‘A pandemic day’: Papri Bhattacharjee

I woke up before my usual time as my mobile rang. There was a relative on the other end.  He informed with all sincerity and caution that a fourteen-day long total lockdown is going to happen very soon. I asked, ” How soon?” He replied precipitously,  ” Any time. Or it may hardly take two days. But the Lockdown is confirmed. ” I again asked, ” Who told you so? It can be a rumour.” The man became utterly disappointed. ” Uffs! everybody knows that.  Only a pundit like you can ask such questions. People are not sleeping like you. Now hurry up, go and buy all your essentials. ” He disconnected abruptly. Perhaps he was not ready to spoil a minute from his welfare scheme. He had other relatives who were to be informed with the scoop news. And he didn’t want to lose the chance to be the first one to deliver the sensation along with the news.

Socrates compared individuals as reeds. Fortunately, he called us “thinking reeds.” And what I could think first was how to manage my parents. The senior citizen duo nowadays has turned into a bundle of tensions. The long days of pandemic and home confinements have gifted them with a rare quality. They can make a mountain out of nothing, not even a mole is required. If these too much early risers had got the news too much early, they would take things too seriously. My mother would be praying and my father would be cursing the world leaders especially the Chinese carrying two large-sized bazaar bags eagerly waiting for the local grocery shop to open. I decided not to inform them, and got ready for collecting some essential items for both the families.

Within half an hour I found myself amidst the crowd called the bazaar. My know-all relative was absolutely correct.    Everybody knew the fact, except me. People were struggling to pick up the best. The vendors, the customers all are equipped with masks. Only the masks were a little misplaced. Instead of covering the mouth and nose, those were drooping in the portion we usually call throat. That must be due to the conveniences they get. To talk incessantly the mouth should be without any barrier. Thus, they were talking loud. Philosophy, religion, economy, politics, the cycle of Karma every subject came under the periphery of discussion. They were cursing people who were not maintaining the health guidelines  thus spreading the filthy virus. Some of them were ready reckoners of all the latest databases of COVID infected people around the town. How did the ambulance come, how scary was the situation, how sorrowful were the faces of the patients…not a single detail was missed? The vendors were drinking tea, touching every possible part of their faces, again helping enthusiastic customers to search out the rightest and the freshest vegetables.

Both the parties were using the same pairs of hands. Actually they didn’t have any other alternative as we all are awarded with only a pair. Once Shakespeare had to write a line. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio than are dreamt in your philosophy.” I hope he hadn’t visited a pandemic affected lockdown anxious Indian market before writing the lines. The grocery shop owner was quite happy. There were a good number of customers in front of his shop. He hanged a statutory warning “No good without a mask.” Neither I found any trace of a mask on his face, nor his teenage employee was wearing any. I took a minute to decipher the clue. The rule is only for the customers. An owner himself is a virus-free zone.

Back home I found my younger daughter, a  student of class five had just finished her online exam. Today’s subject was Bangla. These days during her New Normal prescribed all-new online classes and exams she set with a  pale and disinterested face. All of a sudden she would come to me and say,” So boring!” Troubled by double suffering, first is an absence and the second is a presence, she finds her study, her life “so boring”. Absence of going to school and meeting friends and playing outside and presence of online classes where the statutory warning is repeated like a metronome: “Switch on your microphone and camera. And anyone who chats will be given a big zero in the exam. And if you fail to submit your paper within time, your paper will be canceled.”

There are days when the network acts like a villain and the little girl runs in the rooms restlessly shouting, ” Miss will give me a zero. She will cut my name from the register.” Today she was asked to write the meaning of the word ” Pundit”. After the completion of al the l hazards of online submission of answer script on time the hapless fellow asked me: “Ma,

there were so many pundits in the world of all types. Why did they miss this pandemic coming? Why we did not get any warning? Like we get for the cyclone.” As an authority figure for the young girl, I did what “pundits”  generally do – evaded the question and told her another story. Most of our seniors exercised the same easy path. After giving a short confusing reply they would end up saying,” Things are not so difficult as they occur. Read hard. One day you can become a pundit and solve the problems. ” And that ‘one day’ never comes.

Thus, another day of the epidemic ended. The night was long, my mood was pensive. I reflected on something philosophical. The nuclear Holocaust which has been the blatant threat so far has been replaced by tiny microbes called a virus, half living, and half dead. All of a sudden I found the fact tremendously impressive. I found a golden opportunity, an opportunity of a generation to be pundits. And the process of becoming pundits will lead to a deeper question – What is the purpose of Living or What are the absolute standards by which to live that is consistent with the idea of Wo/Man being a higher animal or higher than a microbe or bacteria. The Pundits will definitely craft the new normal with fundamentally new and noble aspects and our existence will be worthy .we will lead a life that is ‘human’ in the real sense of the term.

I could have continued with those high funda monologues but Tagore interrupted. As I gradually came to be a bit substantial in mind and body, I read something intriguing. I was informed that Poet Tagore had once told – “সবকিছু পন্ড না হলে পন্ডিত হয় না।” – a pun with the root sound of the word “pundit” and the Bengali word translates, although untranslatable: “one does not become a pundit unless everything of the fellow is beyond repair (pondo).”

I smiled. it was a smile of relief. My comfort zone was calling me passionately. The mediocrity, the mundane ways of ‘no-thinking’ life  seemed secured and available. Let other people fulfill Tagore’s criterion and be pundits. Next morning if any uncle calls me and instructs not to open my doors and windows in the name of New Normal, I am for sure not going to disobey him.

I nodded off.

The author of this article, Papri Bhattacharjee is a teacher. She regularly writes Articles, stories etc in various newspapers, magazines.