The Pandemic:
Let me start by expressing gratitude and acknowledging that we have been among the fortunate ones through this ongoing Corona Virus pandemic, which has been perhaps the worst disaster the world has seen in many decades. As on date, over 4.4 million people across the world have got the virus and about 300,000 have died. In India, over 80,000 have got the virus and about 2,600 have died. The lock-down in India may have been essential to contain the spread of the disease, but it has meant a lot of hardships to a lot of people. Migrant workers and daily wage earners have been the worst hit, and for them, survival itself has been at stake because they don't have financial buffers, and life is hand to mouth for them.
Household Chores:
I have been staying in our Gurgaon condo with my wife and five year old son. We are lucky that we have a full time maid who stays with us. Our part time helpers have not been coming, so our full time maid has had to stretch a bit, but my wife has been helping with the sweeping and dusting, and I have been helping with the dusting and washing of clothes. Supplies of essentials have not been hit because our condo has a small supermarket and a Safal store for fresh vegetables and fruits. Medicines can be ordered on the phone, and their deliveries are made to the condo gate, from where we have to collect them. So supplies of all necessities have been met.
Work:
My business, which is broadly in the travel sector, has been very badly hit. There has been no revenue for six weeks, but it is now starting to trickle in through online sales from areas that have been classified as green zones by the government. I don't see business picking up greatly in the coming months, because the travel / hospitality / airlines industry have probably been the worst hit, and will take a significant amount of time to recover. Fortunately, we have a fixed salary coming into our household, thanks to my wife's work. She has been busy with her work-calls for several hours every day. We also have the luxury of our savings, so there hasn't been an existential crisis at all, though my loss of business has been giving me a lot to worry about, and has got me to seriously think about doing other things to earn a living!
Our Son's Activities:
Our son is a high energy, playful little chap, who is used to spending a couple of hours in the park every day playing with his friends. We have had to think of ways and means of keeping him gainfully occupied inside our apartment with no friends to play with. I've been playing Scrabble, Chess, Country Trump Cards, Uno, Snakes and Ladders, and Ludo with him. My wife has taught him a new skill-set in the form of playing the piano. We have both been reading a lot of books to him, and he has now learned to read quite well by himself too. I often feed him his meals while either reading a book to him or telling him a story. When I run out of stories, I tell him the story of a Bollywood movie, often an old Amitabh Bachchan favourite. My son is more than capable of eating by himself, but this is a little treat for him, and I am quite happy indulging him. We tried playing a few active sports like football, cricket and table tennis at home, but things in the house were being turned on their heads, so we had to give that up. By and large, the little fellow has coped exceptionally well. There have been those occasional tantrums but those were to be expected given the circumstances. For the first month of the lock-down, our condo was not allowing walks downstairs, but now they are. My son goes down for half an hour every day and cycles. His best friend lives in the condo and though they have not been going to each other's homes, they do end up cycling together outside. My son has developed new interests through the duration of the lock-down. Previously, his passion used to be the Titanic, and he was forever drawing the gigantic ship, reading about it, and talking about it. He has now developed a passion for the world's tallest buildings, and is forever either drawing or making Lego models of skyscrapers like Burj Khalifa, Taipei 101, Petronas Towers, Sears Tower, World Trade Center, Empire State Building and Chrysler Building. He often tries to delegate the drawing work upwards to me! We have tried to limit his digital time to not more than about 45 minutes per day. He has certainly kept us on our toes, but he has also provided us with a lot of joy and entertainment! Also, it's commendable that he has started spending a lot of time doing his own things and doesn't need constant adult attention or supervision like earlier. So suddenly we find he's spending hours by himself, playing with Lego blocks, playing with his toy cars, reading, practicing the piano or drawing. My mother in law has also started having regular video calls with my son and she speaks to him in Bangla, and reads to him in Bangla, so that his exposure to the language remains. She used to previously visit us from Kolkata every quarter and our son used to get enough Bangla practice.
Our Son's Schooling:
Our son's school has been having online classes through Zoom for about two hours every day. It has helped in bringing some routine into his life. I have also had to sit in the same room through the classes, because he is too young to handle the laptop by himself. So I feel like it has been back to school for me too. Then there has been the daily homework. The school has done well to adapt to the situation and continue with their curriculum.
