In 4 years after taking 4 Covid shots I am still a Covid virgin (unless unknown to me I have been asymptomatic at some point without realizing of losing my Covid virginity). It was exactly 4 years ago when the Covid -19 virus, unbeknownst of all just 4 months before March, 2000 was pandemic enough to begin lockdowns and start a new culture of Work From Home for an unforeseen period.
Exactly four years ago, today on March the 16, was the first day I began working from home as the Covid-19 Pandemic was starting to take a grip, spreading its malevolent tentacles. I thought the pandemic would be over in couple of months or so before I get back to my work location, expecting it to become business as usual soon, but never in my wildest of dreams I thought of working for more than 2 years, 7 months at a stretch from home. This was the harbinger of a new work culture hitherto unknown called working remote and like a hybrid car running on both gas and electricity, a hybrid work model of home and office took birth.
Soon I got familiar with phrases like social distancing, rubbing sanitizers and frequently washing my hands and retrospected how years of pandemic wheezed past and how it changed my habits. Lazy like a fox, I started shaving only once a week, showing off my prominent 5 O'Clock salt and pepper shadow on my cheek. While I am reminded of the popular Palmolive Shaving Cream Ad on the 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 stumbled on my stubble gained in a week, giving me a tough time.
No more I could say I don't touch alcohol during the day. The Coronavirus forced me to touch alcohol - in the form of hand sanitizers and alcohol soaked hand wipes. While entering a store, I used hand sanitizer and after returning back to my car I used it once again. Washed my hands way too often and way too long, thanks to this nouveau virus. Would have easily been branded as a classic SUCHIBAI ROGI (An Odia slang used for a psychological patient with the habit of compulsive cleanliness). But I was simply not taking any chances. Had 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)".
Soon I got bored with the monotony of work from home. I longed for getting back to work at the Campus in downtown Columbus. When ennui overcame me at the Office, I used to take a walk around chatting with my colleauges, loiter aimlessly in the corridor to shrugg off my jaded nerves, occasionally take a stroll on the river walk to fill my lungs with fresh, cool air wafting over the bank of the river Chattahoochee. I started missing eating food in Cafeteria sitting with my coworkers. Missed the fun and chat about the latest rumor in the air.
A sucker to spicy stuff, my ever alert ears is perpetually receptive to juicy stories. Once I overheard two ladies walking ahead of me in a narrow corridor. Unknown to them I could listen to their conversation. Both were bitching about their Mother-in-laws, doing the later's character assassination. I heard one of them saying - "My Mother-in-law would sneak inside my home with a duplicate key and smoke inside the house. She would listen to all but me". The other one nodded - "Mine is no different from yours. She is such a bitch". No wonder Mother-in-laws and Dauhter-in-laws rarely go together, harboring a "AHI - NAKULA SAMPARKA" or "snake and mongoose" relationship, a la the animals who are born to fight with each other. When I returned back to work, the work place was never the same. The Covid made it look like an Orange whose juice has been sucked out.
Two-third of American Economy is fuelled by consumer spending. Uncle Sam soon slid into recession in early 2020 due to a panicking public uncertain about the future put a break on their purse. My expenses were inadvertently curtailed. No vacations, no trip to India, no restaurant visits as I was mostly stuck at home. Even with record low gas price, I rarely drove more than 10 miles a week. Filled gas in my car only once in every couple of months, as I din't have to commute to work. Under normal circumstances, I would fill up my gas tank at least once every other week. Not anymore. That was a first time in US for me in nearly quarter of a century.
Yet on a positive note, I helped mother earth. Lesser use of car means less emission of toxic greenhouse gases. My support to the "Go Green" cause didn't stop there. Due to working from home there was fewer usage of Office stationaries, Computer printouts, electricity, elevators, AC and so on. I could proudly proclaim of saving many trees from being felled and contributing to keeping the environment Ozone free due to restricted usage of CFC (CloroFluoroCarbon).
My first tryst with Corona was not the 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, all adjacent to each other. I could relate Corona to a friend of mine who had an 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 spellbounded and flabbergasted. Ignorance can be bliss, but it metamorphosed into sheer adulation for the guy around us having knowledge of English music. That's the only Corona I was aware of until the arrival of the virus bearing the same name decades later.
The pandemic could have been stopped at its nascent stage. 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 else, 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. Before you realize the cat is already out of the bag. Like a gossip or rumor, diligent imposition of social distancing or quarantine could have stopped it from spreading further four years ago. But disease had already gone viral and claimed millions of lives.
A la a joke which becomes stale and folks start losing interest after hearing it multiple times, people now have become immune to the news of the death and spread of Covid-19. No one is afraid of the disease anymore. Since Covid Pandemic forced me to spend longer stretches of time at home, it has opened up a new relationship - interaction with feral cats in our backyard. We love them a lot, especially my wife who leaves no stone unturned in caring and feeding them.
When on March 16, 2020 I started Work from Home, Donald Trump was the President of United States and Joe Biden was still struggling in the Democratic Primaries to challenge Trump. Since then a lot of water has flown in the river Chattahoochee and tables are turned. Now four years down the road Joe Biden is the President and Trump is his challenger as we are looking at a political rematch. But the fun of pre Covid days is gone for ever. Covid has changed everything, leaving a whole different world for us to live.
