Biggest mistake of my life

I have often faced this question in the last two weeks --- why don't you write a story about these times? By "these times" people meant COVID-19 and of course lockdown. I have replied sometimes with silence, at other times with a "let me think about it". Truth is I don't want to write about it. At least not in the next one year.

Before you tick me off as a lazy lump good at giving excuses, let me explain. At least let me try  to...

I want to write. Have been meaning to write and been doing a lot of research for the last four months. But not about COVID-19. I am researching for my next story after Five Spice Curry. I have the plot in mind, but I need a lot of research. And it is not even remotely connected to this virus that has turned our lives upside down.

Ok I am exaggerating. My life has changed, but not upside down. More of lateral inversion. Instead of braving the Chingrihata road block twice daily for five days a week, I am now doubling up as my cook and daily help while working from home. For those of you wondering "where the hell is Chingrihata", please ask anyone who works in Sector V or Newtown in Kolkata. Just utter the name Chingrihata and you will read your answer in their horrified expressions. It is a crossroad where you remain stranded for an hour on average without any hope of ever reaching home.

Anyway, back to the present laterally inverted state. We are working from home now. At least I am. Most of my friends are. So when the lockdown started, I sensed mixed feelings about working from home. In other people I mean. I have worked in IBM and hence I am quite familiar with it. I also know what it is to have your three year old daughter peep out from behind your back during video calls and shout out "Is that Josette?" when you are presenting to your team. So I kept quiet and tried not to look smug. I mean, I have after all "been there and done that" as far as wfh is concerned.

Well so I thought....

During the first few days of lockdown, I cooked quite a few traditional dishes, thanks to youtube, and posted them on Instagram. Then my Mom pointed out that at a time when so many people might be going without food, the last thing I should be doing was to post pictures of food. Stricken and guilty conscious, I never posted food again. And then came the Kolkata summer, in full force. Just when I understood that my best friends were actually my cook and daily help, who supplied me with food and a clean house when I used to work from home...

And that's also when I realised the biggest mistake I have made in life till date. No, it's not neglecting my studies at a time when I should have focussed on it most. Neither is it about making wrong career choices. Before you jump to deeper conclusions, let me tell you....I did not buy a dishwasher.

Yes, you heard me right. I did not buy a dishwasher, and that's my biggest mistake in life till date.

No matter where you are at this point if you have a dishwasher, washing machine, mop and microwave at home, half the battle is won. While we fight the world war three with COVID-19 outside, inside the house we are all fighting our own battles.

Some of us are battling with sheer boredom, having watched the entire streaming movie and series lists twice over. Some of us are trying to balance work from home with work for home. Yet others are simply trying to survive. But one thing we have in common behind the locked doors of our sanitized homes. We have to wash dishes. No matter how little we cook or eat, the dishes (includes all utensils) seem to pile up.

I managed to delegate some of the dishwashing to the rest of my family, including my daughter, by telling them that we also wash our hands repeatedly with soap, each time we wash our own dishes. That might stop the virus. Ever thought about it?

However the major part of dishes still seem to stay for me. I ask for 5 mins extra to join a con call where I need to present a solution. Why? Because post lunch, I need to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen and dining area.

So the first thing I will buy if I survive the lockdown is a dishwasher.

Another curious thing I noticed is the sudden popularity of roofs. Unless you live in a multi-storied with a swimming pool on roof, how many times do you visit the roof?

I can count the number of times I visited ours on my little finger. Now it's a different story. A week after being at home, I decided to take my daughter up to the roof where we can enjoy the sky without harming "social distancing". We went up to find two families already there, struck by the same bright idea. Thankfully, our roof is large enough to walk about with the mandatory 6 feet distance with other families. Then I saw that most people in our neighbourhood were on their roofs, walking around.

I suddenly remembered my childhood days when we used to play on roofs. The fear of losing our badminton feathers and the many times we actually lost it while playing. Why did we stop going to play on the roofs?

There's no answer. Just as there's no answer to so many questions that we have. About the virus. About economy, poverty, hunger, deaths. Only time can tell...

Right now however, we have to go on with our lives, even if it is confined to four walls, even it means going on without seeing our loved ones, parents, friends and best friends (read cook and daily help) for days, weeks and maybe months.
And we have to keep the show going on. The show of life.

Okay, time for me to go for dinner and a subsequent round of dishwashing...catch up with you later. Till then "stay at home and stay safe and wash dishes to automatically clean your hands."