Perspective

Yes, I know we are lucky we can decide to stay locked in and indulge in Netflix and trying out YouTube recipes and play games while waiting for the world to return to normal.

We have a lot of blessing to count.

Yet, is it just me, or others too who feel like the pressure of too much forced optimism.

Not discounting my blessing but I do miss a lot of perks of ‘normal’ life.

My maid and cook to begin with.

With the office work increasing as more projects go online and me not wanting to take risks with house-help or get food delivered, there are days I want to throw a tantrum like a toddler, roll on the floor, kick the air and scream.

And then I get a call from our old cook.

This guy had worked for us for a couple of years and now I call him only when the kids are home for vacations. He had a full-time job at a guest house and cooked for a few other families in the neighbourhood. Because the events of 2020 had started unfolding before the vacations, this year, I did not call him to work. I had still been keeping in touch with him.

In early April when we were hoping to win the war in 21 days-he sounded fine. The guest house has closed for visitors. But he and a couple of other staff-members were holed up with sufficient supplies. He was not planning to leave for his native place in coastal Orissa because of the risk of catching infections during travel, and then exposing his family to the risk, in a situation where they didn’t even have a good hospital nearby.

By Mid-May, he sounded worried. The guest house was being reopened. His employer wasn’t taking enough safety measures. His other cooking jobs had dwindled.

Then came Cyclone Amphan. Back home, his family’s fields were destroyed. They would have to write off an entire harvest. He lost his job at the guest house and had to move to a rented accommodation. I offered to help even at the risk of offending his self-respect, but he said he would let me know if he was absolutely unable to survive.

He called to say he had gone back to his native place because he was no able to meet his expenses in Bangalore anymore.

I stopped cribbing about my lot.