Covid Conversations - 2021

From cautious optimism in January to a slide towards worry and despair.

Jan 15

Person A: Hi. What's up, man. How is work? And how is the Covid-19 situation in your area?

Person B: Yeah work is going on. Now it is nearly 10 months after we got down to working from home and I heard we may be called to attend office by April. I haven't heard of any cases in our building lately. There may be some in the area, but you never get to know these days, as buildings no longer get sealed.

Person A: Yes, nowadays it is much more discreet. Earlier the street used to get blocked and sometimes we also used to have ambulances coming with blaring sirens.

Person B: The number of people wearing masks is also coming down.

Person A: And many of them wear wrongly with their nostrils exposed. Some even wear it on their chin!

Person B: It is as ridiculous as bikers placing helmets on their elbows while riding.

Person A: A friend was telling me he went on a road trip last weekend. And people in villages were not wearing masks - at the most, some had covered mouths with handkerchiefs. In fact, when they stopped at a wayside tea stall, he and his companions were looked at rather suspiciously. They probably see every masked city dweller as a corona carrier.

Person B: Overall it looks like despite many lapses we got off the hook rather lightly. The number of deaths is much lower than say Brazil or USA.

Person A: Maybe because we get a battery of vaccines after birth. Hardly anyone goes through chickenpox-free adolescence and diseases like malaria and dengue are permanent fixtures.

Person B: Let us hope the worst is over.

Person A: In many countries, the second wave is going on, but I guess we may be spared since during the first wave itself we had so many cases and our population might have acquired herd immunity.

Person B: Don't know how reliable is this premise about herd immunity. Scientists seem to be divided about it.

February 15

Person A: Malls and bazaars near my house are open with crowds close to pre-Covid levels, and even some hotels and restaurants are reopening. Some others I guess have closed for good with promoters running out of money.

Person B: But cases in states like Maharashtra and Kerala seem to be on the rise. I feel it is too early to let your guard down.

Person A: They have even announced dates for assembly elections. I hope we are not sleepwalking into a new disaster.

Person B: Our company has sent a mail saying that offices may reopen in a limited way from June onwards. We may be called up in batches and have to attend the office three days a week. Will have to wear masks, maintain social distancing and other protocols.

Person A: This may come as some relief to those cafeteria guzzlers. I remember some of my colleagues tucking in enormous amounts of food during lunchtime, and guzzle soft drinks from the pantry all through the day. I wonder how they may be managing, holed up at home.

Person B: This pandemic has taught companies that en masse remote working is possible and they can save a whole lot of money. In the pre-coronavirus days, our manager had a very dim view towards work from home and rarely used to give his approval.

Person A: WFH is at best a privilege and possible only for white-collar professionals like us. Not for those working in the healthcare sector, police department, armed forces, power station, oil refineries, and others. Even the much sought-after e-commerce services need personnel for door delivery. So a whole lot of people are still out there braving the virus.

March 15

Person A: Last week I got my parents vaccinated. I took them to a hospital nearby. It was quite hassle-free, not much waiting to get the jab. After the vaccination, they were told to wait for 30 minutes. The next dose is after four weeks.

Person B: After taking the vaccine did your parents experience and fever or discomfort?

Person A: My father experienced chills after dinner and took a fever tablet. Mother did not experience any fever. But both complained of arm pain, which lasted for a few days.

Person B: I too plan to take mine. Somewhat wary of going to hospitals these days.

Person A: Yeah man, you are right. The sight is quite unnerving, doctors, nurses moving around in PPE kits. The dangers posed by the virus and the general fear psychosis is very palpable in hospitals and nursing homes.

Person B: Healthcare workers are just a sneeze away from this deadly virus. Every day must be like going to battle against an invisible enemy. It's not just doctors and nurses; the cleaning staff, security, and the admin guys, they all are equally vulnerable.

Person A: In newspapers, we often come across some famous well-known doctors falling prey to the virus and even dying.

April 15

Person A: If we thought 2020 was bad, 2021 is turning out to be catastrophic. The dreaded second wave is spreading at an alarming speed. Almost everyone I know has some horror story to narrate. Either their family member or a close relative has been infected.

