When Distances Mean Nothing

Today, I present three short stories of true love in times of Corona. These are real life stories of people and their unbeatable spirit that drive them to take on challenges and face all odds. 

A Hundred Miles Away From Home 

A thirty seven year old man quietly packed a carton containing a television set, a stove, a red bag with four shirts, three trousers, a handful of utensils and two containers with rice, toor dal, some mustard oil, kerosene and started pedalling his cycle cart at 2 am on 27th March from Nai Sadak in Old Delhi to his home at Madhubani which was some 1100 kms away in Bihar.  “I couldn’t leave anything as I didn’t know when I would return… The rations were not enough, but “people helped us”, said Yadav.

And he rode and rode his cycle cart for five days against the heat of the day and intense ache all over his body.  “We would start pedalling at 3 am, cook a heavy meal on my stove and eat around 8 am, take two hours of rest and set off again. At 3 pm, we would take our lunch and go non-stop till 10 pm. Then, we would park somewhere — near a temple, a hotel — take a nap for three hours, and start all over again.”

He made it as far 670 km by April 1^st , when he was caught by the police along with four others, including his brother Ramji, and brought to a shelter in Gonda. He is now at the shelter at Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh Inter-College in the Gonda district headquarters. Yadav tries to pass his time sweeping the school corridors and, often, when no one is looking, watering the plants around the college. “I need something to do, otherwise I keep thinking of home.”

He has a basic Nokia phone, and a prepaid connection giving him unlimited calls for Rs 149 a month. He calls home at least four-five times a day to catch up with them and exchange a few words with his wife. “I ask if they have food, other essentials. Not that I can do anything, but I can give them advice.” He longs to meet her.

Then there are also many questions that keep troubling him.

What if I were to die at the Gonda shelter of COVID-19, will my body reach home? 

Will I get a burial?

Who will transport my body from here to Madhubani?

Love Sans Borders 

Every day, Inga Rasmussen, 85, and Karsten Tüchsen Hansen, 89, trek to a red and white fence that demarcates the border between Germany and Denmark. Inga brings a chair and sits on the Danish side. Karsten settles onto the German side. They open a packet of biscuits and pour each other cups of coffee.

Rasmussen and Hansen met by chance last year, and since March 13, 2019, they have spent every day together. Hansen lives in Süderlügum, Germany and Rasmussen is from Gallehus, Denmark. The border towns are typically only a 20-minute drive away from each other.

But almost one year exactly after they met, it became impossible to continue their daily meetings as usual. Between March 14 and 16, both Demark and Germany closed their border crossings. Regardless, the couple was determined to see each other. They simply relocated their afternoon coffee plans to the border at Aventoft.

Courtsey NY Times

Now, every afternoon, Hansen rides his bicycle and Rasmussen drives to their fence. They arrange their supplies on a concrete slab between them and sit across from each other. Rasmussen and Hansen’s dates are fairly typical: they talk, share food, sometimes toast with Geele Köm, a spirit from the region. Everything is fairly normal — except that they cannot hug or kiss each other and they are careful to keep the advised distance apart. But they insist they will not allow the crisis to part them. They met late in life but are determined to spend as much time together as possible. "It's sad, but we can't change it.”

Stop Me If You Can

At a small town at the border of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, a group of twenty people had assembled. All the persons there had  masks covering their noses and mouths and a person walked around them constantly sprinkling sanitizing liquid on their hands.  In a while a small fire was lit and a priest started performing puja. A couple sat beside the havan kund with thick garlands round their neck. She was bedecked with jewels on her neck, arms, forehead and ears. He was simply dressed in silk dhoti and kurta, a traditional headgear and a chain round his neck.

A wedding was happening in times of Corona. Both the bride and the groom also had masks on their faces. Only for the exchange of the garlands, the two did away with the masks but maintained highest levels of hygiene. In a normal marriage when hundreds of guests would have been around, getting it done with a handful of family members on both sides, I must admit that social distancing was duly observed.

The groom works with me at Bangalore. In one of the video calls in early April, I jokingly asked him if he would go ahead with his marriage under such restrictions when people cannot move out of their homes. He said yes and I asked him surely you will have to do a digital shaadi with you here, the bride at her home and punditji at a third location. A Zoom or Webex can connect you all easily and they can possibly prepare some good food at their respective places and send you e-gift cards digitally. All this is fine but after marriage, how do you do it…I mean…you understand, sure!

Little did I know that the boy was determined to do it the right way, all the way. And after everything was over I called him and apologetically asked him, “Why…what was the hurry?” He said that the marriage was fixed sometime in early December and the two families did not want to miss the auspicious muhoortam on 19^th of April. So they went ahead with ceremony as planned.

Incredible India, I must admit. Even though the dreaded Corona has disrupted life and has threatened our lives like never before but neither can it control the birth of a child that brings new hope nor stop two souls wanting to come together for a new beginning.

Before he put his phone down, he said, “We are happy, Sir.”

SS

PS. The first two stories are based on articles in the Indian Express dated 19th April and NY Times dated 22nd April 20 respectively.

