक्त का कोई सामान / या हिसाब गिरवी मत रखना !! अगर तुम हो तो इन लोगो को समझा देना, की कैसे तुम राम बने,  रामराज्य आने से पहले कितने जनाजे उठे!! --  म्हसोबा --

                                            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...