Person B: If you need hospitalization, you really had it. There are no beds or oxygen cylinders available and caregivers have to run from pillar to post to get one.

Person A: If you log on to Twitter or any other social media site, most of the entries are SOS calls for hospital beds and oxygen cylinders. People are putting up videos of mile-long queues of ambulances outside hospital gates waiting to admit the patients.

Person B: This time even well-known people like former diplomats, police officers, and TV anchors are unable to find a bed or a cylinder either for their relatives or themselves. A couple of them even breathed their last while awaiting hospital admission. If this is the condition of the privileged class, I shudder to think about the plight of ordinary people.

Person A: Cleary neither the government nor people saw it coming. Only a few states had bulked up their oxygen capacity after the first wave. Some had even wound up makeshift Covid care centres set up at stadiums and other places during the first wave.

Person B: While the Corona situation is going out of hand, there is no let-up in electioneering. Look at the crowds at election rallies and various religious events and processions. 

Person A: A fatigue seems to have set in. People are tired of following Covid safety protocols.

May 15

Person A: Our neighbour died yesterday. He was in his early forties. The guy used to wear a mask and observe all safety precautions. He has two small kids.

Person B: This is really sad. The disease is decimating families across the country. In case of infection, you can recover, but death leaves long-lasting scars. I hear even getting last rites done is now a huge challenge.

Person A: Yes. The body was taken for funeral around 10 am and they had to wait well into the evening. Only the guy's younger brother went to cremation ground wearing a PPE kit. Rest all viewed the funeral through video recording.

Person B: It's really tragic. You can't even bid a proper farewell to your near and dear ones.

Person A: Vaccines have also become scarce. Booking on CoWin site is a major challenge. I was looking for my first jab and my parents' second.

Person B: People spend hours before CoWin site and don't go beyond OTP stage. Getting a slot is akin to winning a lottery.

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Over a Cup of Tea

 

It started off as a mere fad. My extended family has contributed generously towards making India the diabetes capital of the world and continues to do so with a missionary zeal. Somehow I was overcome with the desire to break free from this herd.

As a small token I decided to forego sugar for my morning tea, though maintain the status quo regarding tea at other times and all my other insulin-hostile indulgences such as sweets, cakes and ice-creams.

I knew it was not an easy decision. I had on some occasions accidentally sipped the sugar-free tea meant for my father, only to recoil at its dour taste and reach for the sugar jar. Hence the skeptic in me felt that a week will be the max I will stick to my new fitness goal.

On day one I was sipping my morning cuppa as if it were one of those kashayams (liquid ayurvedic formulations) made by Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala. I was also reminded of those leafy herbal remedies I had taken while I was down with jaundice during my school days.

That was also probably the longest duration I took to finish my morning tea with my tongue and palate revolting against this 'tasteless' brew. And the skeptic in me savoured his 'I told you so' sneer.

But I did not give up. I soldiered on for a few more days, barring occasional relapses, more due to absent-mindedness than any mellowing of intent. Soon the morning cuppa sans sugar began to appear a bit more bearable, and my tongue and palate seemed more reconciled to the new fare.

Gradually I discovered that sugarless tea had its own taste and began to appreciate what tea connoisseurs have been saying all along:

• Tea is meant to be bitter like beer.

• It should be enjoyed without sugar.

• It is an acquired taste.

They look down upon those adding sugar and warn that they were destroying the taste of tea and instead tasting mere sugar.

Now more than a decade later I have been following this routine, barring while travelling. In fact, now mornings look tasteless if the first tea of the day has sugar in it.

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Grey’s Anatomy

Haircuts have now become a long-drawn affair, as it also involves colouring (the new-age term for dyeing). Though I feel lucky to still have a full crop of hair even after entering the wrong side of 50, but during every salon visit the proliferating silver linings on my scalp only aggravate the dark clouds of despair.

