I woke up to a bright and beautiful day. On our return from our morning walk with 'Mishti' our dog, I saw a tree branch fallen on a car. The branch had damaged the rear glass window and made a huge dent. I saw many damaged drumsticks and an elderly man picking up all the good ones. I smiled at him, but he didn't bother smiling back. He was probably engrossed in his drumstick treasure. The security was assessing the damage. He noted down the license number and said that he will have to check his register to know the owner of the car. 'C' shared that he could find out the owners name from the RTO app.
I walked into my home feeling thankful for it could have been our car and at the same time feeling bad for the owner realizing that they would have to wait for days before they got their car repaired. 'C' exclaimed, "I would have had a breakdown if it was our car."
I browsed through my messages while drinking my morning tea. There were so many videos of people gathering together in groups banging on their thaalis, blowing the conch shells, beating their drums, playing loud music. These videos had been trickling in since 5:00 pm yesterday but today they were everywhere. Friends expressed their disgust, some joked that it was more of carona aaona and not carona jaona. 'Probably people feel that the best way to express their gratitude toward the health caregivers was by giving them more opportunity to serve them,' I thought. God save our humankind...
I hadn't clapped or banged my thaalis or made any noise yesterday. We decided that as a family we would provide help in the best of our capacity to those who needed it. 'C' paid our car washer his salary in advance and asked him to avoid any travel and take care of his family and I made a mental note to send across some money to my househelp in Pune and here in Mumbai. We also realized that right now our biggest contribution would be to stay at home. Use technology to socialize and keep a physical distance.
People from the society I have a flat in were yet looking at everything through the convenience lens. While they have planned to bang their thaalis everyday and sing some mantras from their balcony to shoo away the evil, they are expecting door step delivery and five star treatment by staying at home. They are all shattered just thinking about all the housework they will have to do. They are so unwilling to prepare themselves for the worst. God save these poor souls. Their mantra right now is, "we will keep a social distance - but we expect all the caregivers to do their job." They probably think that our caregivers are immune to the threat. They don't have families and their life isn't a life. Maybe they think that they are robots. Hey, but even robots are susceptible to viruses aren't they?
A friend sent an image on whatsapp of people from Gujurat gathering together, dancing to drum beats and thaali peeth. and another image of Shaheen baug protesters adhering to the Janta curfew - no they hadn't given up their protest. They had simply left their slippers as a symbolic gesture that the protests were still on.
Amidst all this Thali Peething...I decided that I would make our very delicious thaali peeth for dinner. Now I just hope I have all the ingredients.
Originally posted on Facebook on March 23, 2020
I walked into my home feeling thankful for it could have been our car and at the same time feeling bad for the owner realizing that they would have to wait for days before they got their car repaired. 'C' exclaimed, "I would have had a breakdown if it was our car."
I browsed through my messages while drinking my morning tea. There were so many videos of people gathering together in groups banging on their thaalis, blowing the conch shells, beating their drums, playing loud music. These videos had been trickling in since 5:00 pm yesterday but today they were everywhere. Friends expressed their disgust, some joked that it was more of carona aaona and not carona jaona. 'Probably people feel that the best way to express their gratitude toward the health caregivers was by giving them more opportunity to serve them,' I thought. God save our humankind...
I hadn't clapped or banged my thaalis or made any noise yesterday. We decided that as a family we would provide help in the best of our capacity to those who needed it. 'C' paid our car washer his salary in advance and asked him to avoid any travel and take care of his family and I made a mental note to send across some money to my househelp in Pune and here in Mumbai. We also realized that right now our biggest contribution would be to stay at home. Use technology to socialize and keep a physical distance.
People from the society I have a flat in were yet looking at everything through the convenience lens. While they have planned to bang their thaalis everyday and sing some mantras from their balcony to shoo away the evil, they are expecting door step delivery and five star treatment by staying at home. They are all shattered just thinking about all the housework they will have to do. They are so unwilling to prepare themselves for the worst. God save these poor souls. Their mantra right now is, "we will keep a social distance - but we expect all the caregivers to do their job." They probably think that our caregivers are immune to the threat. They don't have families and their life isn't a life. Maybe they think that they are robots. Hey, but even robots are susceptible to viruses aren't they?
A friend sent an image on whatsapp of people from Gujurat gathering together, dancing to drum beats and thaali peeth. and another image of Shaheen baug protesters adhering to the Janta curfew - no they hadn't given up their protest. They had simply left their slippers as a symbolic gesture that the protests were still on.
Amidst all this Thali Peething...I decided that I would make our very delicious thaali peeth for dinner. Now I just hope I have all the ingredients.
Originally posted on Facebook on March 23, 2020
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