The Italian Escape

A week ago, it was Easter like no other year, and the news of the famed opera singer Andrea Bocelli performing in an empty Duomo di Milano took me away to the wonderful week, five years ago, that my daughter and I spent in Italy before the pandemic brought death, depression and misery to this beautiful country so full of history, art and life. Bocelli’s concert was aptly named the Music of Hope, but to me it was the Music of a Glorious Past. So here I am trying to put together memories of the most wonderful holiday of my life.

“Going to Italy for a holiday…be very careful with your passports. Khushwant Singh lost his passport thrice in Rome and he was a very seasoned traveller.”

“Be careful with your bags…luggage is often misplaced or stolen.”

“Beware of pickpockets!”

“In the afternoons you will not be able to do anything..Italians are famous for their siesta.”

“Just the two of you will be travelling, mother and daughter and that too to Italy?Besides they don’t drink water, only wine and understand only Italian.”

“Italy is very crowded and congested…Venice is full of ‘nullahs’!”

I had already started having misgivings about my decision to go on a short holiday to Italy with my daughter. In fact, I had been making plans, checking out itineraries, reading books on Italy, talking to travel agents about customized holidays for a couple of years but for some reason or the other the trip was not materializing. When, finally, my plan fell in place and we were actually going that I started divulging details to friends and family and this was the kind of response I was getting. But there was no going back…so mother and daughter set out on a week’s tour of Roma-Firenze-Pisa -Venezia with a lot of trepidation in the hearts  and a chilling certainty that either passport or suitcase would be lost on the very day of their arrival. Our knowledge of the Italian language was restricted to ‘Ciao’ and ‘Cappuccino’ and so we imagined ourselves making our way through the streets of Rome and Venice like Shah Rukh in DDLJ!

Since it was a much awaited break we were sure of only one thing -no matter what happened we would enjoy! International flights, other than being longer, did not seem very different.  In fact, I was very impressed with the recently opened Mumbai’s T2 Terminal which I was seeing for the first time. As our flight was getting ready for the final descent to the Leonardo da Vinci Airport, we got an excellent aerial view of the Italian coastline with the beaches and the umbrella pines and it was then that my heart actually started racing! As our cab made way though the city of Rome to our hotel which was near the Termini Stazione I simply fell in love with Roma- the Eternal City…it was love at first sight!

The Eternal City

The hotel staff was simply excellent – from the moment we stepped in they were eager to help. Always pulling out maps, pointing our location, drawing directions but despite all their good efforts we managed to lose our way on the very first night while returning from a tour of Illuminated Rome. It was not exactly our fault…every cobbled lane looked the same with their identical houses, immaculate facades, pizzerias, cafeterias and gelaterias!

Rome is a city that exists in layers almost ‘like a lasagna’, an expression used by one of our guides. According to legend, Rome was founded by the twins Romulas and Remus ,  sons of a vestal virgin Rhea Silva and Mars , the God of War, on 21^st April 753 BC, on the very site where they had been suckled by a mother wolf. After the fall of Tarquin the Proud, the last of Rome’s seven Etruscan Kings, the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC. After the assassination in 44 BC of Julius Caesar, the last of the Republic’s consuls and one of history’s greatest generals, who, as we all know, had to die for his ambition, Augustus became the first Roman Emperor. Rome, once the caput mundi, was burnt, built, attacked, routed, ransacked, only to be rebuilt. The Ancient Romans took their cue from the Greeks but to the Classical came the other influences- Byzantine, Gothic, the Naturalism of the Renaissance- followed by Mannerism and Baroque. The present Rome we see owes much to the 17^th century baroque masters Bernini and Borromini. Ancient Rome, with its Pantheon, Colosseum, Roman and Imperial Forum, co-exists with the marvels of the middle ages and the Renaissance – the basilicas and the churches, the Trevi fountain, the Fountain of Four  Rivers, the piazzas and the palazzos.

The Colosseum

The ancient blends so well into the modern that at times it leaves you completely wonderstruck – they are kind of interwoven. As the two of us stepped out of the Metro station, ready to ask for directions, there loomed before us the Colosseum. You are kind of struck by its immensity (the only other monument that has given me a similar feeling is our very own Taj Mahal). This two thousand year old massive ancient stadium, the Flavian Amphitheatre, could house 70000 spectators at a time and its stone walls were once covered by marble. Beautifully sculpted statues stood in its niches with a velarium or awning covering the arena to provide the spectators with shade. This was the arena where blood flowed to amuse the emperor and the pauper. Modern day ‘gladiators’ are today seen in its vicinity adjusting their helmets while talking on their mobile phones and posing for ‘selfies’ with tourists.

Walking along a narrow cobbled street, wondering how much further one has to go, you literally bang into the Pantheon- an architectural masterpiece constructed around 120 AD by Emperor Hadrian over Marcus Agrippa’s original temple in honour of all the Olympian Gods. Pope Boniface IV received it as a gift from the Byzantine emperor Phocas  and transformed it into  a church dedicated to Santa Maria ad Martyres, one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. This monument is a perfect blend of the pagan and the Christian.

Climbing up the Spanish Steps, as we look across the Piazza di Spagnia, we can see all the designer stores one can dream of… Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent. The house, where one of the greatest Romantic poets, John Keats, lived for a while before succumbing to tuberculosis at the age of twenty five, is also to be seen in this piazza. One century slides into another in one small square.

