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.