#DaySix

“A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others.”

-Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

I write this post at the risk of sounding extremely cliché, thanks to the bloom of overly sentimental Facebook and Instagram pages, but be assured, my readers; do not doubt the sincerity behind these words and the passion with which I approach today’s theme. And pardon me if you feel a sudden change in my writing style and do not feel convinced of it, for the stars have finally aligned to commence the holy ritual named ‘The Austenian Abbey’ around which I look forward to digress our discussion very soon.

Having taken the decision of pursuing engineering entirely on my own, I readily shoulder the responsibility of all the vices and virtues that came with it. Though I won’t deny the immense capability it has developed within me to take on any role required of me—as my fellow comrades would agree upon—, it has certainly left me with this overwhelming feeling of exhaustion, the form of which I am unable to put my finger on.

And therefore, this quarantine certainly comes as a blessing in disguise, for (except the task of final year project being the only unpleasant chore) it has finally given me the break I needed to engage with myself and to see if I am ‘fine’. There are no more hangovers in morning; the minimum eight hour sleep rule is being obeyed at last; all the morning positivity stays with me until the evening, free being subjected to the dreadful rush hour of Mumbai lifeline as in the past and failing to sustain itself through it. Every cell of my being does not complain anymore of not feeling alive, much thanks to the persuasion power of my alter ego to put them through some grind. The classics which ones stirred all kinds of emotions my naive heart was unaware of are being revisited, in an attempt to rekindle them. Occasional visits to the Shishuvarga-Balvarga report cards, a KBC notebook in which I used to note down all KBC questions, remnants of earlier ventures into literature, writing & the Japanese language, the gifts from my teachers and the underlying messages—all—remind me of the dreams I had once sketched for the future me and fill me with a newfound surge of life energy.

Spirituality has never been my area of expertise; I can say having dared to grasp its meaning through some accidental reads. Nor do I possess any aspirations to succeed in defining it. But, isn’t this journey of unravelling the sense and sensibility riddled as spirituality itself?! I now fear of sounding too pretentious, possibly at the expense of my readers’ approbation. So I will allow myself to take your leave for the day in hopes of continuing this amiable affair tomorrow, hoping you still bear with me.

#DayThree

I swear by Apollo Physician, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.

-The Oath of Hippocratus, 1923 Loeb edition

I assume it’s safe to say that the highlight of #DayThree for all of us would be the contrast between our expectations from doctors and the treatment we have been giving them—the attack on a private practitioner in Beed by some local political goons, followed by our government requesting private practitioners to keep their medical centres working in this crisis, risking their families, health and safety.

Let me break it down further for you: in the wake of recent developments which have made us realise that it’s the hospitals—and not the temples—who kept their doors open when it really mattered, all segments of our medical fraternity are now expected to work 24x7 to serve and save the fools who couldn’t understand enough to follow the basic precaution of confining themselves within their homes, a celebrity singer who’s throwing tantrums for not being treated like the star she isn’t, and their fellow medical practitioners who had to undertake the risk of getting infected while helping these fools and celebrities; all this within the limitations of a healthcare infrastructure, which cannot be compared to that of countries who have already given way to the pandemic—the same healthcare system which couldn’t be spent upon more than 1.15% of GDP, thanks to which India ranks 184^th out of 191 in terms of %GDP spent on healthcare as per WHO, by the government who is now encouraging people to appreciate them by blowing whistles and banging plates; while ignoring the threat of getting kicked out of their houses like what happened in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and the cries and woes and blames of being extortionists, still giving away their own salaries to keep the hospitals functioning; only to face more and more people breaking the quarantine and extending the period for which they are to maintain this superhuman form—working in multiple shifts at abnormal hours without sufficient protective equipment to reduce the risk of getting infected themselves and yet at their maximum efficiency—for there is no other explanation as to how they are currently managing to do this.

That’s a lot to ask of someone, in the name of one oath, isn’t it?

#DayTwo

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

-Aldous Huxley

Day two started with the morning news of more and more people breaking the curfew, roaming around in the streets and increasing the law enforcing workload. The warning of the second wave of COVID-19 in China should teach us to do better than this, but sadly Indians seem to be hell-bent on proving Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s warning of shoot-at-sight orders necessary. The unanimous reasoning behind these wanderlusts appears to be not knowing how to spend time at home, in peaceful solitude or with family.

Don’t worry, I am not here to educate, suggest or dictate you about what all you can do, learn or develop in these 21 days of lockdown—within the boundaries of your home; social media seems to be doing that job just fine. Instead, I thought why not share with you today what I have been doing in this quarantine. After all, the more personal we write, the more global it becomes, or at least I hope so.

