Now and then

Thanks to COVID-19, we have found ourselves in a pickle. Squashed at home, adjusting, adapting, remembering the pre-Corona days with plenty of time to do all the stuff we always wanted to.

So pickling is one of the activities done with a gusto these days.

Homemade Dalle Chili Pickle. Red hot, eat at your own risk.   

My work place changed. I learnt what it was to work from home. My sprawling classroom of the school became a desk in the corner of my room. A laptop with a charging cable snaking underneath the chair, a white board precariously balanced on an armchair and piles of books stacked by the side. Welcome to my workstation!

I log in daily, punctually to the second. Can’t afford to dawdle like earlier times to say ‘hi’ or ‘hang on’. In fact there is deathly silence in the room, the family is banished. Tiny windows with tiny people pop up immediately. We talk, we write, we argue but we don’t fight. This is as real as a classroom can be. So is my panic when I find myself out of my virtual classroom suddenly.

Connectivity issues, sigh!

Then there is this little matter of how a sneeze or a scratchy throat puts me in a tizzy these days. Out comes the thermometer, the oximeter, the hot soups. Have to be careful when you live in a family where the oldest is almost 90. A trip outside the gates is like embarking on a quest; we the knights in our virus proof mask, faceless, distant and dauntless.

When the cabin fever set in, we go on a ‘perfectly social yet distant from the crowd‘ activity. A picnic!

Splashing in the sun.

I will not deny that it is tough to find an isolated spot when you live in a country of a billion and everyone has the same idea but you persevere. In our case, we walk a long way but it is worth it. Nothing can be as blissful as dipping your toes in an icy stream while the sun warms up your shoulders. Splashes and shrieks are complimentary.

Also the best thing to come out of this Corona trouble was to have my scattered family together in the nest after a long time. My fledglings flew away to college and they were back when lockdown-1 was imposed. Next week, the older one will be gone again. Shopping essentials now include face shield, gloves, sanitizer bottles, dozens of masks. Namkeen and cakes which were a priority are at the bottom of the list.

I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

J.R.R. Tolkien

“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”

We are adapting.

Counting my blessings and thinking happy thoughts. Here and now.

Lens-Artists Challenge : Now and then

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