Quarantine Chronicles - Concluding Episode

Day 7 – 19th June

During the quarantine, we didn’t have enough milk powder to make ourselves tea/coffee. We had to organize it, carefully. No one was allowed in and no one could go out of the campus without the danger of the 14-day self-quarantine!

A message was passed on to a contact outside. He himself couldn’t go to the city, so he passed on the message to another contact. What finally arrived was Amul Baby Milk Powder!

Assuming that if a child could survive on this milk powder, we felt safe using it and behaved like little children for a while!

Day 9 – 21st June

Father’s Day; World Music Day; World Yoga Day and a Solar Eclipse of long duration – all fell on this day! How many things can poor quarantine souls concentrate on?! Teji prompted me to speak something about my father on FB, and we were ready. Guess that the skies knew that I would shed tears thinking of my father and sent some soft showers when we were all ready for the shoot. Finally, the rains gave way to my emotion and the shoot was done and posted.

Day 10 – 22nd June

There is a French window to the balcony and it was not closing easily. I forced it closed. And what do we see? A long worm was wriggling on the floor in the balcony. On looking closely, we realized that it was the tail of a lizard, which gave up its tail and ran for dear life. Only when I saw the lizard without the tail, did I realize what had happened. It is meant to be the lizard’s survival plan, that when it faces danger, it can leave the tail for the pursuer to get distracted with, while it escapes and grows its tailback in leisure!

Question is, why doesn’t a human naturally not have this survival plan in place, where we could leave behind all material attachments and run towards the knowledge that lets us live in supreme joy? They say that the natural warnings of disaster are never heard easily by mankind. ☹

Day 11 – 23rd June

Having done a lot of FB live events, and also some music and bhajan camps while in Mumbai, we felt we should join hands with Chinmaya Vibhooti and do a workshop on bhajans composed by Guruji, Swami Tejomayananda. The very first song that we chose was a Ganesha bhajan. Generally, when singing bhajans, I pay more attention to the lyrics and the tune and, not so much to the raga, although it is equally important to note that. This song seemed to be based on raga Patdeep. Meanwhile, Teji was trying to do her good act of inspiring me and played some music on FB. My first thought was about the singer and the immediate thought after that was, is this raga Patdeep? Surely it was! And oddly, Teji had not particularly chosen that raga. We took this as Pujya Gurudev’s approval for the workshop and began with great enthusiasm.

Day 12 to 14 – 24th to 26th June

Nothing extraordinary to report

26th June was meant to be our release date. Now, did this need to happen?! Husband and a few others had upset stomachs and some among them even had fever. So, we were asked to continue staying in the same room as during the quarantine.

Post Quarantine

The time between 27th June and 1st July was spent in preparing for the Guru Poornima program that was to go on the Chinmaya Channel. And, I was finally back to my base. :) 

On 30th June, we sang all Guruji’s songs online and knew that Guruji was watching. At the end of the day, I got a call from him and he said that when Lava and Kusha sang the Ramayana for Lord Shri Rama, Lord Rama wondered if his real story was as beautiful as the children made it to be, through their song; similarly, Guruji felt that his songs sounded more beautiful when we sang it! That was a compliment for me to treasure for life!

The normal routine continued until I noticed that husband’s hair was growing too long. The men here were choosing to shave off their hair, to avoid multiple visits to barbers, who were not operating during the lockdown. Some residents specialized in this wonderful job, and some others took benefit of the offer. Truly, Atmanirbhar Bharat!

Possibly, the husband’s hair had not grown long enough to deserve a close shave. Trying to be Atmanirbhar within the house, I offered to help him with a haircut. All that is required are a comb and scissors, I assumed. Both were available at home, and the lady barber, too. ;)

While I was at the job, I asked an innocent question to him – Aren’t you scared? He laughed and said that there was not much choice left for him. What a brave man – placing his head in his wife’s hands! What trust!

And, I paid back his trust with a cut that he and I would never forget! The back of his head looked more like a chicken’s backside! Just look at this!

Of course, before the afternoon, he went to the nearest saviour who would clean off the mess and give him a presentable look with hair that probably couldn’t get cut further!

Self-Quarantine Chronicles – Part 2

Day 3: 15^th June 2020

I love the balcony, from where the view is lovely. A phone call in the balcony is a good idea, I thought. Seems like it wasn’t. The crow, who I had teased, decided to take revenge. It landed on the balcony roof. I still didn’t think much of it. While I was looking the other way, it flew right above my head, leaving me scurrying back into the room. Fortunately, the mesh door was in an unlocked position. Otherwise, I would have died out of heart attack. Looks like someone in the world wants me out of the way!

