19/06/2020 Day 87 Writing has slowed down now. The day now ends with hasty bullet points typed against the date and that is it. I return to the points next morning to piece them together in paragraphs. Five hundred words everyday were not a problem as long as life was confined indoors. The day we … Continue reading On continuing the lockdown diary
Bengaluru 25/03/2020 Day 1 Looking out from the balcony there’s complete absence of the usual noise. The stillness at 6 AM is unusual in the neighbourhood. This is a typical residential area with the usual mix of people, places and performance. I recollect a distant memory – of a morning four days back. Life was … Continue reading Lockdown Diary: Day 1
Day 347 Keeping a count was an instinctive move when the pandemic began. It served the limited purpose of having a sense of temporal distance in these extraordinary times. It is the 347th day since the first lockdown. A month more and it will be a year of the pandemic. India has moved from initial … Continue reading Keeping Count
29/06/2020 Day 97 Writing these daily updates has been slow and lagged behind in the past two weeks. When days begin to get filled with outdoors writing takes a hit. The tradeoffs are clear. Lockdown days helped in observing reading and writing beahviour closely. As of now, both of them stand severely affected because the … Continue reading Day 97: Few changes
17/06/2020 Day 85 By today I am over three days behind on publishing lockdown diary entries. The day began with a 60 km ride to the farm and back. In the evening, went for a walk on the Sevagram trail. Outdoors has become effortless here and plenty. Coronavirus is fast fading for the media to … Continue reading Day 85: On personal change and writing regularly
31/05/2020 Day 68 Wardha We are on the last day of May. I began this diary on 24th March. The days slipped by as I got busy increasing the work hours from home and then at the end of the day spend time gathering my observations on the day and these times we are living … Continue reading Day 68: Monsoon in Wardha
15/05/2020 Day 52 It has been hard to wrap my head around the news of an attack in Afghanistan. Three gunmen entered a hospital in Kabul and opened fire on women, infants, doctors and nurses. What kind of anger and rage can make men do this? Among the dead are sixteen women and an infant. … Continue reading Day 52: The sum
12/05/2020 Day 49 The remainder of this year has changed for many of us. In the months that children and parents would get ready for summer vacations we are sitting inside pondering our days ahead and worrying about our individual worries – school, college, job, relationships and whatever else. On all counts, it will be … Continue reading Day 49: PM speaks of self-reliance
20/04/2020 Day 27 I spent the day reading a collection of writing by Dom Moraes. This was followed by reading journal entries of Max Frisch from 1972-72 period. Moraes prefaced the collection (edited by Sarayu Srivatsa) with an interesting perspective on history – All history is a corridor of mirrors, in which adventitious images are … Continue reading Day 27: Between person and event
18/04/2020 Day 25 I spent the evening reading digital copies of newspapers of the previous two days. I have access to NYT and FT. I look forward to their weekend supplements, which have a diversity of reviews and recommendations on books, podcasts, movies and travel. Covid-19 related news and pandemic reportage seems to have moved … Continue reading Day 25: Searching for mot juste
Contested Realities 