25th March 2020 - 1st DAY OF COMPLETE LOCK-DOWN OF INDIA

The festival of Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra.

12^TH DAY OF MY SOCIAL ISOLATION

General feeling: “It’s not sinking in but feels some-what morbid. Already tired of listening to the news. Already tired of telling people not to be reckless. Saddened to realize that not all of us have the luxury of clean water, masks or even some privacy”

This is Day 1 of 21 day lock-down announced by the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Modi to contain the spread of the deadly novel virus COVID-19. Despite a heads-up from various countries and a time period of about 2 months, India is sitting at that inevitable moment of it’s modern history, that may not just claim lives of millions (Estd: 1 mn – 3mn fatalities; Source: Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayanan,, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy), it may change the course of the so-called growth trajectory that it was to traverse to bring the world out of an imminent financial gloom.

There is a heated debate among experts on how to manage infection rate v/s economic disruption. Both are bound to kill people. The question is how many and how?

Apart from this mega environment, there is much happening at a personal level for most people across the world. Indians are no different. However, India with its inequity is going through such a diverse plethora of emotions and reactions, it’s difficult to see clean boundaries between fact, fiction, right and wrong.

For a privileged, upper-class, upper-caste millennial who lives in a modern society of South Mumbai, the biggest concerns are not really the question of feeding oneself and life-sustaining supplies. The concerns are the inability to step out, boredom, finding a routine and keeping sane in isolation. For people not living with their loved ones, this is a bigger challenge. People across the country have taken to social media to display their creativity and skills, which they otherwise could never find the time for. Some are cooking, some are spending more time with their children. But everyone’s waiting. For this to end. Nobody can say for sure, when it will.

Most people have begun to do video calls regularly to keep in touch. They are telling each other to take one day, one week at a time. The questions across the world have come down to just a few iterations of health, going out, hand washing, death toll and new political statements.

Italy, Spain, Pakistan, UK, US are fucked. Literally. Maybe even India is. We just don’t know that. We’re continuing to live with the challenge of 1.3 billion of us. The challenge which could have been a strength, is a perennial excuse.

For me, this is my 12^th day of Social Isolation. I haven’t gone to work or anywhere outside. Just 3 trips down to the building gate to receive supplies. I am stuck in Bombay without family or love. But I am still positive about keeping myself and others around me sane. I’ve moved recently to this home and my flat-mates are kind. Of the three weeks I’ve spent here, ½ of it has been in isolation and all of it amidst the fear of Covid.

My blogging place is a balcony that over-looks the ugly side of the Arabian Sea. Maybe it was intended to. So we can stop and look at the ugly sides of ourselves and the world we’ve created and chosen to live in. 

I am not a believer of larger-than-life philosophies about pandemics. But people around me are talking about how this time will lead people to introspect and bring out their humane sides. They say, the nature is benefiting from us-staying home. I find that statement slightly arrogant and slightly unfair. One, because while the local pollution levels may have come down temporarily, the ambit of nature is far larger than what a few millions staying at home can influence. It’s unfair, because we, humans are also a part of that nature. I find it painful to separate ourselves from ‘nature’.

Given the state of things, my humble opinion is we live towards our needs. Mindless consumption needs to stop today. Of food, of wine. Because we just have limited supplies. And community needs to be placed above the individual. Else we all suffer (or die). Game theory? Communism? Doesn’t matter.

It’s morbid to say but we’re in a war. The one that doesn’t fit the traditional definition. It’s a war against a virus. A zoonotic intrusion that we can’t see or hear. Only feel and suffer. Not sure if we’ll come out of it successfully and what that success would mean for us personally, nationally or globally. But when we do, we’ll have long weeks to remember and teach the young ones about it.

For now, Stay Safe. Stay home.