I have not visited the balcony alone after that. Frightened chick, I am.

The same day, Teji wanted me to oil her hair. I was applying liberal portions of coconut oil on her hair, straight from the bottle. Once, when I pressed the bottle, the bull’s eye turned out to be Teji’s mouth! She was singing ‘Despacito’ and, when she said ‘to’ of this word, there was an oil spill there! A little splash on her pants and T-shirt, and I was done for the day.

Day 4: 16^th June 2020

It was Teji’s birthday, and the Ashram kitchen was kind enough to make her favourite breakfast and also send across a special sweet for the two of us, poor quarantined people.

Rest of the day was spent by her answering calls or replying to messages. Overall, a quiet day – unlike any other 16^th June for Teji. I didn’t venture out to the balcony….

Day 5: 17^th June 2020

We decided to change roles. I would be Teji and she would be me. I was a little less adept at this, but she had to be very serious and scold me for every wrong move I made and, say ‘no’ to anything I suggested. She did full justice to the role till it lasted. It didn’t last long, though! We were back in our original roles by the evening and had a good laugh. May be the room was much quieter than other days during our role play. Both of us ended up becoming silent – she, because she took on the role well and me, because I couldn’t be her for God’s sake! A quiet room, which even the crow did not disturb.

In the evening, we saw beautiful birds – the golden oriole, the warblers, the mynas, the bulbuls, etc. (which we are thrilled to see every day). Some of them sat quietly on the branches when we sang. Music has that effect, you know!

Day 6: 18^th June 2020

The crow was back at the balcony – threatening me with guttural sounds which didn’t seem like cawing at all. Maybe it was scolding me. Teji told him to be merciful and forgive me for the grave mistake I had made of teasing him. Let’s see what tomorrow is like... We still have 8 days more to go in self-quarantine.

Self-Quarantine Chronicles – Part 1

Day 0: 12^th June 2020

Returned to Chinmaya Vibhooti from Mumbai. On self-quarantine. Set all things in the room provided (Sumitra 201). Tired… Wanted to drink something. There was a nice bottle with a greenish liquid inside. The label said, litchi + aloe vera juice. It wasn’t full. I thought it was a loving gift from husband, who has missed me from the past 2.5 months. May be he liked it so much that he had to share it with me! I smelt it. It felt weird, but I thought it was the Aloe Vera! I decided to sit a bit to find out. I did – and found out it wasn’t any juice, as it was horrid and almost burnt my throat. Thanks to network issues, I couldn’t get through to husband over phone. I sent him a message as to what was in the bottle. No response. I drank some water and sat to eat dinner. There was no taste in the tongue!

Received husband’s response – ‘that was phenyl’. Wow! I was apparently trying to leave for good! Teji, who was with me throughout, panicked, and informed authorities in the Ashram, as she read on the internet that ingesting even a little of the liquid could lead to burning of the internal organs and great damage!

Soon, we called up the local doctor, who didn’t panic, thankfully, as I was still alive! He said he would see me the next morning at the gate, as no one is allowed inside the campus. A lot of suggestions and help later, I failed to bring out the food along with the ‘liquid’, but having consumed 3 litres of water within an hour or two, I felt I would have taken any poison out of my system.

And truly, the next day, I woke up. I mean, I woke up! Messaged and called everyone to say I was fine. The doctor decided that antacids over the next few days would clear the system of any ill-effects of the ‘liquid’.

Day 1: 13^th June 2020

A slight rainfall brought in water into the room, right on top of our many laptop and phone wires and on the chair.

The laptop was refusing to get charged properly. We tried various points but felt a fluctuation in the power. We asked for a spike guard, feeling that it would solve our problem.

Day 2: 14^th June 2020

No spike guard could save the laptop from the coma it had gone into. May be it took away from the brunt of my poisoning and took it on itself to fall ill, instead. Real loyal laptop, my Simba! It has been sent to the Apple hospital.

While out in the balcony, we found a crow (raven) making different sounds with its cawing. I found it funny and started imitating him. He must have taken offence but went away quietly. I did say that I was joking and that he need not take me seriously.

Come evening, and both of us took chairs outside and sat in the balcony for chai. Suddenly I felt something land on the back of my head. Teji saw it and said it was lizard poop. She even had the guts to say that my hair matched with the black & white poop! Thankfully, I had already covered this possibility and had pushed my chair towards the grill frame in the balcony, away from the wall. I dread to think how my chai would have tasted with lizard poop!

To be continued….