Today I completed one year of working from home which coincided with the first anniversary of Covid-19 Pandemic when it started to spread its tentacles in the United States and many other countries. Never in my wildest of dreams I thought of working from home for more than a year. Now here I am, still working from home and won't be surprised if I complete one more year doing the same.
As I complete a year of work from home, religiously social distancing, rubbing sanitizers and frequently washing my hands, I retrospect how a year of pandemic wheezed past and how it has impacted my habits. These days I shave only once a week. While I am reminded of the popular Palmolive Shaving Cream Commercial on Doordarshan, the only TV Channel available in India back in those days - "Kapil Dev, tough cricketer, tough beard". I am not a tough guy from any angle, but my razor stumbles on my stubble gained in a week, giving me a tough time. Shaving saga apart, so far I have managed to save my job as tens of millions of Americans join unemployed bandwagon every week. We are not out of the woods yet.
Two-third of US Economy is fuelled by consumer spending. I did not help Uncle Sam much by putting a break on my spending, as my expenses were inadvertently curtailed. No vacations, no trip to India, no restaurant visits. Even with record low gas price for most part of the past year, I rarely drove more than 10 miles a week. Filled gas in my cars only once every couple of months, as I don't commute to work. Under normal circumstances, I fill up my gas tank at least once every other week. Not anymore. That's a first time in America for me in nearly quarter of a century.
Yet on a positive note, I help the environment. Lesser use of car means less emission of toxic greenhouse gases. My support to the environment doesn't stop there. Lesser use of Office resources like computer printouts, electricity, elevators, AC and so on. I can proudly proclaim of saving some trees and restricting the use of CFC (CloroFluoroCarbon).
When I feel bored I used to loiter around the local Groceries and Pharmacy Stores, Strip Malls (I usually avoid Malls. I feel them artificial and boring, though I love their food courts). Now I am the only person in my family who ventures out, very frugally no more than 2-3 times a week to buy groceries and run other errands. Define monotony.
I hate alcohol during the day. But the Coronavirus has forced me to do so - in the form of hand sanitizers and alcohol soaked hand wipes. While entering the store, I use hand sanitizer and after returning back to my car I use it again. I wash my hands way too often and way too long, thanks to this nouveau virus. Would have easily branded as SUCHIBAI ROGI (An Odia slang for a psychological patient with the habit of compulsive cleanliness, a tell-tale sign of insecurity). Just taking no chances. Have no desire to get infected and gift it to my family. Twitching the usual Odia proverb a bit - "HATHA DHOU THA, GUNA GAU THA" - Wash you hands, sing paeans of praise ( of COVID-19). So far (torchwood) I have managed stay safe the hard way.
My first tryst with Corona was not virus, rather a brand of shoes. During my childhood days there were only a handful of decent shoe stores in Bhubaneswar, prominent were Bata, Corona and BSC brand carrying stores in Unit II. I could relate Corona to a friend of mine who had this aura about him. His claim to fame was following the English music - ABBA, Boney M etc. There were hardly anyone to fact check on him. Often he used to sing something with snorted lips, which resembled "Corona Shoes.. my Corona Shoes....Shoooooes.. Whoooos". I was completely spellbound. Ignorance can be bliss, but it metamorphosed into sheer adulation for the guy. That's the only Corona I was aware of until the arrival of the virus bearing the same name last year.
On March 18th last year the Pandemic was its nascent stage. It could have been stopped at that point. Stopping the spread of a virus is akin to keeping a secret. If you know a secret and don't want it to spread, just don't tell it to anybody. When you are telling it to some one, the probability of keeping it secret gets reduced by 50%. If that person tells to another person it get reduced to 25% and so on.
A year down the road the cat is already out of bag. Like a gossip or rumor, diligent imposition of social distancing or quarantine could have stopped it from spreading further on March 18, 2020. Down the road one year from that point, now we have passed that stage. The disease already had spreaded its tentacles and claimed more than half a million in US 🇺🇸 , though the infection rate has gone down 70% from its peak in January.
A la a joke which becomes stale and people start losing interest after hearing it multiple times, people have become immune to the news of the death and spread of Covid-19. Yet there is still light at end of the tunnel vaccinations across the globe is gaining steam. In the past year humans lost the battle against the virus, but I am sure ultimately humans will win the war.
Yet on a positive note, I help the environment. Lesser use of car means less emission of toxic greenhouse gases. My support to the environment doesn't stop there. Lesser use of Office resources like computer printouts, electricity, elevators, AC and so on. I can proudly proclaim of saving some trees and restricting the use of CFC (CloroFluoroCarbon).
When I feel bored I used to loiter around the local Groceries and Pharmacy Stores, Strip Malls (I usually avoid Malls. I feel them artificial and boring, though I love their food courts). Now I am the only person in my family who ventures out, very frugally no more than 2-3 times a week to buy groceries and run other errands. Define monotony.
I hate alcohol during the day. But the Coronavirus has forced me to do so - in the form of hand sanitizers and alcohol soaked hand wipes. While entering the store, I use hand sanitizer and after returning back to my car I use it again. I wash my hands way too often and way too long, thanks to this nouveau virus. Would have easily branded as SUCHIBAI ROGI (An Odia slang for a psychological patient with the habit of compulsive cleanliness, a tell-tale sign of insecurity). Just taking no chances. Have no desire to get infected and gift it to my family. Twitching the usual Odia proverb a bit - "HATHA DHOU THA, GUNA GAU THA" - Wash you hands, sing paeans of praise ( of COVID-19). So far (torchwood) I have managed stay safe the hard way.
My first tryst with Corona was not virus, rather a brand of shoes. During my childhood days there were only a handful of decent shoe stores in Bhubaneswar, prominent were Bata, Corona and BSC brand carrying stores in Unit II. I could relate Corona to a friend of mine who had this aura about him. His claim to fame was following the English music - ABBA, Boney M etc. There were hardly anyone to fact check on him. Often he used to sing something with snorted lips, which resembled "Corona Shoes.. my Corona Shoes....Shoooooes.. Whoooos". I was completely spellbound. Ignorance can be bliss, but it metamorphosed into sheer adulation for the guy. That's the only Corona I was aware of until the arrival of the virus bearing the same name last year.
On March 18th last year the Pandemic was its nascent stage. It could have been stopped at that point. Stopping the spread of a virus is akin to keeping a secret. If you know a secret and don't want it to spread, just don't tell it to anybody. When you are telling it to some one, the probability of keeping it secret gets reduced by 50%. If that person tells to another person it get reduced to 25% and so on.
A year down the road the cat is already out of bag. Like a gossip or rumor, diligent imposition of social distancing or quarantine could have stopped it from spreading further on March 18, 2020. Down the road one year from that point, now we have passed that stage. The disease already had spreaded its tentacles and claimed more than half a million in US 🇺🇸 , though the infection rate has gone down 70% from its peak in January.
A la a joke which becomes stale and people start losing interest after hearing it multiple times, people have become immune to the news of the death and spread of Covid-19. Yet there is still light at end of the tunnel vaccinations across the globe is gaining steam. In the past year humans lost the battle against the virus, but I am sure ultimately humans will win the war.
No comments:
Post a Comment