Socializing:
Though I haven't been meeting people, technology has ensured that I've been able to stay connected with people. I try and talk to my sisters, my niece and three of my close aunts on the phone every few days. I've also been in touch with several of my close friends, my cousins and my other relatives, either through phone conversations or through Whats App messages. I would have felt terrible about not being able to meet my mother in Delhi every few days like I always used to, but she sadly passed away in August last year, so I have had no pressing compulsion to leave the gate of my condominium. On my octogenarian aunt's recent birthday, a cousin of mine in the US got the larger family together on Zoom and we surprised my aunt with a video call. The call had about 20 people from across three continents and six countries (we had representation from India, the US, Canada, Holland, Germany and Indonesia)! My wife has been regularly talking to her mother in Kolkata and her sister in Macau. She has also organized group Zoom calls with her cousins, and in these calls we have had representation from Gurgaon, Macau, Kolkata, Mumbai and Copenhagen! Four couples from my condo have been having quiz sessions over Zoom every fortnight or so, and those have been fun sessions. We live on the first floor, so when we are in our balcony, we are able to exchange pleasantries with our friends and neighbours who are out on walks! It's sometimes a bit tough to recognize them of course, because everyone has masks on! Through this lock-down, we have also had my wife's birthday. With our maid's help, I managed to bake a cake for the occasion. A friend of my wife's in the condo also sent a cake, and then she and two other friends stood outside and sang "Happy Birthday" while my wife stood at the balcony; she was so touched that there was a lump in her throat and tears trickled down!
My Interests And Other Activities:
I've been able to pursue two of my keen interests, Scrabble and Chess, by playing with my gang of friends on Internet Scrabble Club and Chess.com respectively. I've been writing blogs, largely on my various travel adventures over the past 10 to 15 years. Previously, I used to write blogs a few times a month, but this lock-down has given me time to catch up on my backlog of blogs, and I've been churning out one practically every two or three days. I've done a bit of reading. My wife has been ensuring that I get some exercise. I need a push, because that has never been a big priority for me, though it ought to be, given my 100 kg weight! We have been doing some yoga through stretches and deep breathing every morning. Once our condo started allowing walks, we have also been going on our morning walks. Nothing strenuous, but at least there is some movement! I've managed to see a few Hollywood and Bollywood movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime, but I haven't manged too many, because my hands have been so full doing activities with my son. I have, however, managed to see the full "Madagascar" series with him. As a family activity, my wife, our son, and I have seen "The Sound Of Music" and "Annie", two evergreen favourite musicals. The three of us have also been playing a card game called "Family Discussions", in which we draw cards one by one and talk about the situation the card mentions. Our son can't stop giving his views even when it's our turn to speak out! I've been careless in not starting our car every few days, and as a result, our car battery has died and I've had to replace it. A friend of mine in the condo tried to jump-start the battery using his car and a set of cables, and though it helped momentarily, our battery was beyond redemption and had to be changed. I always keep my hair short, and not being able to visit my barber every three weeks has caused me a lot of consternation. My wife loves it when I grow my hair, but I managed to talk her into trimming my hair, much against her wishes! Besides being busy with her work-calls, my wife has been learning Indian classical music online from an elderly guru. My wife is a wonderful singer and sings songs in English, Hindi and Bangla. She has recorded a few songs during this lock-down (including Whitney Houston's "One Moment In Time") and she has performed for friends and for people in our condo through Zoom sessions. Her songs have really been appreciated by everyone. We have had to cancel our summer plans of visiting Scandinavia, but that was natural, given the extent of this pandemic. One should always look for a silver lining, and it's probably that we're saving a fair amount of money; if all goes as per plan, we can always look at going there next summer. It looks like 2020 will be the first year in close to two decades when I'm not going to be able to pursue my passion for international travel, but I've reconciled with that, given its inevitability!
In Summary:
The Corona Virus has been devastating, and the lock-down has been really hard on a lot of people. In our case, my business has crashed causing a lot of worry, and there have been times when we have felt quite trapped inside our condo, but we've been fortunate that we've been able to get on with life; my wife, my son and I have had each other for company (my wife and I have gone through this phase without any significant arguments, and there has been peace and tranquility all around!); our household systems have been running smoothly; and technology, coupled with our various interests, have allowed us to get through this period quite comfortably!!
