JOIN USDuring the extended lockdown, we in our gated community, could not enjoy even amenities that we paid for, as the residents association was scared that playing tennis could turn one into a positive! So having nothing else to do, I knuckled down and started washing vessels, cleaning the house, drying the clothes and doing all the domestic chores. I proudly gloated to my wife that I put my heart and soul into the clean vessels. Pat came the repartee, “Yeah, try using soap and water first”. The first few days of the lockdown, I wrote poems and ballads about my situation and shared it in various groups. Then when it filtered to my better half through one such group, my life as I knew it ended and I was forced to look at other options.
I am generally a funny guy and see the lighter moments of life but being behind bars (I mean locked down) had taken the light out of me. My daughter retorted that it could be a preamble for prison experience. I smirked and decided to pen down my thoughts for this middle.
I have a friend, a loner, and when I asked him how the lockdown had affected him, he said he was in quarantine for last two years and it made no difference to him.
There was a time when you ran out of breath to get into a lift that was closing. Like that one minute, you saved would give you a crore. Now, even if the large lift has just one person inside, you politely say “carry on” and either take the stairs or wait patiently until the empty lift returns.
It wasn’t far back when our metro was crammed with people and they would jostle and try to get inside the compartments come what may. Now that the lockdown is over, the government will issue ads and hoardings pleading with us to use the metro!
Before the pandemic, it was so easy getting out of the home. One just pulled the door shut and left. Now, we have to check our pocket for the sanitiser, our face for the mask and basically armour up like we are going out for a battle. During the lockdown, the spouse had to note the time. If one did not return in a reasonable time, they would be required to call the jurisdictional police station. What if you were actually behind bars for violating the lockdown?
We humans had taken too much for granted. It has taken an invisible virus for us to know just how much!