A look at the sidebar ‘Count since quarantine...’ may have already given you some clues. Ticking off as many books from my TBR list as possible during this lockdown has turned into an obsession, and so have binging anime and movies. It’s heart-warming to see Marathi books being circulated on WhatsApp along with Google Drive links of movies and drama series. What’s more, I have also been brushing off my dance moves, after the happy realisation of its necessity during my blasphemous attempt of leading the FunTech group dance. My laptop and mobile storage have more free space now, and the bookshelf, cupboard and showcase have been dusted and rearranged multiple times.

Spending an entire day with family seemed like a huge challenge at start, but now each day is turning out to be those family vacations which we never had. Playing carom with dad has become part of the regular schedule and inheriting his Teen Patti and Rummy tricks might come handy in future. Coming to terms with Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma for my sister does not feel irritating anymore. Cooking has become even more satisfactory, now that it’s giving my mom the time she never had to explore her hobbies and to learn that she likes the same author as me is quite exciting. These small things may not sound significant enough, but these are the things completing my bigger picture, which I never realised were the ones missing.

Oh, and just in case if someone finds all of this childish or unproductive—things you can’t add in CV—there’s always the option of short courses on Coursera, edX and similar platforms, not to forget blogging :).

Why not share your plans during quarantine, other than facetiming and playing Psych!, by dropping a comment below?! Eagerly waiting to know them and as always, stay safe and stay invested!

P.S. In case you are looking for some inspiration, check out Institute of Chemical Technology’s fine arts club Meraki’s Instagram account meraki_ict (https://www.instagram.com/meraki_ict/) for awesome artworks on daily basis. They have been doing an amazing job of providing everyone with creative distractions during these hard times.

#DayOne

First Covid then Hantavirus, now earthquake in Russia and tsunami in Hawaii. #HavanKarenge

-Just another unreliable sauce

The morning of #DayOne started with reading this status on WhatsApp, leading me to fact-check, and believe me, I haven’t laughed this hard in days! No offense to this one guy as there is a plethora of forwarded unverified information in the last fifteen days or so, compensating for my extremely slow network and providing me a lot of content to roll eyes at.

Well, even though this blog is less of an information source and more for sharing my thoughts, I will still try to provide you with some reliable relevant links pertaining to our discussions in the side bar. To summarize the new Hantavirus and tsunami alerts, the only way for us (assuming all my readers follow good household practices in their houses) to get infected with the Hantavirus is to participate in Khatron Ke Khiladi and do tasks with rodents. As for the tsunami and earthquake alarms, Russia and Hawaii are more than capable to face the non-existent giant waves. What we should be more concerned about are the giant waves of false information we are already facing, which started pouring in even before the start of the lockdown.

Come to think of it, is this the first time there has been a false alarm of a tsunami or an earthquake or a sporadic viral outbreak in some corner of the world? Add to it the WhatsApp messages with the header: Iss message ko banane me 15 din lage hai; kripaya forward kare—then, why is it so that each and every crisis, however small—teeny and tiny—is now being connected to end of the living world? What’s the working mechanism behind this social psychology? Do people really crave drama? Or should I say tragedies? Is that why the Mahabharata and the tragedies of Shakespeare are still the bestsellers?

(That took a sudden dark turn for sure.)

Coming back to the discussion of this whirlpool of information we are being subjected to, the simplest reasoning behind its generation would be boredom. An empty mind is the devil’s workshop. As one of my friends EGo  (https://medium.com/@egodbole) worded, in fact it makes this whole situation war-like, much worse in fact, in many ways. First, people are not allowed to go outside, even during the day, more like participating in Bigg Boss but for survival instead of prize money. Second, they are to limit the interaction with the outside world irrespective of who it is, contrary to the basic principal of sociology—humans are social animals. Third, there is no visible or traceable enemy, turning it into a war against visibly no one, bound to psych people out. Imagine the number of infected cases swelling up beyond a limit, which may lead to slightest suspicion of infection translating into something bad, like two people committing suicide after thinking they were positive. There is no movement of patriotism, on which Indians are always high in my opinion, to motivate or distract people.

Especially in a country like India, where a large chunk of the population does not have an occupation which can be converted into a work-from-home format, we are left with no choice but to read every forwarded message on WhatsApp, to watch every news channel flashing the same breaking news all day long and formulating their own conspiracy theories, adding to this whirlpool.

