Continuing from Living with COVID-19: Notes to my future self
I almost had tears rolling down when I slid my jeans up the other day. I was almost convinced that I would indeterminately blow up like a balloon after a month and half of hogging at home but when I wore my jeans again, I was relieved. If that indicates that I have lost weight, I’m sorry. My mother and mother-in-law, my sister and sister-in-law, and my wife (and occasionally me) cooked and fed me with a lot of love just like they fed my a-year-old niece. In the name of being together, we all ate, we celebrated together. Someone rightly said that food is a celebration in itself. With everything being experimented and cooked at home, I have not craved for food served at the bakery or the restaurant.
A big bush has grown on my head. For someone like me who likes to keep the hairs short, this is like having a long plait. Not visiting the salon is a little inconvenient.
I have managed the last two months with 3 pairs of clothes, nothing to boast about it, apparently those 3 pairs felt short during the normal days.
Gone are those days, we dress up to go out, the mask is the new style statement.
I’m not a supermarket or the mall guy but, it was a pleasure walking between the racks at the supermarket. They allowed one person at a time inside. I didn’t buy anything but I was just curious to find out what didn’t get sold out, like the healthy hot air fried millet crispies, even during this limited supply period.
Weekends are no more a special day that I wait for all week rather I remind myself that it is a weekend and I need not work. No one wishes a happy weekend now.
Nothing seems to be a problem now. I have not been infected and I’m alive, none of my family members are infected, none of my friends are infected and no one I know of is infected. I feel lucky and privileged. The moment I realized this, nothing seemed a problem, no inconvenience seemed to bother. I’m alive and kicking.
About 96% of the active cases in my state were asymptomatic. With that number, I feel that I was already infected and lived through it.
Some of the restrictions are being lifted, relaxations are being extended to several products and services. Seems the lockdown is going to end soon. There is still a fear of the pandemic coming back again affecting a larger number. I think we are taking a risk here but we have to get back to the normal now (I’m really not sure what is normal. Normal never seems to sustain.).
Some of us might lose our job and our livelihood. Everyone is saying to learn new skills and adapt. The money is not rolling and now it is obvious that there will be a global economic slowdown. The concept of economic growth seems to have a flaw; it grows with our wants and not our needs. I now choose to buy what is most needed and nothing more. My impulsive buying tendency has come down. I now realize how I was persuaded for the upsold products and services. The lockdown has forced me to be not a good candidate for the economy.
It is inconceivable for our invincible human race how a mere, not-to-be-seen virus brought us down to our knees. All we possess and built now means nothing. Is it an unseen force of the mother nature to cull the human race and bring balance?
