The Bubble

With the world looking to get to its feet, we in the coming days and months will experience still novel ways and means of restrictions. The word restriction sounds too constrictive. Re-inventing it with terms like ‘lockdown’, ‘stay at home’, ‘quarantine’ would make the whole concept more palatable. But wait, aren't these terms out of fashion now? I agree, they are. Then may I interest you with the newest term which would very soon do the rounds?. I give you the term 'Bubble'.

The global supply chain was among the first casualties of the coronavirus. This necessitated nations to look inward with the intention of creating and increasing capacity of life essential products to begin with. Be it ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ or ‘Make in America’, it essentially embodies the same thought. However in the short term everyone is trying to achieve normalcy in whatever respect possible. Once the process of reopening states and provinces within the country is on track, countries would like to restart air travel giving the airline, hospitality and the economy in general a much needed boost. Such travel will have to start within a ‘Travel Bubble’.

In a ‘travel bubble’ a set of countries agree to open their borders to each other, but keep borders to all other countries closed. So people can move freely within the bubble, but cannot enter from the outside. Travel bubbles are actually extensions of ‘social bubbles’. A social bubble is essentially an expanded quarantine zone which includes people you would consider safe. The social bubble is said to be an effective way to alleviate the social isolation brought on by a ‘home quarantine’. The social bubble we have created has 3 people other than us. These folks stay in our community and we are in regular touch sharing information about where we travel or intend to travel. All this is contributes to building trust which is essential when in a bubble. Maybe you can look around and try to form your own social bubbles.

Similar to a social bubble, the travel bubble requires a level of trust and commitment among partner countries involved. Trust in their ability to control, contact trace and possibly reverse the spread of the coronavirus. This trust though ideally concerned with public health in reality will be driven by economic dependency and may also involve political arm twisting in the coming months.

The little one celebrating his first birthday next month. While we had plans to celebrate it with a group of friends and acquaintances it is only rational for us now to limit participation within our social bubble. We can only pray that our friends would understand and still shower the bugger with blessings and best wishes!

As we move from home quarantines to bubbles and get used to changes in our day to day lives, the one thing which should remain constant are the unceasing endeavors to 'break ones own bubble' and reinvent oneself in these 'interesting' times. 

*Information on travel bubble : https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/five-things-know-about-travel-bubbles-180974983/

Dear Baba

Dear Baba,

Wish you a Happy Father’s Day! You can wish me the same. I celebrate my first Father’s Day this year. Ofcourse you know all this, but then a worthy salutation is needed to start off a letter, so there it is. It will be 7 years since we last spoke, though I like to think of them as close to 7 days (I distinctly remember the priest saying that 1 year for us mortals is just a day for where you are). Guess its the ‘Coping mechanism’ which makes me think of it this way.

I won’t bore you with all that happened in the 7 days since we last spoke. But rather tell you about the past 2 days. You are now a grand-dad, again, yes after 20 years! Aatmay (no, we didn’t come up with a nickname yet. You see chota-dadu,mini-dadu and micro-dadu were already taken so now its gonna be just Aatmay we think), your grandson, doesn’t know about you yet, but he will in the coming days. In the next month he will be all of 1.

I must confess that becoming a father has awakened a sense of responsibility in me. I somehow have a sense of been grounded, which has led me to a kind of satisfaction which is hard for me to put in words. As a father yourself, you can better appreciate this. I now realize that we never had a chance to sit, just the two of us, and talk about everything and nothing. I feel that when the time came for you to sit back, relax and have my ear, it was too late.

There are close to 25 years of memories which I have of you, which will last me for the remainder of my lifetime. The funny thing about memories is that they are not free flowing. They invariably need an anchor to survive.  Objects, incidents, references, even to words said and meant in a particular context act as those anchors. Once anchored, memories have this habit of coming back to you when you least expect them, surprising you. The sad part about memories is that they are way too personal in nature. You can try to share them to someone, but you can never completely convey what they really mean to you. They are both a treasure and a burden in that sense.

Even otherwise, I am sure there would not have been any parenting tips forthcoming from you. The only thing I intend to do in that regard is to ‘be the best that I can’.  I can only hope that I am afforded the time to sit back, relax and look back at a life well-lived.

Cheers!

Dadu

To Take - Out or Not to Take - Out

The ongoing CoVid-19 situation seems like a never ending test to me. The first few weeks of the 'stay at home' order was a test of getting used to well, 'staying at home'. The indefinite 'Work from Home', blurred the lines between a work day and home life. Grocery shopping ceased to be an activity of leisure and instead turned into something which required razor sharp intent and military like attention to detail. Heading out (except for essentials) turned into a strict no-no.

Over the past 3 months, I have adapted to the 'new' normal rather well. However one thing which I am still unable to get over with is 'restaurant food'. The restaurant industry has been hit hard in the ongoing crisis and while the dine in services are closed (for good reason), the restaurants are still offering take outs. And this is where the conflict begins.

CDC guidelines clearly spell out that there is no known evidence of the virus spreading via food. Add to that the incessant marketing emails from DoorDash, Grubhub etc advertising 'contact-less' free delivery from select restaurants and top it up with the Mrs who understands the science but still wants to err on the side of extreme caution. What you get is a perfect storm!

The last few weeks have started with me declaring that I will be ordering take out this week and then it petering out as the week comes to an end. To nip the argument in its bud the Mrs dishes out some awesome stuff either for lunch or dinner with the dishes landing figuratively in my lap for washing. The technique of providing evidence of friends who have started getting take-out and yet seem to be relatively healthy has been met with such disdain that most of the times the case is dismissed even before my opening arguments are complete.

Jokes apart, I do understand where the Mrs is coming from. But 'Yeh Dil Hai ki Maanta Nahi!'. So until its safer out there or the Mrs has a change of heart, the question will remain - 'To Take-Out or Not to Take-Out?!'

Walk in the Park

The Memorial day weekend afforded me some courage to venture out and about in the prevailing coronavirus situation. It was to do with the weather and the fact that the numbers in the state of Illinois were going in the right direction.

These days company is not a question when it comes to doing things. The Mrs is seldom amenable however the little one just doesn’t have a choice. So each evening I bundle him up in the stroller and the two of us set out to the park which is a block away from us.

I must admit that in the initial days it did feel weird. You see that for past 2 months the only time I had been out was to pickup grocery and that too at intervals of 2 weeks. The very first thing which caught my eye (and rightly so) was the signboard proclaiming - “Please ensure 6 ‘ social distance. Enjoy your walk“. Subconsciously I drew a circle around me with a radius of 6 ‘ and started devising ways of how I would make it through this without anyone violating ‘my space’.

As I started my stroll I observed that the other folks walking around also had their own ‘circles’ in place and lo and behold each one of us was part of this ‘Avoid the circle’ game. Vision - of what lies ahead with respect to the people or ‘circles’ coming your way and Trust - that the people will not make abrupt changes in their paths seemed to be attributes to get out unscathed. Guided by these I , together with a handful of other folks who found themselves in the park at that time continued to navigate the path.

The one thing that struck me in all this was in the melee of ‘social distancing’, we were too busy to acknowledge each other. Whatever little comfort the quick meeting of the eyes or the quick nod of the head would afford was most definitely lost. However, as the days have passed, I seemed to have fallen into a routine and believe it or not have been mostly seeing the same people in the park at the time when I roll in. I can sense that our confidence in each other has grown and though trying to keep our ‘circles’ apart some of us have also started to acknowledge each other. 

I am aware that its going to take a lot more than a ‘Walk in the Park’ to get things to normal but hey its a start, won’t you agree?