The New Normal

The article was published by Royal Photographic Society, United Kingdom, in April 2021

Living in a densely populated country of 382 people per square kilometre, social distancing was a welcome stricture at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020. On the streets of Varanasi, one of the most socially and religiously vibrant cities in Eastern India, built along the River Ganga flowing south to north, people barely cared. Some even thought that this was a scam promoted by the rich pharmaceutical cartels.

Being able to maintain what later came to be known as “COVID appropriate behaviour” is a matter that is directly proportional to the disparate social customs. The power strata a person belongs to also influences his or her choice of adherence, and this too became evident during the elections that was to follow in early 2021. For me though, I was happier not having to be repeatedly upset at airport cues by bad body odour of jostling co-passengers. On March 17, 2020 at VNS we realised that the perils of pandemic had just started dawning and people were slowly getting habituated to wearing face masks while social distancing demanded stricter enforcement.

The last two days had been stressful with strange news of countries talking of closing land and air borders. Across the globe, lockdowns denied citizens their normal lifestyles; many lost their livelihood and others, their lives. (the last photograph)

The 910 miles flight back home was unexceptional, except that the two of us occupied the six seats of the first row facing the couple of masked cabin crew.

Soon enough, images of empty shelves from supermarkets filled social media; antiseptic hand gel was sold out, and in some cases toilet papers. I had anticipated this emergency.

A friend of mine advised to quickly withdraw a sizeable stash of cash and to stock up food grains, just as the government continued it’s insistence on using “digital cash”. People were urged to and they did do some interesting things – from banging metal plates, blowing the conch, ringing bells to even singing newly released songs like ” Go Corona Go” – but the pandemic was here to stay. The infections, spread, and death were now a matter of statistics and subtle political bickering, as people got divided by their beliefs and actions. There were those, who were at ground zero. Infected, scared and dying; with them medical professionals who worked assiduously to save lives and preserve health. Then there were those who ridiculed rationale and sciences, believed the snollygosters and put others in harm’s way.

Back home, the gloom after two recent deaths in the family still loomed large. The lockdown had come with a farrago of myth, fake news, tweets and general news in media – had done little to alleviate the stress. The wave of globalisation that we had been riding in the previous few decades seemed to be replaced by pseudo-protectionism now. As were adapted to this new normal, we adopted Axl, the Spaniel. Man’s best friend was now family.

We were still normal people in a world order that was rapidly changing and being increasingly referred to as the “new normal”. Daily needs, groceries, medicines and Amazon parcels were being delivered at doorsteps and left in the porch, more than before, with the awkward promise of ” zero contact delivery” – some like Zomato and Licious even put an extra charge. We were paying people to remain clean, just as passenger vehicle manufacturers like Mahindra and Maruti charged customers for their employees to maintain basic hygeine.

As neighbouring colonies continued reporting infections followed by lack of hospital beds and occasional deaths, the pandemic made me feel old and feeble. In the past, in any emergency, I would spontaneously rush to support people in the community. Now the new mantra was “Stay home, stay safe” and people like me with co-morbidities simply could not step out. Could not help others. That hurt !

The weekend rigmarole now included fumigation inside the house and spraying disinfestations around the house as we kept breaching the lines between paranoia, prudence and vigilance.

..to be continued..