It was spring in Italy…beautiful flowers adorned the balconies and gardens… and no matter how much we walked (we were constantly losing our way but thanks to Google map navigation we managed to reach our destinations on time for the guided tours) we never felt sweaty or grimy and believe it or not the soles of my brand new pair of Nike looked as if I had worn them only indoors when I returned home after nine days. The cobbled sidewalks were so perfect you could drag your suitcases for miles without any problem. Picture perfect houses with wide windows and smart blinds lined the streets. Fountains in every piazza or monument allowed you to refill your bottles. The drivers actually stopped their cars to let you cross the road…something we have never experienced on our Indian roads. I was so impressed. Not a scratch on any monument, or any hearts drawn or names scribbled, not a bit of litter anywhere….how I wish we, too, could keep our roads and public places so clean. I guess it is necessary to take pride in one’s history, culture and country to be able to preserve it well. We are so particular not to drop a single piece of wrapper when we go outside our country and yet in our own city we do not hesitate to spit or throw any piece of junk anywhere.

A traditional Italian menu in a ristorante would include antipasta (appetizer), pasta, main course (primo secondo),  side dish(es) , salad, dessert(Frutti e dolci), caffe. Fortunately our stomachs being small and Euros being limited, one pizza (no concept of slices there…just one huge round thing that almost covered a table for two) or pasta or lasagna with a new dessert everyday kept us going and of course the most awesome breakfast that the hotels would serve… breads, scones, croissants, tarts, ham ,cheese, eggs…. Every day we experimented at a new trattoria or a pizzeria with some exotic mouthwatering pizza topping or a different variety of pasta. Yet I did not see a single plump Italian...except for their cherubic babies…you felt as if every person walking by you was Mr. Al Pacino. Even a mother, taking a toddler to a kindergarten, dressed in the trendiest of clothes, looked like Monica Bellucci. Anybody obese had to be a tourist!

Our early morning entry into the Vatican, breakfast in the Pigna or Pinecone Courtyard followed by a guided tour of Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and the St. Peter’s Basilica was probably the best experience we had. Vatican City, the smallest state in the world, with its own flag, guards, radio station, newspaper, stamps, is also a member of the United Nations and other world organizations. Its head of state, the Pope, is also the head of the Catholic Church and the Bishop of Rome. Though it is the largest of the four patriarchal basilicas of Rome, St. Peter’s is not the official cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. That title goes to the Basilica of St. John (Basilica di San Giovanni in Lateran), which is the Mother and head of all churches of the city and the world, with the Pope as its bishop. In the Piazza di San Giovanni is the Scala Santa, the staircase that Jesus is said to have climbed in Pontius Pilate’s palace in Jerusalem at the time of his crucifixion. You are allowed to climb these 28 steps only on your knees.

Entering Vatican Museum as Michelangelo & Raphael keep watch

You cannot see the entire 7 km of the Vatican Museums in one trip but what we saw left us completely speechless. Raphael’s paintings only substantiated the epitaph we read on his tomb inside the Pantheon, “Here lies Raphael , by whom Nature feared to be outdone while he lived, and when he died, feared that she herself would die.” Such was the brilliance of an artist though he lived on this earth for only 37 years.

St. Peter’s Basilica was not built in days but took almost eighteen centuries. Though started under Emperor Constantine in 324 AD, its restructuring and rebuilding continued through several centuries. It owes its square to Bernini, its facade to Maderno and its cupola to Michelangelo. The 284 columns, each 15 m high, in  Bernini’s Square outside, set out in rows of four are arranged with such mathematical perfection that from certain points you do not see four columns one behind the other but just one column. Entering this basilica was like walking through the gates of paradise...as if the Book of Revelations had just been opened up before us. It was difficult to believe that it had all been created and perfected by mortals. Its main altar is as high as a ten storeyed building and each letter inscribed on its walls just below the dome is seven feet high. The innumerable tourists entering the basilica seemed like tiny specks. Seeing the “Pieta” it is difficult to believe that Michelangelo had done it when he was only twenty-four. In fact, even back then he had to inscribe his name on the sculpture so that people would believe it was his creation. What is even stranger about the complexities of the human mind is that an Australian tourist had once caused extensive damages to this sculpture by striking it with a hammer several times. Bernini’s 29 m high baldachin rises over the high altar supported by four golden spiral columns. The mosaics on the walls of the basilica, the tapestries and paintings we saw in the Vatican museums and, of course, the star attraction, Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are beyond my capacity to describe. You honestly have to see to believe that they were done more than five hundred years ago. The frescoes on the ceiling, the theme being the history of mankind before the birth of Christ, took Michelangelo  four years to complete .Twenty five years later , when  he was almost sixty,  Michelangelo was commissioned by another Pope to paint the ‘Last Judgement’ on the wall in the extreme end of the Chapel.

St.Peter's Square with 284 columns & 140 statues of saints

Michelangelo's Pieta

The visit to Villa Borghese and its gardens was worth the miles and miles of walk. The collection of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, belonging to one of the most prominent families of Rome, left us completely spellbound. Paintings and sculptures we had only heard of or seen in pictures were all before us. Raphael, Bernini, Canova, Caravaggio were till then just names of famous artists or sculptors to us but what we saw have left an indelible impression on our minds. “What immortal hand or eye” could create such perfect human forms, capture such expressions and movements, and execute such breathtaking symmetry!

