Living with Lockdown

Lockdown-5 is round the corner to keep us guessing if it will see more restrictions or liberalizations. Meanwhile we shall re-visit the series of Lockdowns that we braved.

 

Lockdown-4 permitted morning walks and hairdresser-shops to open. With a liberated feeling each one jumped out of his house as though released from cave-life. Some have gone slim, some maintain status quo, a few show signs of prosperity.

Though masked, I could guess somewhat who’s who. Nonetheless I adopted the principle: Greet everyone regardless, man. It’s better to greet an unknown than miss the known. Luckily, some unknown walkers partly unmasked themselves to convey me the mistaken identity.  I cashed on it to make new friends with them too.

 

The prehistoric look with long uncut, disheveled hair bothered many. Self-help took centre stage. Some gave the hairdresser a run for his money. For some the result was as though rats had a field day on their head the previous night. The play-safe made a Yul Brynner cabbage cut, while the baldies, for once thanked God for their destiny. My heart however went out to the hairdresser who had confided in me that, as an alternative, the community also specialized in playing tavil or nadaswaram for festivals. I complimented him for having a standby. Alas, neither of his arts could come handy, with no festivals around, either.

 

Other areas that self-help embraced included floor-sweeeping, washing clothes, dishwashing…Residents who preferred convenience chose to consult Telegram for the cheap and best dishwasher in town. Regardless, requests for car-jumpstart equipment and nearest air-filling station occupied the top spot in Telegram.

 

On the home front, residents spent more time on TV, not for Covid update, but surfing Netflix, Prime, Airtel Xstream… For once they got value for money. Instead of ‘how many movies you saw’, the norm now is, ‘how many times you saw the same movie?” Paucity of films, of course.

 

Side by side, things have been going out of order systematically. I can bet I have replaced the maximum number of electrical switches. About six or seven are now delicately balanced, awaiting replacement. I am seriously thinking of buying switches in bulk. For Sobha builders, for their “Lessons Learned” meet on SFV, the top contenders would be faulty switches and bursting pipelines.

 

The absence of ironing-man didn’t make a major impact. Less pairs of trousers, shirts and other pressed clothes saw the light of the day with Work From Home ruling the roost. Conversely, more of the fed-up-wearing garments, earmarked for a flood or tsunami donation, staged a comeback.

 

In societal life, token system came into being at Easyday, starting from 7.30 am. Sharp at 7.30 if you ring, you are 6 or 7 (there are people waiting right in front of me, sir, assures the Clubhouse security staff). At 7.39, if you are lucky your number can be 46 of 47. I bet Easyday had more customers during Lockdown than normal days. Good for them. Meanwhile, online ordering residents learnt to live with getting Colgate for Dantkant, or vice versa, though this was more pronounced in oil brands. Time will tell if the relationship with those Konanakunte shops is just a marriage of convenience or long lasting.

 

Speaking for myself, my first venture post-liberalization was to visit my sister in law’s place in Cedar for board and card games. We had taught them these, but returned home defeated hands down at their hands. Moral:  Not everyone is grateful.

 

With regular practice during Lockdown, I can now recite Rudram, Chamakam…at nearly Purohit’s speed, though that is not in itself a qualification. Because, at such fast pace even Gods themselves can’t make out whom the purohit is hailing, and none might attend thinking it is for the other.

 

Meanwhile I am trying to get a grip of the difference between containment zone, sealed zone, and red zone, orange zone, and what have you.