Our Brush With Corona

Chapter IV

 I went back to my house, immersed in my own thoughts. Ever since the start of the pandemic induced nationwide lockdown from the 25th of March 2020, running concurrently with lockdowns in most of the countries, the concept of what defined 'living one's life' underwent a sea change. People could no longer live with the cavalier approach and gay abandon of earlier times nor think about exploring new avenues of indulgence. Now trappings of traits like restraint, consolidation and taking a sabbatical, came into play. One had to learn to postpone many of the things that earlier, one would not think twice before doing it.

But there was a good side too. One learnt to be happy within one's means, and started taking comfort, even joy, from the most basic things of life which one would have even failed to notice earlier. A clear star-studded sky at night, a blossoming sunrise, a family sharing a joke together, a satiating lunch or dinner taken by the family members sitting together at the dining table, these simple things could always be had at no additional cost by everyone, but before these times, most of us only thought about doing it, a certain roadblock in the mind always stood in the way of implementation. 

Not that many of us did not indulge in these activities in earlier times, we certainly did. The difference was in terms of the significance we attached to them. During the period of lockdown most of us derived great pleasure in these simple things and yearned for more of them. My chief regret was not spending more time with my parents in the past, and thus forfeiting the joys of reliving with them the fun times we had together during our younger days, eating, sitting and sleeping together.

Life in the period of lockdown for me and for many like me, was one long sequence of  mostly staying indoors, sneaking outside to buy milk, groceries and other essentials, wearing mask, keeping a bottle of sanitizer handy and always trying to keep at arm's length any defaulter who carelessly came in our vicinity, without wearing a mask. The hiring of domestic helps had now been temporarily discontinued. Not that it mattered to us anyway. For the moment there were only the two of us in Delhi, my wife and I, and we were stuck up with each other round the clock, as my office had shut down. The entire drill of work from home was started only one month later.

My daughter was there in Bengaluru with her uncle, my wife's youngest brother. She was finishing the final days of her Engineering course and was to come to Delhi by flight on the 26th of March. But lockdown was announced a day earlier, and her ticket had to be cancelled. Now her classes were being done online. My parents were in the US with my younger brother and his family, and they would be there till the end of October.

We used to daily exchange notes about the happenings in our respective locales. The topics varied from what we ate to what serials we saw on the internet and television. We scrupulously avoided talks about COVID and its fast-expanding arms. What was there, was there. There was no use in harping about it.

I had religiously followed all the COVID protocols in our daily life. Constant publicity on cable TV, internet and mobiles had led to the desired sobering effect. However, I would regret to confess here that I flouted one COVID norm consistently. This failing on my part was largely because of my obsession with morning walks especially walks in the park. This habit has been with me for years. Give me my morning walk and take away anything from me, I would not flinch. I think all avid walkers will understand that feeling. It can be akin to an addiction, nothing less.

There is no park or large empty space around my house where I have not walked for hours. For the last few years, I have been going to a large park, with a circular gravelled path of two and a half kilometres circumference. The park is at some distance from my home and is thick with trees and shrubbery and a variety of birds. There are also a huge population of dogs inside the park, but they are in harmony with the walkers, both keeping away from the other.

A walk early in the morning there has a spiritual effect on me and sets me up for the day. I simply could not do without my early morning quota even during the lockdown period. There are two entrances to the park, and it is surrounded by a high iron grill around six feet high with iron mesh in them. Now, the first announcement of lockdown resulted in the closure of all parks including this one, by piling up heaps of thorny bushes on their entrances. There are many morning walk fanatics in my locality. So, crazy people like us used to scale the fence, facing the risk of a broken foot, and have our quota of walk inside. The morning walks were well earned and have never since or hence been as refreshing.

Inside the park we used to find packs of dogs reduced to bare skeletons as many of the benefactors who used to religiously feed them, were now shut out of the park. So, the few law breakers like us used to come with biscuits, breads and other eatables and feed these poor famished souls. I would not use this good deed to curry favour in the eyes of many of you readers. It was bad of us to do what we did, no two views about it.

The authorities were equal to the task. Early one morning I reached the park only to find it empty. A quick enquiry from the few pedestrians around revealed that there was a police raid and the overzealous walkers reaching at the earliest hours were rounded off and then taken to the police station in a van and there they were made to do some push ups and sit ups, a few also being caned. This was a deterrent for many but only for a few days. Monotony can sometimes make you do crazy things and the promise of fresh air made many of us return to the park. Then there was a second raid and I missed being hauled up by minutes. In fact, I just arrived to see the backside of the police van departing with a rich haul of offending walkers. I was lucky not to be apprehended and taking that as a sign from the heavens discontinued my ritual of morning walks in that park till the ban was lifted. Today I really regret breaking the rules.

Here I would like to mention about the nobility of the dogs in that park. Dogs, especially stray dogs crazed by starvation and desertion, have every right to revert to their primal instinct which is that of a hunter. These dogs in the park could very well have attacked the walkers, succumbing to their pangs of hunger. But none of them so much as barked at the walkers. They only gave us sympathetic looks making us aware of our inane ways. Hats off to them!

.....to be continued.....