Yeh wada raha....

      'Life begins at 40' and yesterday i turned ONE. I am loving the way your and my life is intertwined. I always will be your age with a 39 year headstart, call that a 39 year experience. Last year, on May9th, my 40th birthday, i made many promises to my self, birthday resolutions. The annual gym resolution almost never materialised till i joined a gym in January and went there for 2 days or maybe 3. Making NEET notes for 32 chapters is almost done. I have already completed 3 pages of the 1st chapter. I have never been a man to honour his resolutions or the promises i make. But, i kept a promise i had made to you and myself together. Last year on 9th May, i started writing a blog. Had tried it many times before. But this one was going to tell our story. This one for you to cherish. This one was supposed to be my gift to you when you grow up to understand this. So, i continued writing. And in an year, wrote 23 posts, this one being the 24th. These were supposed to be memories which were going to make me and aai smile 20 years later, but it is having the same effect even today when we read some old posts.
     Your presence has made my every day special and that includes my birthday. Last year, we had cut a pastry at midnight. Aai could not arrange that due to the corona restrictions. Rather, she is very wary of giving me any surprises on my birthday as i have made a fiasco of such efforts before and have hurt her emotions in doing so. She always goes overboard in her efforts to make my birthday a memorable event, but then circumstances and me always plot in some way to put a roadblock to it. Aai who had promised me a breakfast of Upma, landed up giving me bread-omlette, with another promise of giving upma the next day, when she was forced to prepare sabudana khichadi due to sankashti. (Her omlette became a bhurji and her khichdi had stale peanut smell). BICHARI is the only word for her. This year, corona has made everyone to sit at home and party inside the confines of your walls. So, going to BBC or Aaple Samadhan was out of question. Luckily, BBC has started parcel service. So we ordered lot of punjabi food for the first time since lockdown. Aatu, Aarya tai and Aadya tai were staying downstairs. They prepared a biscuit cake, on which i made some decorations to make it a visual delight. I had bought another ice-cream cake too. Cold-drinks, punjabi food, biryani, cake, icecream, aaba-aaji, kakoja, aatu and her girls and us. If someone happens to see any video of the party at a later date, there will be no inkling of any lockdown restrictions whatsover.
     Last year, my first blog was about my birthday and the second was about 'mother's day'. This year they are just one day apart. But, unlike last year, aai didn't want to celebrate it and i agreed with her reasoning. We both are against these days propogated by card and gift companies. A 'mother' cannot be celebrated in a day and if that mother is your aai, then a lifetime wont be enough.
     The last year has been great. I have started working in one more class (fusion). Aai got a raise at work. The year was good in terms of work, money, health and happiness, Touch Wood!. And then there were you. Watching you grow up was the best thing that happened last year. You can now say 'Dadda'. Though you call every other thing 'Dadda', when you point me out as 'Dadda', it make me beam with joy. From yesterday, you started saying aai, rather a funny squeak which sounds like 'aai. But whenever you say that, the emotions on aai's face are worth capturing on camera. Last year, when i was cutting the cake, you were barely able to hold your head with support, completely unaware of what is happening around you. This year, you were playing around, shouting, clapping and trying to eat the cake before it was cut. And then, next year will be my birthday again where you will be singing 'happy birthday' with everyone else. Till then, keep making memories. Till then, i will write about it in this blog. Till then.....

Ruki Ruki si Zindagi.....