All the reasons stated above makes the role of media all the more crucial for responsible release of information, which they don’t seem to understand yet, not reporting appropriately and trying to colour the news in a certain way. So should the media be held responsible? To be honest, after watching certain channels covering the mass gatherings on 22^nd March’s sunset as acts of appreciation and hence promoting people to sabotage the whole point of Janata Curfew further, I am almost compelled to say yes. But as responsible educated citizens (as we like to call ourselves otherwise) my recipe of copypasta and sauce might help you out to carry out your share of duty towards the nation more effectively as well. (Yes, verification and analysis of information during any national crisis is indeed the duty of its citizens. Let’s not limit it to banging plates and lighting firecrackers amidst a curfew.)

Allow me to ask you a simple question: do you enjoy your pasta without sauce (unless you have poorly developed sense of taste, that is), ever? I guess the majority of answers will be no, with further specifications about its types and methods of preparations. Then why do the same with the content you are feeding yourself through all kinds of social and mass media! So the next time you feel like the content you are being subjected to is just another copypasta, ask for the sauce. And if you don’t find the sauce reliable (by that, I mean source, for readers who are still wondering about the relation of pasta with COVID-19), chuck the pasta in the bin, and I totally mean it!

Let me also assure you, if you find yourself stuck with some query, not finding any reliable source to satisfy your doubt, the comments section is always available to you. See you tomorrow, till then, stay the f*ck inside and stay safe!

P.S. Leaving you with a Marathi poem by Anil Dravid written during the national emergency in India which also comments on the ambiguity of news we receive during crisis situations. I hope y’all find it interesting as well.

नाव नसलेल्या झाडाच्या

प्रचंड पानावर बसलेला विदूषक

घरात आला.

म्हणाला : खऱ्याखोट्या आवयांचे

बिछाने करा आणि त्यावर

झोपी जा.

कातडी बदलून फार दिवस

झाले नव्हते तरी मी म्हणालो :

हल्ली मी उगवतीच्या फांद्या

गोळा करतो आणि दाराच्या

चौकटीला टांगून ठेवतो.

तो दाराशी गेला

फांद्या काढून घेत म्हणाला :

मी यांची सुरेल वाद्ये बनवीन.

तो गेल्यावर मी दार

लावून घेतले

सर्व दिवे पेटवले आणि

सुरांची वाट पहात

बसून राहिलो.

~अनिल द्रविड

#DayZero

“Hindustan ko bachane ke liye, Hindustan ke har naagarik ko bachaane ke liye, aapko bachane ke liye, aapke parivaar ko bachane ke liye, aaj raat barah baje se gharo se bahar nikalne par puri tarah pabandi lagai jaa rahi hai. Desh ke har rajya ko, har Kendrashasit Pradesh ko, har jille, har gaon, har kasabe, har gali mohalle ko, ab lockdown kiya jaa raha hai. Agar yeh ekkis din nahi sambhale, toh desh aur aapka parivar ekkis saal piche chalaa jayega.”

-Prime Minister of India

20.00 IST, 24th March 2020

Never in my starry nights had I dreamt my first attempt at blogging would come amidst a 21-days lockdown, being enforced due to a global pandemic which has already paralyzed nations with the best health-care systems, and is now slowly engulfing India.

The news which arrived couple of weeks back seems like a distant reality; Chinese people consuming something weird and hence paying the price for it, why should we be scared about some virus, we don’t eat bats like they do. But the one hour coverage of the outbreak in China converted into 24x7 updates about the number of cases in our country, states, districts and cities within no time.

Past three weeks have been nothing less than a Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian drama. From Italy’s Prime Minister being confused with Brazil’s to ending the self-imposed curfew with communal gatherings and scaring the shit out of birds, from the ginger-garlic nuske to alleged testing kits scandal, and from a masked wedding to Mumbai’s lifeline coming to a halt for the first time in history, I guess we have already seen it all and enough of it. And yet the harsh reality is, we are not even in the end game yet.

I saw people rushing to local markets as soon as the PM’s address to the nation concluded, and I knew in my heart how big a challenge it is going to be for India’s infrastructure to prevent our country from following in the footsteps of China, Italy and Iran.

I always thought the toughest part of writing my blog would be approval of readers. But now that I am actually doing it, I am realizing the toughest—rather the scariest part is thinking of when it ends and how many readers will there be at the end of it all.

Also, do hope the writer of this blog will  be able to continue with it till the last day of lockdown. See you tomorrow; till then, stay the f*ck home!