Roma to Florence by Eurail gives you the most glorious view of the Tuscan landscape in all its vibrant blues and greens. In fact, on our way from Florence to Pisa, we had an even more beautiful view of this region complete with the vineyards. The colourful houses were just like the ones we used to draw as kids with the rectangular walls, square windows on either side of a middle door, sloping roof and a chimney. Picture perfect!

After seeing St. Peter’s I had certainly not expected to see another cathedral that would leave me speechless but there it was , right before us, as we walked towards our hotel in Florence, the Duomo or Cathedral of Santa Maria di Fiore or Flower. This architectural wonder dominates Florence like ‘a mountain of marble topped by a giant ruby’. Then, there was Michelangelo’s David, the original being kept in the Galleria del Accademia and the replica in the Palazzo Vecchio. You truly have to see it to believe that such a sculpture could be sculpted out of the same block of Carrara marble in which two other artists had earlier tried but failed to carve anything and given up. It is, therefore, said that David was already in that block of marble and all Michelangelo did was to release him!! The Uffizi Gallery brought to life to innumerable paintings we had only heard of or seen in the pages of books like Botticelli’s ‘Spring’ , ‘ The Birth of Venus’, Leonardo’s “Annunciation’, Michelangelo’s ‘ Holy Family’ to mention only the most famous. From the Uffizi Gallery you get one the most amazing views of the River Arno. We have to remember that Florence was the city which had been the first to revisit the disused term ‘museum’, which for the ancient Greeks signified a space dedicated to the Muses. Apart from the Uffizi, which housed the administrative offices of the Medicis and whose topmost floor was made into an art gallery, Florence also gave the world its first open air museum ,which we saw near the Palazzo Vecchio. The Medicis, the bankers and lords of Florence for three centuries, were great patrons of art and collectors of antiquities. The last Medici bequeathed everything to the people of Florence on condition that nothing could ever go out of the city.

Brunelleschi's Dome

River Arno from the Uffizi Gallery

The Miracle Square of Pisa with its Cathedral, Baptistery, Bell tower is indeed a ‘miracle of miracles’. We had heard about the leaning tower of Pisa but never expected this Carrara marble tower to lean to such an extent… and it has been leaning from the time of its construction! No wonder the architect’s name, unlike that of any other monument, is not known. Climbing it is real fun.... you really have a problem with your centre of gravity…. and find yourself tilting too!

Miracle Square, Pisa

Venice was nothing short of a fairyland city. From the time you get off at the Santa Novella station and take the vaporetto (ferry) , a shuttle water bus, to reach the hotel it is a completely out of the world experience. St. Mark’s Basilica, St. Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace are all very beautiful….but I loved the walk we took with our Venetian guide through its narrow streets, its sotoportegos, campos, its innumerable bridges and canals. We saw the family house of Marco Polo in Sotoportego del Milion, which takes its name from his book Il Milione , based on his adventures in the Far East. The Grand Canal by day or night with the gondoliers serenading the passengers in their gondolas is unforgettable. Visit to the nearby islands of Murano, known for glass- blowing, Burano, famous for its lace and colourful houses and Torcello, famous for its tranquility and peace and the lone Byzantine cathedral standing on it, is a must. Ernest Hemingway had spent some time on this island writing ‘Across the River and into the Trees’. No prize for guessing what inspired him with the title of the book!

Torcello

As we bid goodbye to Venezia, always represented in paintings as a beautiful lady or a winged lion, and by Wordsworth described as “the eldest child of liberty”, we could not but help remember “Once did She hold the gorgeous East in fee/And was the safeguard of the West”

By now we could really boast of having enriched our Italian vocabulary much beyond the two words that we had started with. Italy had been unfolded to us by excellent guides, who were not only punctual, professional and extremely polite, but they really knew their subjects. We just loved the way they showed us everything…they took so much pride in their history and art. We owe much of the success of our trip to these beautiful, proud Roman, Florentine, and Venetian ladies and gentlemen who unraveled the mysteries of so many paintings, explained small nuances of many a sculpture and brought to life the rich history of the ancient ruins.

It was time to go back to the Marco Polo airport standing not on water, thankfully, but terra firma. We took our last ride together in the water- taxi and kept looking back at the receding coastline. Some hours later, we were jolted back to reality by the Turkish Airlines aircraft  making a rough landing on the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport tarmac – as if reminding us to get back to the daily grind. At last, my passport, which till date had been pulled out only for renewals, was stamped!

DS

Hope & Joy in Times of Corona

In times of gloom and WFH (Work From Home), some more tales to bring cheer to office folks as the lockdown continues. While the first one is an imaginary conversation with You Know Who; the second based on reality and doing the real work at home and the final one is on the essence of life.

3^rd April 2020

The Big Day of 31^st March was over and had hardly had a wink of sleep when he, you know who, started his Q&A.

So how was your April One?

Tere ko kya? How does it matter to you whether I win or lose.

