Cleaning overdrive, Nostalgia and The FOOD (Day 2 & 3 of India Lock Down) - 26th & 27th March 2020

26th and 27 March 2020 - Day 2 and 3 of the National Lock Down in India

Continuing from the previous day, the weirdness continues. My wife woke up by 05:00 am, again. Thankfully I had been spared today and got up only around 06:30 am. I know that's way too early for many of you.

The inquisitiveness to know the daily outbreak status was now turning into a habit. US had added almost 10k new cases and the global death toll reached 20k+. On a global level, 60k+ cases were being reported everyday. If one wanted to look for data, it was all over the web. But the way it was being reported, specially in news channels across the globe, was exposing everyone's biases. Left wing, right wing, fundamentalist, nationalist, socialist, pseudo-secularist - the inclinations were clear. Which category you belong to or you too are just a god-fearing, law abiding, hard working, helpless citizen.

On the other hand, the government was disseminating data - its websites, twitter, press conferences. Specially the kind of restrained language it used in its press conferences. At the same time, it became apparent that government wants to maintain a tight control over data. Frequency and scope of data being disseminated left one wanting for much more in this hour of crisis. May be handing out little more data would have helped the cause or may be the government was under prepared.

While breakfast is cooking, it's time for cleaning drive.

Day 2 - Defrosted and cleaned the refrigerator. Disinfected the doors and windows and the iron grill at front gate.

Day 3 - Book shelves. And reminded myself that I was mostly writing and not reading enough. Had bought some books in the book fair last winter. Wonder if I would be able to finish some.

Cleaning tasks for next few days were also cut out for me. Next was cleaning of ceiling fans and a thorough floor washing exercise.

Having finished the cleaning work for the day and my morning meal, I connected with office colleagues. Discussed work and every ones well being. Mom also called us in the day. She was particularly concerned with well being of her daughter-in-law.

A small part of the population - middle and high income folks - who lived on social media, whose part time activism was limited to twitter-verse, who had the comfort of overfilled refrigerators and privileged of separate individual rooms in their home - they were chilling on online entertainment - "Netflix and Chill". Yes, its constituted a only small part of the population. Just because some of us did it, does not mean everyone body had the luxury. And it was good that they remained hooked to their TV sets for they would have been creating some nuisance on the streets, in pubs, in parties or online. Well I also tuned into some shows on netflix in this lock down season - first one being "SHE". Another show "Guilty" the next day. Both the shows were bold and aggressive in their content in portraying feminism and women empowerment or the lack of it in our societies. We need many more such shows reaching out to many more people.

With March in its last week, average day temperature in this part of the world was rising up. The afternoons were becoming hot and windy. Not very discomforting yet, but enough to kick in the nostalgia of summer vacation. India was having a pretty early mass summer vacation and lazing around in veranda on a summer afternoon, when you cannot go out to play, was national pass time for people in tier II & III cities and rural areas. I put out my mat and put on my PUBG hat. Yeah playing PUBG is part of my routine now. Back in those days, it used to be ludo, vyapar etc. Chai (tamarind whole seeds) Chudi (broken glass bangle pieces) and Gaana Goti (small stone chips) - anyone still remembers it.

My friend who had returned day before from Delhi, shared a link for donating funds. He was raising funds to help poor migrant population, stuck across the country, without access to food, health care and travel. Nobel Initiative. I had not yet contributed to the fund but shared it across my social media handles, asking others to contribute. I offered my services for any online support that may need. Also I was hyper active on social media as well.

NOSTALGIA

With March in its last week, average day temperature in this part of the world was rising up. The afternoons were becoming hot and windy. Not very discomforting yet, but enough to kick in the nostalgia of summer vacation. India was having a pretty early mass summer vacation and lazing around in veranda on a summer afternoon, when you cannot go out to play, was national pass time for people in tier II & III cities and rural areas. I put out my mat and put on my PUBG hat. Yeah playing PUBG is part of my routine now. Back in those days, it used to be ludo, vyapar etc. Chai (tamarind whole seeds) Chudi (broken glass bangle pieces) and Gaana Goti (small stone chips) - anyone still remembers it.
To add to the nostalgia, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India announced repeat telecast of Ramayana from tomorrow i.e. 28th March.

Union I&B minister @PrakashJavdekar:

Happy to announce that on public demand, we are starting the re-telecast of 'Ramayana' from tomorrow (Saturday, March 28) on @DDNational

- One episode in the morning 9 am to 10 am
- Another in the evening 9 pm to 10 pm pic.twitter.com/LKdHIdXVce

— DD News (@DDNewslive) March 27, 2020

The serial was originally broad casted on Doordarshan, India's national TV,  during 1987-88. Those were the days when TV was a new entrant in middle class household and there will few programs on television. The series was broadcast again in 2000 on other cable TV channels. So the program had a nostalgia value for effectively everyone except millennials and that is a huge huge number in India. Some liberals and pseudo-seculars questioned the intentions of the government, saying it was being done to divert attention from inefficiency in dealing with the situation. Religion is the opium for masses and may be it was a psychological play to calm and sooth nerves of the nation reeling under stress.
Still want to watch it, here it is.

THE FOOD

Social media and blogging were not the only activities that were consuming out time. Cooking was another one. As in cooking happened everyday at home, but some preparation are special dishes, occasion cuisine, nostalgia food. Day 2 afternoon it was "Nimki" and Day 3 morning was "Idli". Many more dishes in coming days.

 

Fun, Food and Family - three Fs which life is all about. And when times are tough, family is the first and last resort. Connecting with family is so comforting. And we do not have a time crisis. So, connected calls to some of them. Cousins sister had returned home as her school was closed. She is growing up faster than I thought. Younger sister got one of her toes crushed in the morning when she had just began her cleanliness drive. Blame it on corona, I did not visit her for the sake of "social distancing" and picking up any contamination on the way. Spoke with the other sister. Here days were tensed, with 7 year old son with grandparents and husband out all day on essential services duty. Spoke with mother again. Grandpa has not been keeping well. Any other day, this would have not worried us, but with corona around everything is different.

While many of us were cooking specialty food in cosy confines of our homes and seeking comfort in family bonding, there were many who were suffering out there on the streets. The lock down had put locks on many small businesses, factories and other such small enterprises and unorganized sectors of economy. All of a sudden, millions of people had no work. Most of these people were migrant workers who were now trying to return to their native places, anyhow. Home is where heart is, after all. With all public transport under lock down, people set out on foot, for their homes, some 200 kms some 2000 kms. Such large scale human migration without any means of transport was unparalleled in history. And the crisis was worsening by the hours. Hundreds of thousands of people were marching on highways and had assembled at various Bus stands, most notably at Delhi UP borders. Take a look.

Meanwhile government, it seemed was caught fully off-guard and it was making desperate appeals to the public to stay where they are, such migration would defy all the progress made in the lock down. Poor migrants on the other hand were quote - "international air evacuation for rich, and not even buses for poor".