Stay at Home Ramblings #2

It was three days after the day of the pink moon. The pinkness had waned—was it more Fandango or Tuffy pink or Flamingo tonight? Let’s say it was more of Amaranth. My grandfather used to say that there are two things in this world that you can sit and look at forever—one was the sea and the other was the elephant. That night, I added that Amaranth moon to the list. Last Friday night was unlike any other lazy summer night. The summer rains were visiting Bangalore—the day temperatures that were ~35C had come down to ~22C by the evening. The four of us were sitting in our balcony with the lights switched off. The wet moon was radiant and we were basking in its Amaranth light. Amazon was playing our Malayalam songs playlist. The gentle music that wafted out of the Bluetooth speakers coupled with the breeze that the rain had brought with it made the night that much more ravishing. The breeze sprayed the rain here and there—it was summer and we were happy to get wet.

My wife was looking out at the near-empty road—it seemed as if the pink moon and the neon streetlights were competing with each other to create poetry on that empty road. There were a few last-minute shoppers scurrying to get out of the gentle drizzle and a few dogs who were enjoying the whole thing. The roads were bereft of vehicles and humans, the evening was beautiful, there were friends all around, food was aplenty, it was raining, the night with its many surprises awaited—what more does a dog need to be in heaven. My younger daughter was lying on my chest—half asleep, but intently listening to a story that I was making up then and there. My elder daughter was sitting on the floor reading her Kindle. In the darkness, the backlit screen illuminated her sleepy face. When she caught me looking at her, we exchanged wry smiles—she had been the first victim of my made-up stories and she was happy that her sister was being made to go through the same rigmarole.

These stories were another item in the long list of things that she was forced to share with her younger sibling—from bedrooms to cupboards to Netflix accounts to parents. The younger one had almost dozed off; a few minutes more, and she would be in La La Land. The elder one, too, was fighting a losing battle with her sleep. Her eyelids were drooping and she was reading the same page for the fourth time. She closed her Kindle, got a pillow from her bedroom, and lay down on the floor. I looked at my wife—she was somewhere far away; in a world where music ruled the roost, where you could go only if you had wings imagination could give you, where you had to have love in your heart to enter. I closed my eyes and tried to follow her there.

The moon continued to bathe the world in its Amaranth light, the rain continued to embrace our long silences, and the breeze continued to caress each of us as we found peace within us. All seemed to be right again with the world—the harrowing pain and terrible sadness of the tough times the world was facing had been momentarily forgotten. The sufferings of humanity seemed to be so far away from reality at that moment. The night had the faint fragrance of Poui blossoms and the city seemed to be smiling again.

Maybe, this is what we needed to do—maybe we need to make up our own reality to escape the one that someone else has created for us. Even if it’s for a moment, we need this alternate reality to get our hands on that elusive elixir—peace of mind. I knew, in some far-flung recess of my mind, that this manufactured reality would not take me very far—we would get back to whatever we have now with a loud thud and a bang. But it was okay—that transitory peace I had, the fleeting sense of security and safety I felt, the brief taste of the old normal would last me for some time. Come morning, I would be back in the battlefield—adapting and continuously evolving to get one over the new normal, trying to help people less fortunate than I was, and seeking out ways to spread cheer and positivity—but this night was mine. Mine to do whatever I wanted with it—mine to escape into a world of my own; a world where there was peace, a world ruled by love, a world that held a lot of dear memories, and a world I would go back to again and again.

#stayathome #wfhlife #covid19impact #lifeafterlockdown