Don’t take offence, I just asked as a matter of courtesy. From the way you reacted, I can make out it wasn’t great. No bhangra for you, surely.

Ab psychologist bhi ban gaya hai yeh, I thought…often our facial expressions give away our real state of mind. Bravely, I put a smile on my face and said, theek tha. All the businesses I run are small so I will explain to you in brief. But the words…in brief … took me into another world of briefs and I soon realized the only way to save planet earth was to reach out to men in briefs….the Super Heroes. I convinced Corona to accompany me to some of the Super Heroes who had saved the world many times in the comic books. I was sure one of the 'Men in Briefs' will get rid of this deadly virus and rescue us.

Super Heroes

I packed some food and water and put it in my back pack. Mr. Corona jumped and sat on my left shoulder and looked happy going for an outing after many days, unaware that he would meet his end this day. From my list of super heroes, I had knocked off Captain America as he was already on a ventilator in his own land. When my wife went off to sleep, the two of us slipped out and went first to the dense Aarey Forest. It did not take us too long to find the Bat Mansion where Batman lived. I pressed the doorbell and a voice from inside asked…who’s there and what brings you here at this unearthly hour.

It is me, your biggest fan. I want you to take care of this creature on my shoulder.

What creature? Can you look into the camera so that I can see who you want me to fight tonight…I have not had a good fight for long so I am very much looking forward to one.

I pointed my left shoulder towards the CCTV camera so that Batman could see Corona, with a smug face.

In a hushed tone, my super hero replied, I can’t fight him. He is a creation of bats infecting some meat, which was then being eaten by humans. How can I fight my own kind? Sorry, you need to go to Superman and he will be able to handle this bad bat guy. I can offer you my Bat Mobile otherwise you will not be able to reach his place.

A disappointed me boarded the Bat Mobile which was ultra-luxurious and sophisticated. All I did was to type Superman's Home on the huge touch screen and the automatic Tesla BM was on a self- drive mode and in no time we reached the house of Mr. Clark Kent. We got off the car and again pressed the doorbell. Being a fine gentleman, he came out and walked us inside his home. I could see the trademark lock of hair on his forehead hanging and knew who he was.

Ya, so what brings you here?

Sir, I want you to destroy this evil guy sitting on my shoulder. He has threatened the entire human race and we are on the verge of extinction and only Superman can help.

Superman took a good look at the smiling corona and nodded his head…this guy is made up of krypton and that is the only thing I am afraid of. And of course I am old now and do not get into fights. You should reach out to Phantom, the Ghost who Walks. There you will find the solution as there are witch doctors who seem to have a cure for everything. They are now using the cow droppings for many a cure there.

I boarded the Bat Mobile and reached out to Phantom at Denkali Jungle but it seems he had vanished having been forewarned by Superman and Batman about the enemy I was bringing to his gate. Since I was in Africa, I thought I would try asking Tarzan for help. When I entered his jungle, instead of being greeted with his typical war cry of ‘Kregaah Tarzan Bundolo’ there was silence all around. We went to his tree top home to find Jane nursing Tarzan as he lay on the leafy bed.

What happened? How did you get hurt?

My wife Jane is too cautious and when she heard of a virus spreading all over, she put extra hand sanitizer on the vines. As I was swinging from those vines, my hands slipped and I now have a  broken hip bone. I have to rest for the next six months.

I returned home, disappointed, with Mr. Corona having the last laugh. Was he the Betal piggy riding on me, Vikram? Later at night I thought and came to a logical conclusion about Super Heroes. When faced with danger, what happens to us mortals...we dirty our pants which I am sure happens to them as well. I think they avoid the embarrassment by first wearing super-sized diapers and then they wear their body hugging suits and finally wear their super-brief briefs on top. While the mystery of the briefs worn over the body suits was solved, from that day I decided not to get fooled by these so called Marvel Super Heroes. I realized that the real heroes and warriors for our planet earth are indeed the doctors and nurses in white, the cops in khakhi, the cleaning staff and other people fighting against all odds to stop this tidal pandemic.

The real Heroes

Last Line

The numbers in India are on the rise. There have been a few major indiscretions by some people that has aggravated the problem. The government and health authorities are trying their level best to contain and ebb the tide but the crisis facing them and the world is really big. Let us do our bit by maintaining discipline and ensuring we stay home, work from home and April One has proven that it is possible to work from home and do good business.

Stay Safe, Stay Happy.

6^th April 2020

Déjà vu. When it is WFH, you do get some time for fun and today I got the chance of watching a historic day in the annals of Indian sports.

It was almost ten years ago, in 2011, on the lush fields of Wankhede Stadium, India was playing Sri Lanka in the World Cup Cricket Final. The match started with Sri Lanka, after a shaky start, ending the day at a healthy score of 275 runs with Mahela Jayawardane scoring 103 runs off 88 balls. With 40,000 strong crowd in the stadium and another billion at home cheering for India, Sachin and Viru walked in and in no time, both were back in the pavilion…India were 31 for 2, thanks to Lasith Malinga’s devastating spell of speed bowling. Virat, the eighteen year old youngster, and Gautam Gambhir held on to the  game and had almost stabilized it when the young lad got out. Instead of the regular 3 down batsman, Yand the man in form Yuvraj, the Indian Captain with locks of hair hanging down his shoulders walked in to take charge with many a people skeptical of the move. Gambhir played extremely well but he too departed and then with Yuvraj in company, M.S. Dhoni inched closer to the target. Finally that magical moment of the huge six MSD scored to take India to its second World Cup victory after a gap of 28 years!