As the barber's scissors scythe through my hair mass, I notice that the grey cover is spreading like water hyacinths in our polluted water bodies. Its stranglehold over both the temple regions is complete and in other parts also vast swathes are facing a rapid depletion of melanin pigment cells.

I look at the mirror with the dread of a schoolkid checking the answer sheet of an exam he knows he had flunked. There is that sinking feeling while establishing an eye contact with my mirror image. However, I console myself thinking that this unvarnished grey's anatomy is a fleeting one and will soon give way to an airbrushed L'Oréal reality. 

During those moments my mortal dread is that if someone known to me enters the salon and gets a full-on view of my 5,000 shades of grey. Thankfully, so far, I have been spared those blushes.

As the barber diligently applies the hair colour, one feels the irritation once it coagulates and turns black. After a wash the hair has a too-good-to-be-true coal black shade and it takes a few days to attain normalcy.

A couple of weeks later the greys begin to reappear as the colour coating weakens and the 'grey shoots' pop up. Though many go for 'touch ups' I wait for the next haircut for a fresh coat.

So, this monthly exercise goes on ... I really envy celebrities like actor George Clooney, soccer coach Arsene Wenger and closer home Naseeruddin Shah, who proudly flaunt their greys. Also, some of my friends who never took up dyeing or gave it up recently. Wonder when I would muster enough courage to do that.

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Covid-19 Conversations

 Feb 15, 2020

Person A: Hi, how you doing. Just came back from the US. Oh man! while returning we had to be in airport four hours ahead of departure because of coronavirus. For planes coming from China, the screening of passengers is even more stringent.

Person B: In India also some isolated cases here and there, especially those returning from China. The pictures and TV footage looks scary with people wearing masks and doctors wearing some weird looking suits. So many dying in China. Wonder if it spreads in India, do we have the infrastructure to cope with it.

Person A: These Chinese eat all kinds of stuff and now they are spreading the disease worldwide.

March 15

Person A: Hi, you heard? Our campus at Bellandur has been closed as one of the employees in the tower next to ours tested positive. We have been told to work from home for a fortnight.

Person B: Oh is it! Our office at Electronics City has also put in very elaborate safety protocols. Everyone is thermal checked before entering the campus and hand sanitizers are there in every second table.

Person A: Experts say one should do frequent hand wash and practice social distancing as the virus is very contagious. But people are hardly bothered. At a tea stall down the lane near my house, it was crowded as usual and no social distancing.

Person B: Yeah man, it is difficult to implement in public places. I wonder the scene at Mumbai's local trains. The virus will spread at supersonic speed.   

March 20

Person A: Is wearing masks necessary?

Person B: I doubt. When SARS happened it was said only the infected need to wear to prevent its spread. But it is always better to be safe than sorry. Masks are flying off the shelf, very hard to find.

Person A: What plans for Janata curfew on March 22.

Person B: Sit at home only. Do you by the way plan to stand in balcony and clap.

Person A: I think we should. After all our health workers are doing a tremendous job against all odds.

Person B: Yeah, but it is way too infantile. Many of these workers are battling the pandemic without any proper equipment like PPE kits etc. We should work on that.

March 23

Person A: How was the Janata curfew response?

Person B: Pretty enthusiastic. Mine was the only flat in our apartment complex where there was no clapping. People were even blowing conchs, ringing bells and playing cymbals.

Person A: See what I told you. Me and my family did clap, but could not match the enthusiasm of some of our neighbours. I hear in many places there was singing and dancing on the street with little regard to social distancing.

Person B: I just hope the number of cases in India remain low and we do not turn out to be another Italy or US.

Person A: Hmm, hope so.

March 26

Person A: Hi boss, how is life after complete lockdown? You also started working from home?

Person B: Ya man, thankfully no need to get dressed up and negotiate traffic snarls. But slow broadband at home is driving me nuts.

Person A: That is a challenge. Two days ago my broadband connection snapped and it gave me a panic attack. My workload piled up. All this so-called 'business continuity plan' goes for a toss if net connection fails.

Person B: Work from home is a privilege. Only white collar workers like us can do it, whereas for health workers, policemen, factory workers etc it is out of question. They have to go out and brave the virus risk.

