Love in the time of Corona

As I take in a fresh breath of air in the morning, I cannot help but feel excited about my ‘novel’ way of life. A sabbatical from work led me to be college-bound and now a virus has led me to be home-bound. With a house full of boys aged 38, 9 and 6 years, there is only so much you can do on any given day!

My day really begins only after I send off the eldest (read the breadwinner) to office with a ‘wi-fi’ hug and a wish to stay safe. It’s a pity that all the private sector employees can’t work from home as yet. Just as I finish devouring a couple of newspapers and wondering what lies ahead, I hear my younger one greet me from behind. As I rush to the kitchen, the neurons in my brain are already firing with all the things to do with him and his elder brother. By the time we finish our chit-chat over milk, the latter has woken up and is found slouching over the newspaper. I smile as I hear the younger one trying to impress us by reading, “ICMR says no evidence of community transmission...”. I interrupt them to show all the important articles and the censor-cleared portions of the supplements. I enjoy explaining to them what does a bear wearing Thanos’ gauntlet about to snap his fingers signify!

With breakfast, we memorise one of my favourite hymns - Hanuman Chalisa - while understanding each word of Awadhi. Hearing them recite it throughout the day is surely reassuring. After a bit of tug-of-war between solving Olympiad questions or playing softball book cricket, we strike a balance between the two by first flexing our brain muscles and then the rest of the body’s. However, the younger one surprised me one day by requesting to be excused from doing division in order to do some craft work. I, of course, obliged and he later presented me with two guitars (one even electric) and a strummer just in case I wanted to try my hand at it!

From movies and music to sports and cooking, I finally have the wherewithal to show my kids all my passions. Couldn't believe that I had not made them hear the song "Nanne munne bachche teri mutthi mei kya hai" before. “Joh dar gaya.. samjho mar gaya..” rings in my mind having shown the blockbuster movie to them recently. I could have never anticipated my elder son’s reaction on hearing one of the most famous dialogues, “Basanti, in kutto ke samna mat nachna”. How he could place it with the tune of “Basanti, don’t dance, in front of these dogs” from the movie Super 30 is anybody’s guess! After seeing the jaw-dropping moves of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant (R.I.P), my elder one now tries to hit a three-pointer everyday while the younger one is inspired to try a few moves of Simone Biles! They both now know the binding material in a cutlet and how it is made so crispy. The icing on the cake is definitely to see them use the broom when need be. (Thank God they know where to find it unlike their father!) The fact that we had to postpone a much anticipated three-weeks visit to the US of A because of this pandemic doesn’t seem to dampen their spirits one bit.

This unprecedented togetherness is to die for (no pun intended). Who would have thought that I would get to spend so much unadulterated time with them? I remember the times when a national holiday falling on a weekday called for a celebration with such furore. The fact that we are living through a historical world phenomenon is certainly not lost on us. However, this gloomy cloud too would have its silver lining. We just need to embrace this ‘new normal’ and persevere.

Time really does fly when it comes to rearing up kids (even though it doesn’t feel so at times!) but trust me, we would all long for those crazy hectic days once our dumplings grow up. So, let’s just make the most of it by enjoying each other’s company and loving each other while being nestled together for the time being.