Pandemic praise

Now that life has returned to normal, here are some things I miss about Covid lockdowns

 

I suppose it was bound to happen. After many months of celebrating the end of Covid lockdowns and rejoicing in the fact that life was returning to normal, I suddenly find myself in the decidedly odd position of missing the pandemic. 

 

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to go back to the bad old days, when we were all locked in our houses and had to wear N95 masks even to open the door for deliveries. And, like so many others, I suffered personal bereavements at this time, the sorrow of which still lingers. But strangely, there are moments when I find myself thinking back to the pandemic with nostalgia rather than dread.

 

What can you possibly miss about those dark days of Covid lockdowns, I hear you ask, in tones of utter incredulity. Well, here are just some things I miss, in no particular order

 

·       What I loved best about the days of the pandemic was how my world shrank down to my core group. All those casual acquaintances, distant family members, professional contacts, all fell victim to social distancing. And what I was left with was the people I truly cared about: my immediate family, my best friends, my closest neighbours. It made me realise that we don’t really need the vast social circle we build around ourselves. All that matters is the handful of people who make your world complete. Everything else is extraneous – and that is a truly liberating feeling.

 

·       The thing I treasured most about this period, when we were all locked up in our homes, was that I had almost unlimited time to myself, where I could do exactly what I wanted without the thousand other distractions that are usually a part of life. This is what allowed me to concentrate on the writing of my novel, Madam Prime Minister (a sequel to my first political thriller, Race Course Road), ensuring that I finished it in record time. Now that I am struggling to finish the spy novel that I am currently working on, I find myself longing for those Covid lockdown days, when it was so much easier to concentrate on my writing.

 

·       Going for walks in my favourite parks when the lockdown became less severe was, without fail, the highlight of my day. There were very few people around because not many folks were venturing outdoors. So, I had vast, vacant spaces to myself for the most part, and I could enjoy the spring flowers and the summer blooms in splendid solitude. Now that the parks are overflowing with picknickers, those Covid-tinged days seem like a dream that ended too soon.

 

·       It was during the pandemic that I rediscovered the romance of the road trip and discovered the charms of places closer to home. Not only was it a relief not to have to brave airport security and long flights to go on holiday, but I also found that road trips brought me closer to the country that I was driving through, giving my experiences an immediacy that air travel sorely lacked.

 

·       But the absolute best bit about the pandemic days was the air that we got to breathe in Delhi. Thanks to the lack of construction work, and absence of vehicular traffic, the pollution virtually vanished. Every day was a blue-sky day and the air quality varied between good and moderate.

 

So yes, the pandemic brought with it death and desolation. But it came with some blessings as well – which can perhaps only be appreciated in retrospect. 

 

Pandemic praise

Now that life has returned to normal, here are some things I miss about Covid lockdowns

 

I suppose it was bound to happen. After many months of celebrating the end of Covid lockdowns and rejoicing in the fact that life was returning to normal, I suddenly find myself in the decidedly odd position of missing the pandemic. 

 

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to go back to the bad old days, when we were all locked in our houses and had to wear N95 masks even to open the door for deliveries. Perish the thought! But increasingly, there are moments when I find myself thinking back to the pandemic with nostalgia rather than dread.

 

What can you possibly miss about those dark days of Covid lockdowns, I hear you ask, in tones of utter incredulity. Well, here are just some things I miss, in no particular order

 

·       What I loved best about the days of the pandemic was how my world shrank down to my core group. All those casual acquaintances, distant family members, professional contacts, all fell victim to social distancing. And what I was left with was the people I truly cared about: my immediate family, my best friends, my closest neighbours. It made me realise that we don’t really need the vast social circle we build around ourselves. All that matters is the handful of people who make your world complete. Everything else is extraneous – and that is a truly liberating feeling.