The celebrations were wild but the best comment I enjoyed seeing over and over again was from the youngster,Virat Kohli, who carried Sachin on his shoulder in an emotional lap of honour saying,“Sachin Tendulkar has carried Indian cricket on his shoulders for 21 years. So it was fitting that we carried him on our shoulders after the win.”

After watching the highlights of this super match, I went you to my wife and declared,” Darling, you have carried this household for 31 years on your shoulders. So it is fitting that I carry you on my shoulders for a day.”

Have you had a drink one too many? You are not used to it. Sathiya gaye ho kya? You get back to your senses before the next Zoom call or you will soon not have shoulders to carry your iPad, leave alone me.

No, no…what I meant is that you have been taking care of the home for so many years alone, so why don’t you let me do the house work just for a day. I did the cleaning of the utensils the other day…please give me some more work to give you some time to relax today. Moreover, now after the work in the kitchen, I have no ego left, any work will do.

Ok, if you so insist, please clean the toilets today…and she switched on the television to check on the latest global counts and intermittently checking the Whatsapp messages from her daughter.

What did I do to deserve this? Anyway what I had called upon myself is what the Japanese call Harakiri and in Hindi.…aa bael mujhe maar.

Off I went, as a man of honour, true to his words, into the place where not too many men had gone before. Of course, I was in great company as the Mahatma would himself clean toilets, not only his own but the community toilets as well. He even forced Kasturba to do it even though she was not willing to do such menial and obnoxious work. Maybe it was Ba’s revenge on Pa today!

And so I went and learnt the art of spraying Harpic all over,letting it remain for half an hour, then taking the brush with plastic bristles to rub it hard all over the surface and reach to inner crannies. And then of course a proper bath to remove all stains till the pot looked like a gilt throne, fit for a monarch to rest his royal behind. I even made sure I had scrubbed and dried the floor of the bathroom before leaving the Diwan-e Khaas, lest the lady came in for inspection and slipped! Then, of corse, I would literally have to carry her on my shoulders!

Lessons from Loo:

1.   Ensure you clean it up every time before leaving the place.

2.   Do not leave the muck for someone else to do it.

3.   Any other person cleaning has the same dignity and self-respect as you.

4.   There is no shame in doing your own work.

I came out and felt as elated as the Captain of the Indian Cricket Team in 2011, for we almost looked alike today with my long hanging uncut hair and the unshaven face. If he had scored the winning runs with a helicopter shot, so had I completed the cleaning of the floor with a long handled mop, twisting and turning it like the revolving blades of a chopper...swishhh!

She congratulated me and announced that her fresh cream validity date had expired but, in such hard times, she did not wish to throw it away, so she would be baking a cake with it. She went on meticulously with her baking and the lovely smell from the oven told me, the cake was ready. The Empress of my House reminded me of French Queen Marie Antionette, who at the peak of the French Revolution, when people had nothing to eat, had declared, “let them have cake!”

I freshened up and went back to the Zoom call with a glow on my face…for now I feared nothing. I could do anything my boss asked of me no matter how small and menial it may appear to others…truly Impossible is Nothing…I am Possible.

Last Line:

We have a long road ahead. Keep your spirits high and never lose hope and faith. Think of those front line soldiers in white battling the problem at such close proximity on a daily basis, getting infected themselves for they have not enough protective equipment. And yet, they never stop going out to face the new lot of patients. Think of the men and women in khakhi on the roads…never a minute to spend at home and yet out on duty 24X7X365 for a pittance. We are much better off, we are much safer than most and all what is asked of us is to maintain discipline and hygiene in order to prevent any spread. Just Do It…Swoosh!

Stay Happy, Stay Healthy, Stay Safe.

 10th April 2020

It was Good Friday. Heard the Easter Mass would be screened into homes all across the globe from the pulpits in Vatican to Sao Paulo, from Bandra to Tokyo. I have always been confused whether to celebrate Good Friday or feel sad. How is it that we celebrate the crucifixion of The Lord and it is Good ? And same was the feeling of confusion when two pieces of news come through in a flood of Whatsapp messages, videos and office mails.

In a town in Uttarakhand, a man died of another serious ailment and not Covid with his old mother by his side. The wife, who was working in Mumbai, sat down in her hostel room, to weep alone as did their daughter who was studying in a college in Karnataka. No trains, no planes, no buses and no cars to take them to their home far away…to their husband and father who was on his last journey where there was no lockdown to stop him. His memories kept unfolding before their tearful eyes as they said their silent prayers in their closed rooms. Om Shanti!

And then there was this newspaper picture that caught my attention. A pair of twins had been born in a hospital in Thailand designated to take care of patients suffering the pandemic. While someone in India, too, had twins some days ago, the mother had named them Corona and Covid (poor kids) but to the mother in Bangkok I would suggest names of Joy and Hope.

Surely in situations of life and death, WFH will not work.

