Introduction to my second book, My Life in a Pandemic

There is a connection between Seshagiri, our late paternal grandfather, and Giridhar, my brother, whom my parents named after our grandfather.

We lost our paternal grandfather and granduncle in the 1940s plague in Mysore state. While there is little information on the epidemic that took away our grandfather, my brother, his grandson, has recorded his life in a pandemic for posterity.?

Pandemic literature is full of bleak images of death, hopelessness, and paranoia. The Diary of Samuel Pepys and Daniel Defoe’s?A Journal of the Plague Year are historical plague chronicles.

There have been many writings on epidemics by other writers. For example, the Smithsonian magazine’s April 13, 2020 issue has the article ‘What we can learn from 1918 Influenza Diaries’ by Meilan Solly, who referred archives for the report.?

Articles about keeping a COVID-19 diary have appeared in the New York Times, and American schoolteachers have encouraged their students to maintain such journals.

Our experience of COVID-19 in India has been quite different from any we have read in literature or any chronicles. Giridhar Pai’s book My Life in a Pandemic is unusual and different.?

COVID-19 itself has been an unusual experience, as much an infodemic as a pandemic. While most information about earlier pandemics came from the government and the media, COVID-19 has spawned among the public many self-proclaimed experts of questionable knowledge who spread it through social media.

Some earlier pandemics forced people outdoors – to run for their lives; this pandemic’s lockdowns compelled us to stay indoors to contain the spread of the causal virus. There have been lockdowns in other countries during COVID-19, but India’s series of lockdowns has no parallels anywhere.

War diaries from the two world wars, such as the famous?Diary of Anne Frank, tell us of much suffering. The use of war terminology against COVID-19, such as corona warriors, has been an exclusive experience of a battle against an unseen yet ubiquitous enemy. The media ensured that the coronavirus image stayed in our minds like some new evil avatar of an ogre or rakshasa (demon). The vaccine’s arrival (as some avatar of God) alone would quell it. Such has been the state of mind (or madness?) that prevailed in 2020 during COVID-19.?

India’s lockdowns brought untold misery for those in the lower economic strata, as millions of migrant laborers in cities walked thousands of miles to reach their homes in faraway places across India. But, on the contrary, the middle classes, the strata the author mostly deals with in his book, saw it unfolding on their TVs or mobile screens. In India, the fight against COVID-19 bombarded our senses through caller tunes on our phones and as scoreboards of infection and mortality in the media.

The war on COVID-19 raged in India even when citizens did not want to succumb to the infodemic and fear of an apocalypse as though the pandemic would cause ‘all to fall,’ like in the English nursery rhyme ‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses.’

A section of Indian society that did not get affected much economically was the one that could carry on with work-life thanks to technology. 2020 was the first time the world witnessed virtual life as normal, as many offices and educational institutions functioned online.

My Life in a Pandemic is a record of what went on in the writer’s mind behind the mask, which has ironically become a permanent identity shield for us in the past year in humanity’s war against an invisible virus. The author’s point of view in the book is that science and logic are the most important pathways to understanding the coronavirus. In 2020, many people seemed to have become COVID-19 experts, though scientists and medical professionals faced challenges of knowing and dealing with the virus to control its infection and effects.

I read each day’s entry of the author’s My Life in a Pandemic WhatsApp broadcast from July to October 2020 and responded with my comments. I have again read it now as a book and find that it uniquely provides hope, insightful observations and explores the possibilities of living one’s life normally in a pandemic. The book even helps tick off a few things on the bucket list while people remain indoors or with the limited movement now allowed in India’s unlockdown phase.?

At the end of the book, one feels that the COVID-19 lockdown has been a time for reflection, observation, and positive action – one of which has been the writing of this book. The book records individuals’ transformation as they turn inwards to reflect, introspect, spend time with themselves and their families. It is a witness to changing perspectives and modes of work and study as we switched to a more digitized world and the Covinnialls (the COVID-19 millennial generation) caught on.

In March, the author wrote Section I on how the coronavirus made inroads into our minds and lives and turned things around, upsetting us in several ways. While the lockdown was too sudden, the writer keeps his head as he remarks on how some advertisements managed to keep up with the chaos and helped brands retain their relevance in a changed scenario.?

Section II is an eye-opener. While many resented the lockdown and the forced life indoors, some feared death in the form of the coronavirus; the writer spent his time exploring nature, keeping his cool as he recorded the sights and sounds at Urbania. I had the opportunity to see those pictures and videos.

The period also saw the author’s initiation into video apps and social media usage, to which he earlier had an aversion. However, the author’s foray into media suggests that while everything else was closed and shut, he found ways to keep his mind open to new possibilities of remaining active, learning, and exploring. In addition, he followed his passions to upskill himself professionally, as we see in later sections.?

