Covid experience

Do you ever imagine the kind of feeling that could be experienced by a space traveller, who spent months in space conducting certain chores and experiments ? Or for that matter someone on an expedition to Antarctica or posted in a place like Siachen glacier that would keep him or her away months together from the normal world? Though not the right example and definitely not in the same vein as above quoted instances that are reflective of heroism and bravery but evoking may be similar feeling would be that of a prisoner undergoing term punishment?

Before my readers start feeling zapped with the riddle, let me clarify what it is all about? It’s a unique, hitherto not experienced and a very strange feeling that has engulfed not only me but all of us for the last 7 months! What has led to this feeling:

(1) I have not boarded Mumbai local for 7 months, which I used to board daily while returning from office. Ditto Mumbai metro.

(2) I haven’t seen my driver who has been with me for last 20 years and who has been ringing my doorbell each day sharp at 7.30 am, since the lockdown started.

(3) I have not visited Siddhivinayak temple since my last visit on March 7th and Four Bungalows Gurudwara opposite my residence, a source of daily inspiration, has been out of bounds since the start of lockdown.

(4) I haven’t been to my favourite restaurant for last so many months, which has been my weekend haunt for the past so many years and when I visited multiplex for a movie last beats my memory.

(5) I have been working for close to 4 decades and the only time when I missed office for more than 15 days at a stretch was during my marriage when I took leave for 4 weeks. Since 1st of April this year, I have been to office only on 4 occasions, working from home all this while.

(6) Haven’t met my old mother staying in Delhi for more than 1 year and my daughter and her children living in Johannesburg for almost an year.

(7) I eagerly awaited the morning copy of daily newspaper first thing after getting up; haven’t touched hard copy of newspaper for last so many months!

(8) And this list can go on and on – haven’t visited friends place, have not been to Mall, haven’t boarded an aircraft, haven’t shaken hands or hugged and above all, haven’t eaten a paan !

Could we have ever imagined the impasse that our lives would come to ? Isn’t it a feeling that’s like no other feeling that ordinary folks like us have experienced in our lifetimes and so far would have been unique to astronauts, explorers, soldiers and as an outlier to prisoners!

Go Covid go!