Person A: Yeah, and the cases are rising. I think government did the right thing by announcing a complete lockdown. It has acted on time as we have only around 500 cases. And by 21 days I guess we may be able to neutralize and prevent the spread of the virus. And by then the summer season may have begun. I heard these viruses can't survive high temperature.

Person B: I think the government has learned from the mistakes made by some Western countries like UK and US.

April 4

Person A: Hi, so it is lighting lamps tomorrow at 9 pm.

Person B: Yes, and I am sure the response will be as overwhelming as the clapping one.

Person A: I readily second that. You know I got a forward saying how 'scientific' this is.

Person B: Seriously!

Person A: Yeah man, let me read it for you. It says the proposed date for lighting lamps is April 5 (5 + 4, April being the fourth month) and the event is at 9 pm and for 9 minutes. The Prime Minister's address is based on Vedic powers - 9x3=27 ie 2+7 is 9. Hence it is Navgruha Aradhana - means pleasing the nine planets to save life.

Person B: Oh! I have nothing to say. My head is spinning.

Person A: It didn't come from some WhatsApp uncle with children well-settled abroad, but from a middle-aged MNC employee.

Person B: Yeah we are going crazy by the day! Earlier during the clapping ritual, I had seen some celebs and TV anchors tweet that mass clapping will cause widespread vibrations which will kill the virus. 

April 7

Person A: Hi. Whats up. How is work from home going?

Person B: It's getting tough man. The chair at my home is not as ergonomic as in office. It is taking a toll on my neck and lower back.

Person A: Yeah man. Same here. Moreover I am missing those coffee breaks. No coffee machine at home. Have to make coffee myself if I need it.

Person B: Ha! And those snack breaks at cafeteria. Also the visits to nearby pan kiosk for a cigarette.

Person A: Our cafeteria food was free and Oh Man the way some of our colleagues used to gorge! You won't believe I often used to find four boiled eggs in the breakfast trays of some guys. I wonder how they are managing now.

Person B: Same here. I used to feel horrified at the way people used to guzzle coke, red bull and other canned drinks from the pantry refrigerator. I guess people must have painfully realised how much their offices pampered them.

Person A: Have you also noticed something? Ever since WFH started the work seems to be never ending.

Person B: True, requests keep coming. And Zoom calls - they seem to eat away most of our time. Despite saving on commute time, my work hours have become longer than pre-lockdown days. A quick consultation with a guy in the next pod to clear minor doubts now requires elaborate slack messenger chats - and if the internet is slow, we had it.

Person A: How is the situation at your apartment. Are they allowing maids, newspaper vendors etc.

Person B: No, both me and wife are juggling with office and household chores. And it leaves both of us harried and exhausted.

Person A: Yeah, going to shops have become more challenging. We have to be mindful of wearing masks and shops down shutters by 7 pm. Moreover there is always a queue outside as only a limited number of people are allowed at a time. We tried doing grocery shopping online, but delivery takes many days as the orders have spiked up. And we always tend to miss out something while compiling the grocery list, which requires visit to nearby store. I just hope that the government lifts the lockdown by April 15 and normalcy soon returns. Pretty bored sitting at home.

Person B: Well we can say all that because we have 'work' and a 'home'. My wife's cousin got pink slip, has been told May 31 is his last day.

Person A: Good lord! And how are we supposed to find a new job amid lockdown and other restrictions.

Person B: Almost all companies are shedding jobs, no one is hiring.

April 17

Person A: Now that the lockdown has been extended, we may not see the insides of our offices anytime soon. I am even missing the casual chats I used to have with security guys.

Person B: Yeah, some companies are already offering its employees WFH option for the rest of year! Some I guess may not renew office leases once they expire.

Person A: We got an office mail stating that WFH will continue 'until further notice'. Our broadband and power bills are bound to go up. Now who is going to pay for all that?

Person B: With saloons closed, my hair has gone haywire. The dhobi at the street corner has disappeared. Probably gone to her hometown. Anyway with most people working from home, she may have little work.