Let me start by expressing gratitude and acknowledging that we have been among the fortunate ones through this ongoing Corona Virus pandemic, which has been perhaps the worst disaster the world has seen in many decades. As on date, over 4.4 million people across the world have got the virus and about 300,000 have died. In India, over 80,000 have got the virus and about 2,600 have died. The lock-down in India may have been essential to contain the spread of the disease, but it has meant a lot of hardships to a lot of people. Migrant workers and daily wage earners have been the worst hit, and for them, survival itself has been at stake because they don't have financial buffers, and life is hand to mouth for them.
Household Chores:
I have been staying in our Gurgaon condo with my wife and five year old son. We are lucky that we have a full time maid who stays with us. Our part time helpers have not been coming, so our full time maid has had to stretch a bit, but my wife has been helping with the sweeping and dusting, and I have been helping with the dusting and washing of clothes. Supplies of essentials have not been hit because our condo has a small supermarket and a Safal store for fresh vegetables and fruits. Medicines can be ordered on the phone, and their deliveries are made to the condo gate, from where we have to collect them. So supplies of all necessities have been met.
Work:
My business, which is broadly in the travel sector, has been very badly hit. There has been no revenue for six weeks, but it is now starting to trickle in through online sales from areas that have been classified as green zones by the government. I don't see business picking up greatly in the coming months, because the travel / hospitality / airlines industry have probably been the worst hit, and will take a significant amount of time to recover. Fortunately, we have a fixed salary coming into our household, thanks to my wife's work. She has been busy with her work-calls for several hours every day. We also have the luxury of our savings, so there hasn't been an existential crisis at all, though my loss of business has been giving me a lot to worry about, and has got me to seriously think about doing other things to earn a living!
Our Son's Activities:
Our son is a high energy, playful little chap, who is used to spending a couple of hours in the park every day playing with his friends. We have had to think of ways and means of keeping him gainfully occupied inside our apartment with no friends to play with. I've been playing Scrabble, Chess, Country Trump Cards, Uno, Snakes and Ladders, and Ludo with him. My wife has taught him a new skill-set in the form of playing the piano. We have both been reading a lot of books to him, and he has now learned to read quite well by himself too. I often feed him his meals while either reading a book to him or telling him a story. When I run out of stories, I tell him the story of a Bollywood movie, often an old Amitabh Bachchan favourite. My son is more than capable of eating by himself, but this is a little treat for him, and I am quite happy indulging him. We tried playing a few active sports like football, cricket and table tennis at home, but things in the house were being turned on their heads, so we had to give that up. By and large, the little fellow has coped exceptionally well. There have been those occasional tantrums but those were to be expected given the circumstances. For the first month of the lock-down, our condo was not allowing walks downstairs, but now they are. My son goes down for half an hour every day and cycles. His best friend lives in the condo and though they have not been going to each other's homes, they do end up cycling together outside. My son has developed new interests through the duration of the lock-down. Previously, his passion used to be the Titanic, and he was forever drawing the gigantic ship, reading about it, and talking about it. He has now developed a passion for the world's tallest buildings, and is forever either drawing or making Lego models of skyscrapers like Burj Khalifa, Taipei 101, Petronas Towers, Sears Tower, World Trade Center, Empire State Building and Chrysler Building. He often tries to delegate the drawing work upwards to me! We have tried to limit his digital time to not more than about 45 minutes per day. He has certainly kept us on our toes, but he has also provided us with a lot of joy and entertainment! Also, it's commendable that he has started spending a lot of time doing his own things and doesn't need constant adult attention or supervision like earlier. So suddenly we find he's spending hours by himself, playing with Lego blocks, playing with his toy cars, reading, practicing the piano or drawing. My mother in law has also started having regular video calls with my son and she speaks to him in Bangla, and reads to him in Bangla, so that his exposure to the language remains. She used to previously visit us from Kolkata every quarter and our son used to get enough Bangla practice.
Our Son's Schooling:
Our son's school has been having online classes through Zoom for about two hours every day. It has helped in bringing some routine into his life. I have also had to sit in the same room through the classes, because he is too young to handle the laptop by himself. So I feel like it has been back to school for me too. Then there has been the daily homework. The school has done well to adapt to the situation and continue with their curriculum.
