Lockdown journal : 27.03.2020

[Some snippets of (non) happenings in my society, which I jotted down to divert my mind from news headlines about the terrible trail of death across the world]

* The RWA in my colony has barricaded both sides of the street in front of our house, effectively doubling the lockdown effect. They mean well, but it has ensured that there is not a soul in sight when you go out to the balcony in the morning. So, I have taken to birdwatching. The bird I clicked as a #stayathome icon on Janta Curfew day has now given birth to two babies. I have tried to find out the species with Google lense app, but failed. It looks like a kite, but I am not sure.

* The elusive garbage van paid a visit to the block today after a gap of two days, triggering such a frantic rush of neighbourhood ladies with bags and bins that social distancing went for a toss. Cannot blame them because the van driver seemed to be in a hurry, probably unnerved by the more-than-usual crowd.

* Landlady has forwarded a video, with someone in the background giving phone numbers of SGPC and Harmandir Sahib, and asserting that Sikhs are ready to feed anyone going hungry anywhere. As you see that the pages of the newspapers are full of stories of starvation and hardship, but you cannot do anything yourself, the good samaritans like them offer reassurance that at least some efforts are being made to ease the situation.

Lockdown journal : 26.03.2020

[Some snippets of (non) happenings in my society, which I jotted down to divert my mind from the news headlines]

* The isolation of human beings have made the birds happier, chirpier and louder. But the dogs look sad, be they of roadside variety or the gentle old Golden Retriever in our block. The big guy is missing his daily walk in the park. The commoners are not getting enough food. It's a lot like the human society.

After a posse of policemen in full battle gear marched through our lane yesterday morning, the jhola-carrying shoppers and the loiterers mostly disappeared. But in the sleepy afternoon hours, the Retriver's owners came out. The lady tiptoed into the park with him. The guy, wrapping a towel all over his face except his nose (!) stood in attention outside, ready to sound an warning in case a law enforcer arrives. The roadetians resting here and there barked a few times, but sans their usual energy.

Someone has locked the park gate today. Now only the neighbourhood cat can go in.

* The non-arrival of garbage van for last two days has caused anxiety among neighbours. A few are contemplating a journey to the dumpyard. Angry words were heard  this morning as they discovered that someone have kept a garbage bag in the narrow passageway. Hearing phrases like "singles staying here", I poked my head through the door and enquired about the trash collectors, to give a hint that I am not the culprit. It was a man from another floor, they later found out.

* Three boys walked through the street with a fat bunch of black cotton masks, shouting "tees ke ek, pachas ke do". There were no takers. By now, most people have collected enough masks, I thought, even though PPEs for healthcare professionals are in short supply all over the world.

* The otherwise bustling locality is so silent that even the sound of a bus passing by can be noticed.  The shouts of children can be faintly heard from the slum along the railway track. The slum-dwellers are now more aware of the problem than the "educated" lot, thanks to internet.

But Social distancing is a word too big for those small hutments.

Prayers of a football fan

The novel coronavirus has wrecked havoc in Italy, where the situation is so terrible that some people are looking at reports of 602 new deaths on Monday somewhat positively as it is a drop from a high of 793 recorded on Saturday.

Among the 6,077 deaths, most were elderly, prompting sombre news headlines such as “a generation has died”.

Italy may mean many things to many people – history, heritage, renaissance, art, Mussolini, mafia, Italian tycoons in Mills and Boon romance, or even the Gandhis.

For me and many Bengalis like myself, Italy always meant football.

Yes, traditionally, we have appreciated the more attacking version of the game played by Latin American countries like Brazil or Argentina, but no true football fan can ignore the Italian legends.

The worst-affected Lombardy region of Italy, with over 3,000 deaths, has at its centre the metropolis of Milan, home to A.C. Milan and Inter Milan, among the biggest names in European football. Lombardy boasts of a number of footballing greats, including Paolo Maldini, considered as the greatest left-back of all time, the good-looking winger Roberto Donadoni, Andrea Pirlo, Franco Baresi, Gianluca Zambrotta and goalkeeper Walter Zenga, who holds the record of having the longest period without conceding a goal in World Cup finals tournament (in 1990).

I faintly remember Italy’s 1982 World Cup triumph and a magazine article about keeper-captain Dino Zoff, the oldest ever winner of the World Cup at the age of 40. I remember supporting Brazil against Italy in the 1994 WC final match which the former won in tie-breaker, and I distinctly remember backing “The Azzurri” conditionally as they won their fourth World Cup, defeating France in Berlin in 2006, only because I, like many other Brazil fans, wanted “revenge” for Brazil’s 3-0 defeat in 1998 WC finals at the hands of Zinedine Zidane’s team.

May Italy bring their legendary defensive skills to the fore and win this game too, against the pandemic. This is the prayer of an ordinary football fan in a country which is preparing to fight its own difficult battle to combat the virus.

Apocalypse, now?

A few photographs of iconic landmarks in Japan and Italy, lying forlorn, emptied of tourists, eerily remind one of the Will Smith-starrer 2007 Sci-fi film "I Am Legend", in which the protagonist finds himself alone in the crowd of skyscrapers in New York city after a virus has wiped out 90 per cent of the Earth's population.

The coronavirus pandemic proves, once again, that despite proclaiming ourselves as all-powerful, we are just a vulnerable, weak species, trying to lord over the universe and inventing deadly weapons to fight over pieces of land we claim to be ours, but mostly failing when it comes to combating a micro-organism or even a disease like cancer.

Some people may harbour grandiose delusions because of their race, community, religion, financial status and other such man-made things, but they also find themselves facing an equal threat as those they consider as inferior. That's why the sages and saints, the wise men, always told us about the oneness of human race, howsoever ridiculous it may sound in this age.

Pic: ftom internet