\u201dSENDING you LOVE and FLOWERS if you are STUCK AT HOME. We\u2019re ALL in this TOGETHER\u201d \u2014 this rather innocuous message from a well-meaning friend last evening set me thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stuck? At HOME?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isn\u2019t that an oxymoron?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can be stuck in a meeting, in a traffic jam, or an elevator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But home? Home is your go-to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you feel stuck at your go-to, where do you go to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside is supposed to be the place that keeps you away from where you always wish to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And home is supposed to be the place you always want to come back to.
Oh, wait. What did I just say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Come Back To \u2014 So that\u2019s the catch!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems that being home is fun only when you come back to it \u2014 after a hard day\u2019s work, a vacation, or school, college, shopping, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you noticed that quotes about a home mostly romanticize \u2018coming back home?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018The best journey takes you home<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Life takes you unexpected places, love brings you home\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I traveled the whole world in search of what I wanted \u2014 and came back home to find it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even the tagline of the erstwhile Siyaram ad says \u2018coming home to Siyaram\u2019
It\u2019s pretty ironic that after the reams of romance we wrote over lack of time to be home, our sham was exposed by the Covid-19 suddenly granting our wish and proving that we\u2019re actually quite desperate to run out of our homes at the first given opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our planet\u2019s air, soil, water, flora, and fauna is currently hijacked by Corona, Corona, Corona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world is frozen in bewildered incomprehension \u2014 clamped and stalled mid-stride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cursing one kind of Corona, while glugging another, we are all in a trance chanting please God aisa Coro Na!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The blessed disease \u2013 and more the fear of it \u2013 has brought an entire planet on its knees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Corporate bullet trains have screeched to an unexpected halt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professional propriety is whimpering in its pajamas<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social stipulations are nursing their stubbed toes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sensex figures and family hours have switched places \u2014 the latter climbing from \u2018zerority\u2019 to priority and currently enjoying the center stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The economy is on a ventilator (that\u2019s one ventilator less for Covid-19 patients).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The stranglehold of protocols over our behavior and time stands demolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, the monopoly of time itself stands demolished. It seems to have lost its meaning, relevance and significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rush hour has limped out of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two months ago, time wasn\u2019t just money, it was God; and corporate bottom lines, God\u2019s own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humans were running, running, running (while humanity was on the run.)
Check email. Run. Check phone. Run. Check time. Run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Corporate honchos running off for hectic holidays amid hectic work schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Urban families running off to unhealthy health farms amid unhealthy lifestyle choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Running, running, running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Squeezing out tiny pockets of unconnected, unwired time as they went \u2014 walks, airplane trips, camp-outs, reading a novel on a beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now suddenly, there is nowhere to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We own reams of spare time we had only fantasized about \u2014 imagining ourselves sauntering through the woods and fields… cooking at home… counting the stars in the sunroom, or the tiles in the washroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No routines being followed anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No alarms being set anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are now alarmed differently.
CAB & Kashmir, economy & ecology as issues seem so dated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shaheen Bagh became Shaheen \u2018bhaag\u2019 and nobody noticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nirbhaya\u2019s killers were hanged at a time when the bhaybheet janta itself had a corona-sized noose around its neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current cause celebre is a virus that\u2019s merrily gone berserk sprinkling disease as if it were confetti (it\u2019s another matter that life itself is a sexually transmitted disease.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until last month, life was rushing by too hastily, too hysterically.We were all scampering to make our voices heard in an infinite digital vacuum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the triumvirate of curiosity, technology, and growth, our addiction to the wired universe and that exhilarating high of defeating geography in two clicks, was absolute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The naysayers were alarmed as always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They harped on more people-to-people contact, social integration, and loads of blah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now suddenly, social integration is a health hazard, and social distancing the new buzzword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The technology that we so vociferously disparaged has become our savior.
Professionally, we are suspended in no man\u2019s land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The already blurred line between working from home is a little blurrier, and a tad scarier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The truth is that imprisoned in our own homes, hostage to an invisible virus, we are scared of being left to our own devices \u2013 and more than ever at the mercy of our digital devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the sudden insecurity that comes when the onus of utilizing our time constructively rests squarely on our shoulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are suspended between familiar concepts and unfamiliar options.
On one hand, we are starting to itch in uncomprehending impatience feeling the walls of our home closing in on us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, we\u2019re all becoming more aware of our surroundings and of our inner selves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Free of social and behavioral protocols, we have got this unexpected chance to travel inwards and connect with a hitherto unknown, exotic, mindful Self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New experiences lead to new discoveries, including self-discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In pottering around meaninglessly and eating more slowly, we\u2019re thinking more deeply and contemplating more creatively\u2026 devising original ways to entertain ourselves and to educate our children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually, the darkness will lift, and what we will carry with us is a new kind of knowledge about ourselves and the world we live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014Puja Bhakoo<\/a>, author, MOOD SWINGS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201dSENDING you LOVE and FLOWERS if you are STUCK AT HOME. We\u2019re ALL in this TOGETHER\u201d \u2014 this rather innocuous message from a well-meaning friend last evening set me thinking. Stuck? At HOME? Isn\u2019t that an oxymoron? You can be stuck in a meeting, in a traffic jam, or an elevator. But home? Home is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3451","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pujabhakoo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pujabhakoo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pujabhakoo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pujabhakoo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pujabhakoo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3451"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.pujabhakoo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4078,"href":"http:\/\/www.pujabhakoo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3451\/revisions\/4078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pujabhakoo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}