Person A: A formal shirt for some important zoom calls, and the rest of the time it is T-shirt with sweat pants/lungis/shorts.   

Person B: I happened to drive past the inter-state bus terminal the other day. I was stunned by the length of the queue there. Looks like most daily wage workers now want to reach their hometowns, whatever it takes - bus, lorry, cycle or even on foot.

Person A: Didn't the prime minister while announcing lockdown say that workers and house helps should be paid. Looks like his pleas have fallen on deaf ears. No work, no income and landlord forcing them to vacate - they have been thrown to the wolves. The TV footage of people walking on the highways looked straight out of movies set during the 1947 partition.

Person B: And to rub salt on their wounds a political leader has said these workers are trying to enjoy their chhutti caused by the lockdown. Who in their right minds will walk hundred or thousands of kilometres unless they are so desperate.

May 5

Person A: Did you manage to buy liquor.

Person B: No man was scared of the virus. Moreover, you know I don't drink much, so I still had some stock left at home.

Person A: I was running dry for a long time. So I went despite the fear of virus lurking at the back of my mind. The queue was long and the mandatory social distancing had further stretched it.

Person B: I saw some pictures on social media of separate queues for women at some outlets.

Person A: Yeah man. Many of my friends from Chennai were getting freaked out. They say it is unthinkable there.  

May 12

Person A: Hi. By the way there are a few cases in the lane next to us and it has been sealed.

Person B: Oh, when did it happen.

Person A: Yesterday night. We had some ambulances arriving with sirens blaring and shortly after that the lane was closed. The grocery shop in that lane has downed shutters.

Person B: There was a case at a gated community near our place. They had sealed one of the towers.

Person A: We need to be very careful. The virus is closing in. Earlier when we used to read about China, US and Italy we could reassure ourselves that it is too distant but now it is making its presence felt at much closer quarters.

Person B: Yes. The scene in Chennai is much worse. I called my friend recently and he told me that quite often the friends he happens to contact tell him that they themselves have the virus.

Person A: Oh! That's scary.

Person B: The government keeps saying there is no community spread, but the speed with which the new cases are emerging across various parts of the country, this claim looks hollow.

May 21

Person A: Looks like lockdown has faltered in halting the march of the virus. At the beginning it was 500 and now it has overtaken China's tally of 86,000. I don't know whether its extension to May 31 will be of any use.

Person B: I think if there was no lockdown we might have reached this figure much earlier.

Person A: It may be true but, I don't know, maybe we should have gone for localized lockdown in places with high density of cases. We could have allowed a semblance of economic activity with strict safety protocols in place.

Person B: Easier said than done.

Person A: Look at our South Asian neighbourhood - countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh which have equally dense population and even more patchy health infrastructure seem to be faring better. Lockdowns worked in the West because they have far superior welfare measures. Here the daily wage workers were forced to migrate and it has undone whatever little success lockdown might have accomplished in halting the spread of virus.

Person B: Our cities have patchy health infrastructure, but in small towns and villages it is non-existent. We are in huge trouble.

Person A: Even in Bangalore I am told that government hospitals are full to their capacity and private hospitals are charging a fortune - people are being made to shell out in lakhs. Health insurance companies are having a field day.

June 13

Person A: Your house is close to a mall, what is the scene like after the easing of lockdown?

Person B: From what I have observed the people continue to be wary. Not much crowd. The mall authorities also don't want to take any chances - lots of checking etc.

Person A: Though the government have announced unlock plans, I doubt whether even a semblance of normalcy will return anytime soon.

Person B: Yes, many of the hotels and restaurants still remain closed.

Person A: Either they have closed for good, or because they cannot afford the new safety protocols they are reluctant to lift the shutters. Moreover many I guess are happy to just run their kitchens and reach out to patrons through online sites like Zomato or Swiggy. Restarting dine-in may expose them and their patrons to the risk of virus.

Person B: The number of cases have crossed 3 lakh and we are now the fourth worst-hit Covid-19 hit country.

