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!
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!
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!
Mazaa aa gya
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