Shifting Sands

Stepping out into the outside world can be quite insightful, especially when it is once every 10 or 14 days. I thought I knew all about human social behaviour. But the lockdown proved me wrong. It has slowed down our lives. The mad rush to lead a robotic life has given way to a more relaxed life style. Suddenly there is more time for everything. And more than anything else, humans have suddenly started behaving in unusual ways.

It is almost amusing to see people maintaining the mandatory three feet distance and patiently waiting in serpentine queues. The familiar impatient scramble for everything, everywhere has disappeared. This would have been considered an impossible dream not long ago.

The other day at a supermarket I stood witness to unbelievable role reversals. The supermarket attendants have always been soft targets  of many irritable customers. But the other day I saw the same attendants shouting at customers who, in the process of picking up vegetables, forgot about social distancing. Is this what we call karma?

When I step out, dust laden cars are a common sight. With a ban on car washing boys, the same finicky car owners who pulled these boys up for shoddy work are learning to live with layers of dust on their cars. No one’s complaining.

Finally, there are the police personnel. Bored. That would be the right word to describe them. At the start of the lockdown, they were on their toes, stopping every vehicle that dared to ply on the road. As the days passed into days, weeks and months, they started occupying shady spots to escape the searing heat. They mostly wear a bored blank look. Even if the likes of Vijay Mallya or Nirav Modi passed by, these policemen would merely look through them.

Times have indeed changed, right under our nose, so suddenly, beyond recognition.

 

Shh…Silence Please!

Somehow the lock down, I must say, has its benefits. The atmosphere has become so much quieter and cleaner. And life has suddenly slowed down; it just tiptoes through the day for fear of tipping the new found balance. The evenings have never been so refreshing. The tired evenings that marked the end of a hard day’s work, now seem to have melted into the distant horizon.

As I sit on my balcony watching the evening light fade gently, a soft breeze whispers happy nothings. The loud call of the cuckoo permeates the air. It has poor competition in the softer calls of other birds that come to roost in the neighbouring tree-filled abandoned plot of land. Was the rustling of leaves so loud all the time, I wonder. Perhaps the noisy traffic drowned these happy sounds and took us far away into the world of ear splitting honks and, impatient and reckless driving. But now, it is how it should really be- the days are garnished with real sounds, sounds that are music to one’s ears. Do I hear a honk? Shh…silence please!