·       The thing I treasured most about this period, when we were all locked up in our homes, was that I had almost unlimited time to myself, where I could do exactly what I wanted without the thousand other distractions that are usually a part of life. This is what allowed me to concentrate on the writing of my novel, Madam Prime Minister (a sequel to my first political thriller, Race Course Road), ensuring that I finished it in record time. Now that I am struggling to finish the spy novel that I am currently working on, I find myself longing for those Covid lockdown days, when it was so much easier to concentrate on my writing.

·       Going for walks in my favourite parks when the lockdown became less severe was, without fail, the highlight of my day. There were very few people around because not many folks were venturing outdoors. So, I had vast, vacant spaces to myself for the most part, and I could enjoy the spring flowers and the summer blooms in splendid solitude. Now that the parks are overflowing with picknickers, those Covid-tinged days seem like a dream that ended too soon.

·       It was during the pandemic that I rediscovered the romance of the road trip and discovered the charms of places closer to home. Not only was it a relief not to have to brave airport security and long flights to go on holiday, but I also found that road trips brought me closer to the country that I was driving through, giving my experiences an immediacy that air travel sorely lacked.

·       But the absolute best bit about the pandemic days was the air that we got to breathe in Delhi. Thanks to the lack of construction work, and absence of vehicular traffic, the pollution virtually vanished. Every day was a blue-sky day and the air quality varied between good and moderate. Bliss!

 

So yes, the pandemic came with some blessings as well – though we may have been blind to them at the time.

Count your blessings

Lockdown couldn’t have come at a better time – and we have technology to thank for it

 

I remember India’s victory in the 1983 World Cup like it was yesterday. I didn’t actually watch the final in real time, hearing it unfold on the radio instead. But I still remember every over, every fall of wicket, and of course, Kapil Dev’s magnificence, so many decades down the line.

 

You can imagine my excitement then, when the movie based on those events, 83, was ready for release in the theatres. But before I could make any plans to see it, Omicron began spreading its tentacles all over the country. And, with great reluctance, I had to cancel my plans to see the movie that had captured one of the seminal events of my teenage years. 

 

I was gutted, of course. But I cheered up considerably when I discovered that I wasn’t going to miss out on it for too long. Eight weeks after its theatrical run, 83 would be released on a streaming service. And given that I had waited for nearly four decades to see it, what was another eight weeks?

 

But this entire episode got me thinking. I know that being stuck at home in lockdown-like circumstances is far from ideal. But who can deny that this is the best time in the history of mankind to be isolating within the four walls of your house?

 

And we have technology to thank for that. We can work from home, interact with our colleagues on Zoom, and network via various social media apps. If we want to cook, we can get ingredients delivered to our doorsteps in a matter of minutes. If we don’t feel like cooking, we can order in our favourite foods through various delivery apps. 

 

All that we need is available to us at the click of a button, and we can enjoy the best that the world has to offer from the comfort of our living room couches, as we binge-watch our way through everything the sundry streaming services have to offer. What more could a locked-down person possibly ask for?

 

Don’t believe me. Well, let’s conduct a little experiment. Imagine that Covid had struck not in 2019 but in 2000. How would we have coped with the pandemic in that decade?

 

Working from home would have been a complete impossibility because nobody had high-speed wifi (or any kind of wifi) at home. So, we would have a choice of either shutting down all businesses or keeping them open but risking infection to all workers – not much of a choice, you will agree. 

 

Cooking would have been a challenge because only the basic groceries would have been delivered by your kinara shop. And certainly, you could not have ordered in any cuisine of your choice and had it re-heating in your kitchen in less than an hour. 

 

And what would we have done during those long evenings spent at home? Yes, we had a few DVDs stashed away that could have kept us entertained for a couple of weeks. And we could have watched TV for an hour or so. But there would have been nothing like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or other such streaming services, offering us zillions of shows to feast on. 

 

Looking back on the last two years, I have to admit that lockdown has not been so bad to me. The lack of distractions meant that I could finish my book, Madam Prime Minister, well within deadline. And though its release has come in the midst of Omicron, I have still managed to promote it, conducting TV interviews via Zoom, answering questionnaires via email, and so on.

