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.
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.
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