Socializing:
Though I haven't been meeting people, technology has ensured that I've been able to stay connected with people. I try and talk to my sisters, my niece and three of my close aunts on the phone every few days. I've also been in touch with several of my close friends, my cousins and my other relatives, either through phone conversations or through Whats App messages. I would have felt terrible about not being able to meet my mother in Delhi every few days like I always used to, but she sadly passed away in August last year, so I have had no pressing compulsion to leave the gate of my condominium. On my octogenarian aunt's recent birthday, a cousin of mine in the US got the larger family together on Zoom and we surprised my aunt with a video call. The call had about 20 people from across three continents and six countries (we had representation from India, the US, Canada, Holland, Germany and Indonesia)! My wife has been regularly talking to her mother in Kolkata and her sister in Macau. She has also organized group Zoom calls with her cousins, and in these calls we have had representation from Gurgaon, Macau, Kolkata, Mumbai and Copenhagen! Four couples from my condo have been having quiz sessions over Zoom every fortnight or so, and those have been fun sessions. We live on the first floor, so when we are in our balcony, we are able to exchange pleasantries with our friends and neighbours who are out on walks! It's sometimes a bit tough to recognize them of course, because everyone has masks on! Through this lock-down, we have also had my wife's birthday. With our maid's help, I managed to bake a cake for the occasion. A friend of my wife's in the condo also sent a cake, and then she and two other friends stood outside and sang "Happy Birthday" while my wife stood at the balcony; she was so touched that there was a lump in her throat and tears trickled down!
My Interests And Other Activities:
I've been able to pursue two of my keen interests, Scrabble and Chess, by playing with my gang of friends on Internet Scrabble Club and Chess.com respectively. I've been writing blogs, largely on my various travel adventures over the past 10 to 15 years. Previously, I used to write blogs a few times a month, but this lock-down has given me time to catch up on my backlog of blogs, and I've been churning out one practically every two or three days. I've done a bit of reading. My wife has been ensuring that I get some exercise. I need a push, because that has never been a big priority for me, though it ought to be, given my 100 kg weight! We have been doing some yoga through stretches and deep breathing every morning. Once our condo started allowing walks, we have also been going on our morning walks. Nothing strenuous, but at least there is some movement! I've managed to see a few Hollywood and Bollywood movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime, but I haven't manged too many, because my hands have been so full doing activities with my son. I have, however, managed to see the full "Madagascar" series with him. As a family activity, my wife, our son, and I have seen "The Sound Of Music" and "Annie", two evergreen favourite musicals. The three of us have also been playing a card game called "Family Discussions", in which we draw cards one by one and talk about the situation the card mentions. Our son can't stop giving his views even when it's our turn to speak out! I've been careless in not starting our car every few days, and as a result, our car battery has died and I've had to replace it. A friend of mine in the condo tried to jump-start the battery using his car and a set of cables, and though it helped momentarily, our battery was beyond redemption and had to be changed. I always keep my hair short, and not being able to visit my barber every three weeks has caused me a lot of consternation. My wife loves it when I grow my hair, but I managed to talk her into trimming my hair, much against her wishes! Besides being busy with her work-calls, my wife has been learning Indian classical music online from an elderly guru. My wife is a wonderful singer and sings songs in English, Hindi and Bangla. She has recorded a few songs during this lock-down (including Whitney Houston's "One Moment In Time") and she has performed for friends and for people in our condo through Zoom sessions. Her songs have really been appreciated by everyone. We have had to cancel our summer plans of visiting Scandinavia, but that was natural, given the extent of this pandemic. One should always look for a silver lining, and it's probably that we're saving a fair amount of money; if all goes as per plan, we can always look at going there next summer. It looks like 2020 will be the first year in close to two decades when I'm not going to be able to pursue my passion for international travel, but I've reconciled with that, given its inevitability!
In Summary:
The Corona Virus has been devastating, and the lock-down has been really hard on a lot of people. In our case, my business has crashed causing a lot of worry, and there have been times when we have felt quite trapped inside our condo, but we've been fortunate that we've been able to get on with life; my wife, my son and I have had each other for company (my wife and I have gone through this phase without any significant arguments, and there has been peace and tranquility all around!); our household systems have been running smoothly; and technology, coupled with our various interests, have allowed us to get through this period quite comfortably!!
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| My son, me and my wife |
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