SS

Love in Times of Corona

This is a continuation of the Corona Dialogues or the morning mails sent every morning sharp at 9 am to the team members to bring a smile on to their faces in an otherwise gloomy circumstances. These are fictional conversations with Corona and incidents at home as we are busy with WFH...Work From Home!

29^th March 2020

Good Morning Everybody.

Isn’t it nice to be alive, kicking and waking up to the sound of the birds? Yes, it is.

“Fish market kab khatam hoga? It is already 8.30pm and anyway nothing much seems to be happening on the business front.”

Yes, she equates my work to selling fish and she has good reasons for it for the amount of non-stop clatter that happens with high decibel shouting, haggling and banging of the head just to sell something all want cheap yet fresh. And not to forget...

Machali  jal ki rani hai,

Jeevan uska paani hai!

Marine ka matlab bhi paani hai,

So machali and marine ek hi hai!!

So I quickly wrapped up my work which in a word is shutting the laptop down. Then I went to her to make her happy, I said, “Please may I be of some help to you in the kitchen?”

She looked up at me in surprise and said what I did not want hear, “ Yes but it will not be cooking for I too will have to eat it and I know your culinary skills well enough. You can of course do the cleaning up in the kitchen after dinner.”

“Ok darling”, I said trying to put up a brave face.

And so after dinner I got ready to walk into the kitchen which was the lady’s sanctum santorum or garbhgriha of a temple. There she was waiting at the entrance and told me, “Now that you are entering the kitchen, you must be ready to do anything and for that you must leave your ego behind.”

I looked at my neck and did not find my office ID card and asked her genuinely, “You mean ERGO, my office work behind?”

“No, I said….your ego! EGO is nothing but End of God, for either of the two can survive in you.”

After getting the saintly advice I walked inside towards the sink where plates, spoons, kadhai and tawa lay. As I looked at them, it seemed the dirt on the vessels appeared smiling back at me, mockingly of course, and saying, “He can’t do it guys. We will live longer tonight and party once the lights are out.”

And then I got to work. It took me pretty long time and, by the time I came out, not only was I drenched in sweat but learnt one good lesson which I will share with you.

There are not one but many types of scrubbers. The Scotch Brite type is for regular plates and steel vessels. The wire mesh type is for aluminum and iron utensils like tawa and kadhai. Then there is the plastic one which you use it on non-stick variety of cook-ware. If you mix it up you might end up with the non-stick pan scratched up so badly that next morning’s dosa will never reach your breakfast table.

Similarly, there are different types of soaps and you use different ones at different places. For normal stuff you use the Vim Bar and for oily vessels you need to soak it with few drops of Vim gel and use the liquid dish wash for the Corelle plates. Finally, there is also a hand wash with which you just wash your hands after the work is done. The mops to clean up are also all different. There is one for the gas stove, there is another for the marble top and there is also one for the dining table. And then, of course, there is one to dry up wet utensils and if you make the mortal mistake of cleaning your dirty wet hands with it, the heavens may fall on your head in no time.

In short, one size does not fit all and then I wrote a mail.

Dear Bill Gates on Earth and Steve Jobs in Heaven,

Please can you think of something simpler…one thing that does it all just like our laptop. You open it and you can do your mails, do video calls, excel sheets, power points and do almost everything on a piece no more than 12 inches by 8 inches in size.

And promptly the reply came.

Dear Mr. Sen, now living between Heaven and Earth,

Your mail is important to us but unfortunately there is a virus in our systems as of now. We shall get back as soon as the systems are up and running. Till then enjoy the music. Just a piece of advice from the two of us, there is no substitute or replacement for a wife and her elaborate kitchen, for everything else you have an Apple or a Microsoft.

And I dived back into the aquarium and my world of fishes.

Last Line

Have a happy weekend. Keep your wit and humour alive. Do not just pass on scary messages but share some good jokes. Spend that moment with your family over a couple of cups of tea and coffee. Play with your kids and take care of the old ones at home. Look around you and see if you can provide some help or food to the guard in your complex or the housekeeping staff. Keep yourself healthy and maintain the discipline the government wants of you. Safety of self and all should be our driving mission.

30^th March 2020

Good Morning Everyone.

Hey Buddy, you look different today. You’re looking smart. Are you leaving for work?

It is still work from home for me and all my people. So I am going nowhere but would be very happy if you were to leave for good.

It must be a special day for you have shaved and have already taken a bath early morning. And your dress seems a style statement with a nice formal shirt with cuff links but I think you have still not worn the pants as yet. The boxer down there is looking funny.

Arrey Baba, with April One a couple of days away, I will be having many zoom video calls when the people on the other side can only see the upper torso. It does not matter what is there below.

Oh! That’s smart of you. Quite similar to a phrase I heard somewhere…upar sherwani, neechey pareshani….there you see having stayed on this planet I am learning the lingo well for I plan to stay long here. By the way what is this April One and why is it so important to you? And please don’t say that it’s complicated.

Hmmm…so the Indian financial year starts on April One and many large businesses conclude their annual insurance contracts before this day. Quotes are issued, negotiations done…

Thamba…Stop! Can you please make it simple as you did to marine insurance?