       Long time no see. Last time i wrote on this blog was 22nd Feb. There is so much happeing everyday in our lives, in this world and especially with you, that i can write almost daily. But, then what happened that i did not write a single word in more than 70 days. Actually, 'NOTHING' happened. Rather, i will say one virus stopped all the happenings in the world. The world is at a standstill. The world is in coma, waiting to resuscitate. The world is in Lockdown. We are living a time which can be called as ना भूतो ना भविष्यती.
      2020 is a cursed year. Myans had predicted about the end of the world in 2012. They missed their calculations by 8 years. It all started with Pushpa mavshi's death. A few days later, aai was in school and u were playing with rohini mavshi, when aaba called me downstairs. Rohini mavshi's husband had called. Her mother was no more. She had to go. And so she went, went for a long time. Longer than we expected. Mah-aaji and Aajoba came down to help us with you, with a eye on the calendar. There is no doubt that they love you. They do everything possible to give you they same love they gave all the other grandkids. But, their age is becoming a hindrance. But, even then, whenever aajoba's strict regime and mah-aaji's mobile phone gave them some time, they were a great help. Alas, their exit strategy was in place and rohini mavshi's delay in coming back was making them restless.
     She came back. They went home. Life was back to routine. Plans were being made for Aai's spring break in March. When all this was happening, a man in Wuhan, China happened to eat a bat. And the rest is History. One of the darkest chapter in History.
      Corona or Covid 19 started in Wuhan China. A highly communicable disease which spread by touch, droplet infection and even formite borne with symptoms like normal cough & cold ranging all the way to pneumonia-like symptoms. China, especially Wuhan region, bore the initial brunt. Lakhs of cases with thousands of deaths. The world which was wary initially was caught completely unprepared. It spread like wildfire. America, Iran, Italy, Spain, France were the worst affected. India had a slow start, but quickly the numbers have increased. Maharashtra and Mumbai are the worst hit. Right now, the world has 3.3 million cases and 2,35,000 deaths. India has 35,000 cases and about 1100 deaths.
        In my lifetime, I have seen the world getting concerned about cancer, AIDS, Sars, bird flu, ebola. But, this was the first time a disease has affected each and every person without actually getting contaminated with the virus. Most countries are in lockdown including India. India's first case was detected on 30th Jan. Maharashtra's first was confirmed on 9th March. Mumbai was in lockdown since 20thMarch, though schools were closed since the 13th. Modi announced a Junta curfew on 22nd March which also included the act of clapping together at 5 pm for the workers of essential services. U joined the whole nation at 5 and it was a touching moment. Two days later, he announced that India will be in a lockdown since 25th March for the next 3 weeks. Since then, the lockdown has been extended twice. There was also a gimmick of shutting lights and lighting candles at 9 pm on 9th April.
        Lockdown has completely changed everything. We have learned some new words like 'Quarantine' and 'Social Distancing'. Trains and buses are not plying. District, state and country borders are sealed. No domestic and international flights. Noone is allowed to travel except essential services. The roads, even highways are empty.Timings for buying essential things is now 9 to 2. Most educated people are not moving out of their homes. And those who go out unnecessarily are severely dealt by the police. Economies are in shambles. Crude oil prices are in negative. Pollution has drastically reduced. No school, colleges, classes, private offices, shops are working. Most people are working from home. Zoom and Google meet are minting money. Making new recipes, making dalgona coffee, saree pics on fb are the new trends. Rumours are flying left, right and centre on social media. Memes, poems about corona, messages from celebrities are in abundance. No new episodes on TV have shifted people to watch web series. Reruns of Ramayan, mahabharat, byomkesh, hum paanch are getting huge TRP. Aclohol and Tobacco is not available at all while fish is a premium. Even mangoes are difficult to get. Restaurants, Theatres, Malls have been shut down. No maids have made life difficult for the husbands. Everyone is bored at home, but have no choice. Unfortunately, it is a much sad and tough situation for the migrant workers and daily wage earners.
       At a personal level, aai's school continues online. I take one lecture a day on Zoom. Kakoja is staying with us during this period and u both have formed a great bond. We celebrated his 80th birthday at our place with cake, colddrinks, icecream, chicken. A big party admist the lockdown. I take u downstairs everyday at around 8.30, bring u back for lunch, take you for a stroll in the building compound at 6, leave you again at Aaba's place and bring u back upstairs at 8. Since Aaba and Dah-aaji are taking ur care, i am doing most of the cooking while aai handles the cleaning. I have stocked a lot of groceries. We are feasting a lot on colddrinks, icecreams, papdi, kachori, chips and wafers. Me and aai both are watching 'Blue Bloods' on Amazon. It is quite hot outside and you drink a lot of water and hence your food intake has decreased. You are loving watermelon though. I had kept a nice thick beard,which aai forced me to shave off. Right now, you are sporting a 80s hairsyle with thich hair covering your ears. You are video chatting almost daily with aatu (who has come to stay downstairs for a few days) and all kelekars. When aai is not working, she is on a conference call. And when she not doing either, she is watching her webseries while eating chips. And while she is not doing any of those, she gives me an earful about how i am working too much . Kakoja and Aai are in a race of who is more desperate for the lockdown to end. You are in your own world playing with your toys or running and shouting when in the compound or watching jingle toons or crying to watch your own videos on mobile.
         This is an unprecedented situation. I cant even say 'once in a lifetime' because many of our older generations haven't gone through this. We all are so close, yet so far. It is not that we meet our relatives very often, but this inability of not meeting them at will has created a more intense longing. (Imagine what Anaokars are going through as Sachin kaka is stuck in Phillipines). Hoping and praying that this will end soon.Hoping and praying that this will never happen again. Hoping and praying that we will be back to eating at a nice restaurant, going and playing in a garden, shopping in a mall, celebrating birthdays with family  , travelling in our car, going to a nice resort for the weekend.  Hoping and praying that we not have to listen to Ramdas Athavle saying again. 'Go Corona. Corona Go'.