Timepass

March 29th, 2020 – New Delhi, India

Timepass (Indian English): Action or fact of passing the time, typically in an aimless or unproductive way.

Been in Delhi two weeks now. One week ago India instituted a 3 week country wide lockdown till the 14th of April. But no one knows. This national curfew has no end in sight. So trying not to count the days.

How is there Indian Government handling things? The article might tell you more.

First Some Good News

Was out on the balcony as the sun was setting. 75 degrees, clear blue skies. Saw at least 20 parrots, all kinds of hawks, crows, and many other birds just chilling n’ chirpin in the trees. For the wild animals must feel like a vacation. No traffic, zero car horns, few people outside. A month ago it was unfathomable to see a clear blue sky in India’s largest city. Last couple nights I also saw stars in the Delhi sky. Absolutely insane.

With a full lockdown in place nearly all of India has seen huge air quality improvements. Delhi, which can record Air Quality as toxic as 300+ causing all type of illness, asthma, etc is now between 35-60. That is “good” & “satisfactory.” It took only 3 days of non-activity to drop.

Do you remember my wedding in December? The AQI was between 200-300. The air was thick and smoky. It’s a different city. Different smells. New sights & sounds.

There have been all types of animals being spotted: https://www.google.com/amp/s/curlytales.com/some-interesting-animals-are-taking-over-the-streets-of-popular-cities-during-lockdown/amp/

Some Examples

1. Dolphins are returning to Mumbai

2. A Civet (medium sized wild cat) in Kerala

3. These cool looking Turtles are coming back to this spot in East India

India suffers the most pollution linked deaths in the world – 2 million per year

And United States is not far behind at 200,000…Maybe there are some lessons to learn from all of this. Just trying to find a silver lining.
Looking Back – Sri Lanka
The four of us had the time of our lives in Sri Lanka for the Holi holiday. We told hotels we were on a joint honeymoon hoping to get some extra perks. We mostly got “happy honeymoon” spelled out in flower petals and towels moulded into swans. Corona was on our minds but we had no idea what we were in for. There had only been one case in Sri Lanka and few cases in India. The present situation makes the trip even more precious.

On 11th March we got back into Mumbai at 4am. It was a rude awakening. We waited 3 hours to go through screening. One of the first days Mumbai had instituted this policy. Smritika still went to work the next couple days. I was out and about on Thursday & Friday. Life sorta continued as normal until Saturday.

Delhi

Monday morning, 16th of March we received unfortunate news. Smritika’s Grandma had passed. We had just entered into day 3 of a “semi-quarantine.” You could still walk outside. Schools, gyms, pools, and other public places had just shut but people were still out. Restaurants still open, domestic flights still happening and accessible. We made a quick decision to head to Delhi before sundown for the cremation.

Within 90 minutes our overstocked fridge was made into soups, patties, pickled veggies and other stuff that could be frozen or become non-perishable. We locked our valuables, packed 4 days worth of clothes and headed to the airport. We thought we would be back by the end of the week.

One week ago, the Prime minister announced a 3 week mandatory lockdown the entire country of 1.3 billion people. That means unless you are going to the grocery store or the hospital you can’t leave your house.

So It’s 5 of us. We have created an organisational structure and positions for everyone in the house:

– Me: Director of HR & Laundry

– Smritika: Creative Director & Chief of Fitness Apps

– Gugu: Director of Curation & Senior Functional Laptop Consultant (she has the only laptop that can connect to a TV to play Netflix, etc)

– Rama: CEO

– Ram Uncle Gee: Trustee

We all share in cooking & cleaning.

We have created a fast paced work environment requiring high levelS of collaboration between the different functional teams and daily high stake decisions such as:

1. What to eat and cook

2. Which card/board game to play

3. Should we have a drink?

4. When to watch Tiger King

5. What type of workout to do?

6. Should I read? Learn Hindi?

Social Distancing in India

It’s shocking how quickly people have taken this seriously. Only a couple weeks ago lines looked like this:

But with the Pandemic they look this (A small store near my where I am staying in Delhi).

In Kerala, the only communist state in India (highest literacy rate & lowest infant mortality) & a population known for their passion for booze are also respecting social distancing without missing out.

So this is not ideal. We are all going a little stir crazy. No end in sight. Can’t plan or predict anything. But… We have delicious food, money & good shelter. Lucky and grateful.