Person A: It is scary and in Bangalore the number of containment zones are rising rapidly. Our cities are way too crowded and cases will keep shooting up. Two days ago there was a news report of various suburbs in Bangalore reporting more than 100 cases each and mine was one of them.

Person B: God only knows how many unreported cases. The other day I was watching a doctor claiming in a video that every country has a gap between reported and actual cases. And in India it is much higher than the West.

Person A: I guess in many states the authorities might have fudged or dressed up numbers to look good. Already India's low death figures are being taken with a pinch of salt by the global media.

Person B: I think that could be because we undergo a battery of vaccinations at birth and are used to coping with viruses and bacteria all through our lives.

July 25

Person A: A friend of mine had to fly to Mumbai due to family emergency. He had to download Arogya Setu app, wear N-95 mask and also put on a face shield.

Person B: Oh is it. I guess now just a limited number of passengers are allowed and the number of flights are also pretty low.

Person A: Some passengers were even wearing PPE kits.

Person B: I wonder when we will be able to travel normally without all these trappings. I used to visit my hometown at least once in three months. But after this Corona thing came I haven't gone.

Person A: I am preparing a list of places in India where I have been postponing my visits due to one reason or other. Once normalcy returns, I want to go there on a priority.

Person B: Normalcy is not going to come anytime soon. New cases are shooting up at a scorching pace. India's total caseload is nearing a million.

August 3

Person A: We now have two cases in our apartment. Both from same family. BBMP guys came and the sanitized common space and other places.

Person B: Take care. Be extremely wary of using the lift.

Person A: Thankfully, they are not sealing off the building as they used to do earlier.

Person B: Yes, that used to cause lots of hardships to inmates who have not been infected by the virus. In other countries essentials are provided to these residents by government agencies, but in India it is rarely followed. Hence they have to fend for themselves.

August 30

Person A: A lot of talk is going on about vaccines and trials. I wonder why Bill Gates is taking so much interest.

Person B: I think it is because he was involved with various immunization drives in India as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He may also have invested in some of these companies.

Person A: Why is Nandan Nilekani getting involved in this? He says people should get a digital certificate stating the date of vaccination, name of the vaccine, vendor and the location.

Person B: After Aadhaar, he is itching for another mass surveillance stunt.

Person A: We had successfully eradicated polio without such dodgy certificates.

September 15

Person A: It is close to six months since the countrywide lockdown, but the 'flattening of the curve' is nowhere in sight. Somebody had joked that it is the GDP curve that got flattened instead.

Person B: The authorities seem to have given up. Earlier one case in neighbourhood and the area used to get sealed. But now we are hardly hearing any such incident. And it is not due to lack of cases. In fact, we might be unknowingly living amid scores of Covid-19 infected people, but we will never get to know.

Person A: The other day after a long gap I went to a temple. Was pleasantly surprised to see a guy with a non-contact body thermometer and a foot-operated sanitizer placed at the entrance. The number of people were a fraction what they used to be during the pre-Covid days.

October 5

Person A: The other day I happened to walk through our layout. Was amazed to see that every second house had a 'To let' board. With work from home being the norm in most companies, people have vacated their homes and left for their hometowns.

Person B: Yes, it is the same situation in my locality. Many of my friends who were staying in paying guest accommodation have left.

Person A: There are a couple of flats in my apartment that have been lying vacant for months. The owner is a quoting the pre-Covid rental rate and nobody is willing to shell out that much.

Person B: Yes rates have fallen across the board. Even many offices have downed shutters. Don't know whether it is because of mounting losses or they see no sense in occupying such large premises when employees are working from their homes.

October 20

Person A: What is the pub scene nowadays?

Person B: It is almost back to pre-Covid days.

Person A: Oh, when they had reopened after the lockdown, I had heard they were offering a lot of 'happy hours' as there were very few patrons. With many young professionals having left for their hometowns, the attendance was low.

Person B: Yeah that was the case, but now things are looking up. A pub near my house looks very crowded. Now that they don't have to commute to office, people are frequenting pubs almost everyday.

 

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