Day 36: On Rebuilding and Writing

29/04/2020

Day 36: On rebuilding and writing 

The obsession of early days with the number of infected people and deaths from the virus subsided as the lockdown progressed. The fear of the virus going out of control has lurked around but people learnt well to live with the fear. Normalcy is a relative feeling. A lot many of us began rationing Covid related news and began diving into other things in life and around our homes. On the thirty sixth day today, India has seen 1074 deaths and there are 23651 active cases. On the brighter side 8324 people who suffered from Covid-19 were treated and discharged from the hospitals. These statistics were necessary to mention today, because they explain the national confidence. As India deliberates on exit rules and post-lockdown flow of work and life, people are beginning to discuss what it would be like to live with the virus among us. Airline companies, railways, public spaces, shops and every space in which our daily lives fill up are being ordered differently now. 

Rebuilding is the most hopeful activity that man can possibly engage in. It heralds change. Rebuilding not just signals new beginnings but leads to real action. Bruised people and bruised nations have one thing in common- that in recovery there lies another chance at imagining a different future for themselves. I hope this country does take this chance to build itself differently in aspects of work, public spaces, carrying the rural and urban together, healthcare, and creating a state which is more compassionate and accommodating. Surely, a lot many of our institutions have undergone a difficult time and continue to work to keep things together as the uncertainty with the virus continues. Worldwide, as on 29 April 2020 we have lost 208,112 individuals and have 3,024,059 confirmed cases of Covid-19. These are conservative numbers.

It rained all morning. A late April morning as this isn’t usual. I slept till late in the morning breeze flowing in from the window, skipped yoga and exercise, cooked late and made plenty of work calls. It was a fully loaded day for work and it derailed the routine that has been carefully nurtured over the last month. It takes little for a routine to fall apart. The cascade is hard to arrest and life falls into a perpetual catchup effort. To have written everyday is entirely because of being home and not having to commute, travel and meet people at work or elsewhere. There are no coffee shops, bookstore visits, dinner catchups, trails to run or people to meet. It took all of these to achieve a phase of consistent, daily writing averaging five hundred words at least. I am not always sure of what’s being written in these daily entries. If anything, it shows that I could get myself to a table every day and give at least an hour of focused attention to words, to thoughts and to the act of braiding the day into a narrative. In the act of rebuilding the self, writing will lay the foundation.