Collection

I am going to keep the links for stuff I want to read and re-read:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/05/09/a-brave-and-startling-truth-maya-angelou/

Invisible Women in times of Covid-19 - https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/opinion/columnists/sonali-gupta/invisible-women-in-times-of-covid-19/articleshow/75524933.cms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qoDvY7sk&feature=youtu.be - Dr Vivek Murthy's talk/podcast

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-song-on-the-end-of-the-world/

Lockdown - Day n - i've stopped counting

How happy you look! This is how my mother started her video call with her grandson, and his quick reply was ‘why not?’. i could feel my spirits lifting instantly at hearing him. actually why not? Even if we were in different cities, with new phrases to describe our lives - in lockdown, maintaining social distancing, people in isolation, people being quarantined - the fact remains that at this moment, we are all well, comfortable in our homes, continuing to maintain some semblance of our normal lives. Grocery items may be limited, but then we are spending less, and realizing how little we really need in our daily lives. Chores have been added to our routine, but then so have video calls with family and friends. Once one gets used to waiting for the other person to finish talking, and the time lag sometimes. our conversations are enriching and interesting. We are not going out at all, but then traffic sounds are fewer and the air is clearer. We are waking up to the sounds of the birds who are now louder than ever before. Waking up to the sound of a flock of parakeets shrieking as they fly overhead - what more could one ask for? And why not be happy!

Lockdown - Day 22

Today, April 15th, should have been the first day of our lives post-lockdown, but we are just moving on, continuing to lead our lives the way we led the past 3 weeks and more. There really is no reason to feel depressed but I am just not able to feel as peppy as I should be. I am not even sure this lockdown is the best way to tackle this threat, so all this seems a bit pointless.

Every day, we wake up relieved that we are well and fine, and continue our chores and go on with our lives, forgetting all our concerns about all the wrongs that are happening everywhere - be it the increasing communalism or the violence or the travails of a whole lot of people who are just desperate to get home to their families.

Lockdown - Day 17

I love this time of the morning, when the rest of the household is sleeping. Apart from the sounds of the fans whirring in some rooms inside the house, the only other sounds heard here on the terrace is that of the birds. I've been given an app to figure out the sounds of different birds and maybe I'll be an expert in a few days but right now, it's nice to know that I can hear the birds. And the most heartening thing is that this is what I hear even when there is no lockdown and the world is 'normal' and busy.

Freshly washed by the rains last evening, the terrace is a combination of clean in the centre and mucky with mud and leaves on the sides, and I know I'll need to sweep the place soon. However, I shall first savour the freshness, the birds, the trees all around, the slight nip in the air which is special for mid-April and enjoy my cup of tea ...in silence. 

Contouring, maintaining equanimity...our daily life

Robert Macfarlane : Word of the Day: "contouring" - when traversing steep or unsure ground, picking a path that holds its height. On the hill, as in life, a means of staying steady, of keeping level even when the going is rough, the world falling away to one side or the other.

This is so apt for the times. The world really does seem to be falling away, while we all work hard at staying balanced. I never thought I would appreciate the word equanimity - which I heard numerous times every day during my Vipassana course - as much as I do today. One happy chat with Shashank and some of the family is what keeps me going in this largely self-centered life where we are basically concentrating on keeping our surroundings clean, stocking up adequately for our own sustenance and working at keeping ourselves entertained and occupied. All the news , all the hardships one reads about are all on the periphery - it's almost like this lockdown has made all of us take a break and become more selfish than ever before.

x

21 day lockdown : Day 4 - 10

3 April

I had forgotten about this blog for the past few days. Apart from doing sporadic bits of knitting and making a quilted laptop cover for Kanishk, there really hasn't been much of handiwork that I have done. But the days have been good, and I have managed to keep some kind of equanimity in my life, and and family and friends are safe in their homes. My yoga and Pilates classes are going on online and we are well-stocked up with provisions for the next few days.  I am enjoying tending to the garden: with some protection from the sun, the avocado plant has sprouted a few new leaves. The perennial plant is also looking healthier and sprouting a few leaves after being repotted and kept in the shade.

I have been listening to some peaceful Desert Island Discs episodes and a few episodes of Seen Unseen podcasts. The most useful thing I have been doing for myself is downloading a whole lot of books from this very lovely electronic library. Thanks to this, I am able to locate a lot of books that were recommended by Rouayda and Asha/Sanjana.

The only exception is when I catch up with news on Twitter and then get all angry and upset at the way everything is being handled by the powers that be.  I sometimes wonder if things would have been handled differently by a sensible woman at the helm of affairs. When ordinary thinking people like us were already talking about the plight of daily labourers with a one day Janta curfew, how could an entire 3 week lockdown be announced without thinking of where they would go, how they would survive, what they would eat... The migrant labour on the move is supposedly the largest such movement of masses after Partition! People were running for their lives then.. why did this need to happen now? Instead of collecting huge amount of funds to allegedly support the needy in these tough times, shouldn't they have actually worked at preventing these tough times. It really does seem like anyone who can afford to, stays indoors peacefully, while the majority of India is on the move - whether as migrant labourers struggling to return to their homes or as suppliers of 'essential' services that the privileged cannot do without. Either way, these people are out on the streets without any protection from any virus that may be in the air.

The saddest part of this whole thing is the news that domestic violence cases are increasing during the lockdown. If more women and children are getting battered because their husbands/fathers are home all the time, then what does this say about the condition of their lives in the first place! The small mercy was that at least these men were hopefully not having access to alchohol, but now that Kerala and Chattisgarh have declared that these stores are providing essential services, even that protection has been taken away. I am just too overwhelmed by all this and have never felt more useless in my life.