Is taking a break from Covid too much to ask?

It’s like I am straining at a leash, a little wildly to be honest, drawing up excuses to step out of the house and putting forth suggestions for some relief from the Covid lockdown, all of which are immediately vetoed by the pragmatic ones in the family.

“Why can’t we take off to the hills? The environment is so pristine and with no tourists going, it is bound to be safe,” I seek to know and am sternly dismissed by my daughter. “Ma, what is up with you? Have you given a thought to food? Where and what will we eat once there? No, it’s not safe at all.”

I have always secretly admired her penchant for calling a spade a spade and a no nonsense approach when dealing with her 10-year-old students but I’m not sure how to react when the knives are out for me.

A week later, having quite forgotten the dressing down received previously, I proposed a long drive in the evening when the sun is down and it is cooler.

“Pallavi, please remember it is a weekend. There is a curfew after 7pm.”

That is dear husband piping up. Always correct, calm and unruffled, traits most admirable and praiseworthy but ones which in these taxing times are getting a trifle difficult to digest.

Anybody out there or is it just me?

The barrage of Whatsapp messages instructing us on myriad ways to achieve calmness and acceptance, the innumerable recipes to boost our immunity and resistance from the pandemic seem to have reduced a little, the roads are pretty much thronging with people, the news readers are less solemn and lately seem to be merely reciting the Covid numbers with glazed eyes and grim determination, Amit Shah is back on the stage and on to the road to Bihar but none of this is enough to instill even a grain of confidence in us to go out for anything more than essentials!

Till a few weeks back, I was making desperate efforts to ape Jacqueline Fernandez on the online exercise but before I could even fathom the ‘curtsy lunges’ and the ‘abs cherry bombs’ the platform started demanding a subscription!

The book shelf hasn’t beckoned me for weeks. I think it is sulking at my uncharitable behaviour because I have been dishonest to every book I picked up, exchanging one with the next without giving the first even a fair chance.

My culinary skills have been put to rest on popular demand by the long suffering family. They have decided they need to eat at least one meal in a day that has the seasoning in the correct proportions. I made a feeble attempt at promising renewed energy into my efforts but they all seem to agreeing on this one with steadfast conviction.

I decided to revisit the Urdu I had started learning at school but soon realised that age is an important number.

So, amid all this stress and anxiety, is the desire for a little break from this interminably long break too much to ask?

From the uproar you would think Dr Anthony Fauci came on TV to announce a long delay in the breakthrough on the Covid vaccine when over my second glass of wine, I set the newspaper aside and solemnly announced, “Goa, anyone?”

I’M DRAWING UP EXCUSES TO STEP

OUT AND PUTTING FORTH SUGGESTIONS FOR RELIEF FROM LIFE IN LOCKDOWN