So let me call it the Great Indian Dance Festival where everyone is dancing. The first part is the Pre-war Dance when both the parties, the customer and the insurer, work round the clock to prepare all the background work of meeting each other, getting information over cups of tea, coffee and more. Each trying to woo the other to get the best deal and they look like dancing the Tango. This style is characterized by a very close embrace, small steps and syncopated rhythmic footwork.

The second phase is the more difficult stage of negotiations. This we call the Indian Snake Dance where everyone believes the snake, the insurance company, is the more dangerous of the two. The customer, the snake charmer with a been, plays the music. Both are trying to look for an opportunity to strike the other and gyrate to the tune. At the end the story is the same. The charmer always wins for the snake’s venom is already removed and so is the fang. The charmer takes away all the money and puts the snake in a basket and walks away.

The final dance happens post April One when all open up bottles of spirits and heave a sigh of relief and dance freely as if they have won the war. The customer dances for he has made a great deal and saved tons of money and will surely get this promotion in the next appraisal. The insurer dances for he foolishly believes he has landed a wonderful contract where he will make tons of money at the end of the year. We call this the Bhangra Dance for here people dance in no one particular style. Yes of course the best shakes and moves are reserved when the Punjabi songs play…Lamborghini Chalaye Jaane Ho…

Have fun Buddy, but please send me all the messages that you got yesterday about me on Whatsapp…it will surely keep me engaged and not bother you as you prepare for the dance festival. I love this App.

Last Line

We are all fighting hard at every front and not letting the virus spread. Each one of us is playing their part. Keep on at it for we have to win. It is not a question of who is affected; it is now a question of who will survive. Something that Hitler failed, this one disease has done…invaded the USA and brought it down to its knees after having conquered China and Europe. We, in India, are the last bastion which, if it falls, would mean complete annihilation of the human race. So it is imperative for us to stand strong, support each other and the country, maintain discipline and keep the dark one not only at an arm’s length but find a way to defeat it. Stay Safe, Stay Happy and Stay Blessed.

31^st March 2020

Good Morning Team,

Today is an important day for all of us. So stay calm for all you could have done is done, now you must hold your breath as the results pour out…some may be in your favour, some may not but the important thing is that each one of us needs to ask…..did I do enough…and the answer every time will be …no…maybe a little more could have made the difference. It is alright to feel this way for as humans…yeh dil maange more. Just be honest to yourself and no one else and keep trying, never give up.

I must have made the faintest of coughing sound and she came running from the kitchen and asked, You have a sore throat?

No, not at all.

But I heard you cough. Don’t hide, it always starts this way.

I vehemently protested,…kichhu na…just some food particle must have got stuck in my throat.

No, no..she said..it can’t be for you’ve not eaten anything now. She put her hand on my forehead to check if I had fever…

I told you I am fine. You are too much…one cough and you open a dispensary at home!

Nothing doing! You should start on gargling immediately.

She is so pushy and no logic is logical to her. And so she brought the mug full of warm water mixed with salt and put it between me and my open laptop as I tried hard to find a reason to agree to a business with a one off large claim spoiling the loss ratio.

I was angry but for greater peace at home, gargled and returned back to my work station after banging the mug in the sink making my anger apparent to her for having forced me into doing something I didn’t want and spoiling my mood.

Why she does it always, I asked myself?

As the clock stuck 13.30 hrs, she came to the room again signally that the food was ready.

Aash chi…let this VC get over… maybe in another ten minutes.

Man proposes, boss disposes…the VC went on and on…she came in a couple of times but saw me sitting like a good boy nodding my head while some others kept talking on the other side. After a while I requested her to eat as it was getting late but she said no.... and waited till it was almost 15.00 hrs and we ate our lunch together.

My fine Darjeeling tea was served with two Nice biscuits right at 17.00 hrs as I continued my struggle which went on and on. She never misses anything and is never late about anything.

At around 20.00 hrs, I decided to call it a day and poured some wine in two glasses and gave one to her. I was always a ‘tea-totaller’ which means only tea for me till recently when I tasted some wine. And then we also had some wine left over after the recent marriage of our daughter and the two of us decided that we should drink it ourselves before Corona strikes any one of us…Drink & Die! Say cheers to life!!

As I started to sip the wine, she played a soothing Rabindra Sangeet on You Tube that sounded lovely. The translation of the first stanza of the song ‘Tumi Sandhyaro Megho Mala’ reads:

Oh Traveller of my empty sky,

You are the convoy of the evening clouds,

You are the answer to my desire,

Oh, my voyager of the deep space,

I have fashioned you with the sweetness I have,

You are mine, oh, you are mine…

Can anything be more romantic than this…and as I looked at my partner of thirty years…I felt a rhythmic beat in my heart…is this an illusion, I wondered or is this wine getting the better of me…No, No…this is love.

Forget the romance in the office, this is truly, love in times of corona.

Last Line

Today I wish you all Victory, Victory, Victory…victory in your work, victory over the pandemic and victory over yourself…take this as a new beginning to a new life. The world will never be the same after these days pass. Stay strong, stay fit and healthy and stay blessed always and happy. Happiness is the best medicine for all ailments...take it in big doses.

All the best Team and no matter how the results go, we will live to fight this April another day.

Cheers to Life.

SS