 

And when I wasn’t writing, I managed to read all the latest books, thank to my Kindle app that stood in for all those shuttered bookshops. I cooked everything my heart (and my husband) desired, getting everything from sausages to sauces delivered to my door. I ordered in from my favourite restaurants, and even though the experience wasn’t quite the same, the food certainly was. And I spent my evenings watching the best TV shows and movies made over the past few decades.

 

Technology may be a mixed blessing. But at this time of global crisis, we have technology to thank for keeping us sane.

 

Thrill a minute

Here’s a list of books that will keep you reading late into the night

 

I am happy to report that the sequel to my book, Race Course Road, is finally done. I spent the last month putting the final touches to the manuscript before sending it off for typesetting, and in a couple of months, Madam Prime Minister will be available in all good bookshops across the country (and on Kindle, obviously).

 

So, how did I celebrate, you ask. Well, having spent so much time writing, revising, and proofing, I treated myself to a reading extravaganza, bingeing on my favourite genre: thrillers of every persuasion. Here’s a small sample of what I devoured. You might want to taste a mouthful or two as well. 

 

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

 

If you loved The Girl On The Train, you will enjoy this new thriller from Hawkins. The story begins with the murder of a young man on a houseboat, with suspicion immediately falling on a blood-soaked girl who is seen leaving the boat soon before his body is discovered. But as is usual with Hawkins, nothing is as it seems, and the suspects pile up as the plot becomes more and more complicated. And the denouement, when it comes, will be nothing like you imagined. 

 

You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes 

 

I remember being completely blown away by You, the first novel to feature Joe Goldberg as its anti-hero, when it first came out. Written from the point of view of a stalker, and later, murderer, it was quite unlike anything I had ever read. The second book in the series, Hidden Bodies, was quite as unsettling – as was the Netflix adaptation of the series. But this, the third outing of Joe, finds our protagonist looking to put his past behind him and settle down, thanks to the love of a good woman. Needless to say, nothing goes according to plan, as Joe’s essential nature reasserts itself. 

 

Hostage by Clare Mackintosh

 

This is another edge-of-the-seat thriller by the Queen of Suspense. Flight attendant Mina, grappling with marital woes, volunteers to do duty on an inaugural 20-hour non-stop flight from London to Sydney. But soon after take-off, she is handed a note by a passenger: the plane should not reach its destination, or else something will happen to her five-year-old daughter back home. How do you balance the lives of so many strangers on the airplane with that of one life: that of your daughter? There are no good answers to that question.  

 

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

 

Daphne Berg and Drue Cavanaugh were unlikely friends in high school until a humiliating (for Daphne) incident destroyed their relationship. Now, six years later, Daphne – always a big girl – has become a plus-sized influencer on Instagram, when Drue reappears in her life, contrite about what split them apart and insistent that Daphne attend her upcoming society wedding on Cape Cod as her bridesmaid. Daphne agrees and that’s when things take a turn and this book turns from a lighthearted comedy to a murder mystery. This abrupt switching of genres might jar in the hands of a lesser writer but Weiner, as always, makes it work. 

 

Not A Happy Family by Shari Lapena

 

Fred and Sheila Merton host Easter dinner for their three children (and their partners) and make an unexpected announcement that causes tempers to flare and disagreements ensue. The next day, the couple are found dead, murdered by person or persons unknown. Were the murders the result of a break-in gone wrong or did one of their children finally snap and kill them? Suspicion falls on every member of the family as the story unfolds, and the suspense is built so skillfully that you will find it hard to put this book down.

 

False Witness by Karin Slaughter

 

Your past has a way of catching up with you no matter how hard you try to leave it behind. Leigh Collier has overcome a traumatic childhood to build an ordinary life as a defence attorney with a teenage daughter she co-parents with her husband, from whom she is amicably separated. But then, she comes face-to-face with a client, who knows exactly what she is trying to escape from her past. And the only way to deal with him is to enlist the help of her younger, estranged sister, Callie. Part family tragedy, part thriller, this story will keep you up at night.