Section III records the work culture during WFH and advises professionals on productive use of time and their attitude towards colleagues. It also analyzes marketing and sales trends during the period from a micro-perspective. This Section could benefit management students for research on consumer behavior and marketing strategies. The Section also has a note of concern towards women, who have had to bear the burden of domestic and office work with no maids but with bosses demanding more than routine. The author opines on the need for managers and leaders to help female employees during a challenging time, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Section IV deals with the gradual unlocking and limited venturing outdoors, permitting people to make a slow return to normal. One chapter in this Section refers to the author’s visit to Justbooks library, his regular haunt for years. This year, among pandemic hobbies, reading has been a savior for many trying to find ways to engage themselves with the extra time they had on hand.?

Section V has observations about the choices nature and technology provide us to cope with the pressures of indoor confinement. The author’s commitment to fitness by subsisting on two meals and daily walks is an education for all who have gained weight by eating and not exercising during the lockdown.??

Section VI is about the author’s emergence as a videographer from being a videophobe and learning to look at losses and gains during the lockdown and effective participation in virtual meetings.?

Section VI is also a record of the writer maturing into a tech-savvy Pest Management Professional (PMP), all of which will benefit him as he also writes his PCO Mentor weekly newsletter. This Section also chronicles middle-class buying and spending patterns and the media’s role in manipulating people’s minds by telling them what is important for the nation to know!?

In this Section, the author observes how families could minimize wedding expenses by inviting guests to live Facebook streaming of such ceremonies. Before 2020, one could not have imagined people attending weddings online in India. The author’s interactions with children as they indulged in small joys touched me; in contrast, adults turned grumpy with extended lockdowns. The author’s tone turns tender as he describes children and their coping mechanisms in two chapters.?

In Section VII, the chapter on Indians’ craving for their street food, for which they must take off their facemasks, reflect our returning to normal. Even seemingly mundane things like buying vegetables or fruits turn into small adventures. While many young men were happy sporting their hair as it grew longer, others had to do with available gadgets for their haircuts. I was amused by the writer’s experience of a much-needed haircut.?

In this Section, the author also appreciates the India Post’s work, which had quietly gone about its services unnoticed when all people, barring those in essential services, remained indoors. Often housed in old, dilapidated structures, citizens do not notice India Post offices and their employees. The record of the author’s experiences at post offices is valuable, for we do not know how long these services will persist.?

He writes on diverse topics and the relevance or irrelevance or even redundancy of several things we had got used to before the lockdown, such as the number of clothes. It also unfolds his journey with and into his book, new business initiatives, and interaction with a family of COVID-19 survivors.?

Chapter 94 on life lessons struck a chord and brought back to mind many regrets, one of them the guilt at not having remained in touch with people who died recently. As the unlockdown expands the writer’s sphere of activity and movement, he talks of larger issues and concerns. In this Section, the author acknowledges farmers and post office employees for their service to society in a pandemic.?

I was also deeply moved by his account of the family at the highway selling toys and managing their lives, oblivious to the fear of the coronavirus. At the same time, I burst out laughing as I read his criticism of the middle-class, which lives in dread of the coronavirus. The poor in India who live on highways manage their lives remarkably well, even amidst challenges, and we have much to learn from their simple lives.?

My Life in a Pandemic goes through a learning curve, and one can perceive COVID-19 fatigue as one approaches the end. However, the author’s tone mellows as he meets COVID-19 survivors and recounts some of his past experiences, concluding that we should learn to deal with uncertainty when death calls, and we must leave the world without any baggage.?

My Life in a Pandemic maintains a clinical tone all through, but in the end, it turns deeply reflective and speaks of the need for the generation of endorphins for normalcy to return. The tragic side of physical distancing and human needs is true for all of us. However, it is only now that we understand its value – when a tiny virus forced us to maintain these norms.?

The author concludes his book with a parting message after recording his pandemic diary over a hundred days and leaving us with his philosophy, bordering on?carpe diem.

What is most striking is the author’s complete silence on political events though he has opinions on entrance tests, whimsical rules, mindlessness, and the government’s thoughtlessness during COVID-19 in India.?

In the coming years, I see this book as a source for literary and social research for scholars seeking pandemic literature of 2020. This year, some patients, politicians, survivors, and caretakers of COVID-19 patients have recorded their experiences in journals and blogs.?

This book has glimpses of life in a gated, middle-class Indian community even as it records social attitudes, work culture, emerging patterns, business, and technology trends, learning, and communication. It also records the impact of COVID-19 on all spheres of our social, professional, and learning lives.

Despite the media blitzkrieg generating paranoia, My Life in a Pandemic refreshingly steers clear of negativity and keeps us riveted on exploring possibilities in life. If given a choice, I would add an alternate byline for this pandemic diary: ‘I found my cheese.’ Instead, the author has used this year most fruitfully, venturing into things he had stayed away from – YouTube, Zoom calls, virtual conferences, online learning, video editing, and more.?

It has been a fulfilling and rewarding experience as a reader. This book also sees a more evolved writer from the author of?Life at Urbania, who initiated book publishing earlier this year. I await more books from the author as he writes on other matters.

I wish the readers of My Life in a Pandemic a happy journey through this book that arose from a journal.

By Dr. Suchetha Pai (sister of the book’s author Giridhar Pai)

https://notionpress.com/read/my-life-in-a-pandemic