Category: COVID-19
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Existential Angst
The New Year started with a wave of positive COVID cases around me, in my neighborhood, in my family and possibly in my home. As we rode out the cough, cold and the seemingly common cold like symptoms, I was beginning to feel like maybe, just maybe, this new Omicron could be the vaccine the…
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Everyday Anxieties
I wake up with the alarm, I realize two of my three girls are in bed with me. I push the youngest away, cover her back up with the quilt and sleepwalk my way to the bathroom. In an hour, the coffee pot is half over, idlis steamed, cut, smothered in molaga podi, and packed…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Yearbooks
I spied my youngest through the window. There was a bounce in her step and a book in her hands. Her backpack jogged along as she hopped, skipped, and ran her way home from the bus. The excitement was catching as I opened the door and she thrust her yearbook in my hand while talking…
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Relentless
The words are relentless. They appear on my Twitter feed. They show up in my WhatsApp messages. They sneak into my FB Messenger. Sometimes, they even make their way into my now largely defunct email inbox. Each word, each sentence is a life. It is a friend. It is a friend of a friend. It…
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COVID-19 Diaries: A Rough Week
It’s Friday evening at last. I should be feeling relieved, looking forward to a break from the treadmill that this week has been. Yet, I am back in my study after prying apart tweens going at each others’ throats over an eraser. I had to assuage adults whose tempers were flaring because of being cooped…
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Goodbye, 2020. Welcome 2021.
It is New Year’s eve as I write this. My morning has been productive. I’ve cooked an elaborate meal of vendekka morkuzhambu, beans parupu usili with ample help from Amma. I have two batches of Jalapeno bread proving in the oven, I also have four rounds of laundry in various stages of the pipeline from…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Dilemma
I lace up Laddu’s new hi-top shoes. She tests them out tentatively. I force a fleece jacket on top of her already cozy top. Her school bag is heavy. Her literature anthologies, fundations journals, composition books, iPad, charger, water bottle and lunch box weigh her down. She is ready though, masked, eyes twinkling and raring…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Rollback
Late afternoon yesterday, I swapped out the static page I have on my blog from the book landing page to my regular About page. It was bittersweet. From the beginning of the year, I counted down to my book release. I made plans and unmade them. The adrenalin rush between the release on Kindle and…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Baking Away The Blues
Earlier this year in May, when COVID had just taken on the pandemic status and we were all bound to our homes, Instagram convinced me that I was missing out on life because I was not baking. Most of my baking over the years has been restricted to one of two recipes I knew off…
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COVID-19 Diaries: The Demands of Virtual School
My fingers are almost frost-bitten by the time I am back from my early morning walk. We went from tee shirt weather to winter like cold over a day. The sun is an eerie orange ball on my evening walk. Despite the cold and the bitterness of the wind that swirls around me, these are…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Virtual School
It is late Monday morning. It is also a long weekend. I should be cooking, instead I am seated at the breakfast table, two iPads, two dated planners next to me, my Macbook open to a spreadsheet, my iPhone showing me the schedule for the child whose planner I am attempting to fill. I have…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Back To School 2020 Edition
I woke to a home smelling of coffee and a child already awake and excited. By 6:30 am, Pattu and I set out on a walk around the development. I walked slowly, savoring the chill breeze and the warm sun’s rays. Pattu was clearly thrilled. She jumped, skipped and danced as we wound our way…
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COVID-19 Diaries: In A Rut
Life post book release has gone from adrenaline highs, early morning zoom calls and, signing books to thinking of it all in the past. Work is busy. The children are starting online school in less than a week. Our routine is predictable most days. I wake early, have kaapi with Amma, walk for half an…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Past Midway Point
I casually look at the calendar one morning and I am taken aback we are in August already. August spells back to school, Fall, cooler weather, and festival season. In any other year, this would have been when I am scouring back to school lists, actively networking to find which kids are in my children’s…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Changing Ways of Life
Today, I pulled the plug on our landline. A number we have had since 2001. A number that has followed us through three moves, seen three babies and been a constant across multiple job changes and career changes. The landline has been like a recalcitrant child, acting up, refusing to work and often causing me…
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COVID-19 Diaries: It Takes A Village
I woke up at 2:45 am to news that Amma will be discharged Friday. By the time I brushed and checked messages again, I learned she would be going home today. The following hour was manic. Phone lines buzzed between continents. Friends and family worked in tandem to make sure she could go home without…
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COVID-19 Diaries: A Lull
I woke today to news that Amma may be discharged in a day or two. Panic set in. Was she really okay? What if she got sent home and her condition worsened? How will we manage to clean the home and make it ready in a day? What preparation do we need to do in…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Bone Tired
It has been five days since Amma has been admitted. The communication gaps when trying to coordinate care in a country 8000 miles away is staggering. Basic questions like what medications is she on? Why is she being given the medicines she is being administered? What is the prognosis? Will they check her lungs again?…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Glimmers of Hope
I am on a work call. I am distracted by incoming messages. At some point, I request the rest of the day off and focus on the messages on my phone instead. There are different sets. One with Amma. One with my siblings. One for my medically competent friends. I share details and worries. I…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Doom
My right eye twitches. I press my finger on the jumping nerve to still it. Tears poke behind my eyelids. My eyes burn. I am feeling feverish from a lack of sleep and running on adrenaline for two weeks now. My phone lights up with a notification. An extended family member reaches out hearing of…