‘Lockdown’ to ‘unlockdown’: Writing through the change
Lockdown can unlock strange memories. Like this gentleman who arrived in my life without headlights one stormy monsoon night, as such people sometimes tend to: on alcoholic fumes and a prayer. He had driven into the front of my old, cherished car.
“Are you driving your mother’s bum?” I asked as we both stood, angry, adamant, soaked. “My car is lit up like a Christmas tree. Can’t you see?”
“Are you Santa Claus?” he asked, somewhat defensively.
Blessedly, I edged back from the abyss of violence to the humour of eccentrics. We went our separate ways.
In early lockdown days compelling memories crowded frantic to-do memos. Get supplies. Share supplies. Worry about child’s education. Sweep house. Clean cobwebs of every sort. Resume martial arts. Review black book. Write frenetically. Update CV. Start over. Go away. Go away where? Then I calmed, realizing that, as a recluse lockdown is my everyday. Deliberate pace, relative peace.
As ‘lockdown’ changes to ‘unlockdown’ in a frenzy of horror and hope, such pace and peace are ever more imperative. The world — rampaging disease, overwhelming dislocation, death by the callousness and deliberate cruelties of runaway emperors, a country and world gone quite mad — remains a scene outside my window. And in my mind’s eye. As earlier, home is a refuge where I return after hunting and gathering stories, bringing with me the anger, impoverishment and indignity I see and feel; alongside happiness, wealth of knowledge and simple needs and dignities; and alongside understanding of the stunning wealth and power of a Croesus and the irredeemably, inhumanely crass. It’s where I return with all the beauty I can find on my travels. There’s still a lot of it: nature is too busy dispensing magic to be thrifty.
Then I lock down, soak in the world. For days, weeks, sometimes a month and more. It also reminds me that I am just a writer, a teller of other people’s lives and longings as if they are now my own. It’s a sobering interlude between being too full with a review, too bronzed with spotlight at a literary gathering, too plump after giving a talk to people who wield real power, too yearning of streams of consciousness, and streams of sponsored red. All of it of course as divine rights of a writer.
This is now largely ended. But there is life beyond dais and delusion. Now my audience, my readers, come home. We ‘Facebook Live’. We ‘Zoom’. We talk about the Battle of Plassey, about communities and communalism, about history and politics, about conflict and conflict resolution. The festival of books and ideas continues without frills. It’s comforting. We all seem to have the humour of eccentrics. ‘Unlockdown’ won’t change it.
I write through Covid-wrought change. Because for me talkingwords are communication, writingwords are soul. Ever more, writing cannot be pointless, like the reminder of a phantom limb in winter. Because there is more censorship. There is more fear. Empty promises are ever more the opiate of the masses. For writers there were never many safe havens, and now there are ever fewer ports to visit. But writers must write.
Yes, there’s churn. Publishers are reprioritizing. Some pre-covid books won’t make sense post-covid when seen through monetary lenses. Reading habits, tastes and needs are changing — have changed — and publishers duly follow readers. ‘Backlists’ are resurrected. This is economical. Mumbo-jumbo is thriving. This is profitable. Printed book sales have resumed. This is necessary. Not everyone can afford a backlit reading device. For most, a tablet still means pharmaceuticals. Here, e-book is still limited infusion even though in the future Kindle and Kobo could cut paper.
In this churn I’ve begun writing a book. There’s preparation for another, also non-fiction. A long-delayed novel is visiting; it spends a lot of time in the study. I’ve begun to share poetry, some old and defensively bound in notebooks, some new and brazen — take it or leave it. A play is maintaining social distance. It’s patient.
In the ongoing madness I’m among the relatively fortunate. Our village is as it has been for decades. Our lives have changed in significant ways, but our days, our homes are still decorated by the sights and sounds of jungle, fields, gentle hills, quiet rivers, remote fishermen, church bells. At night there is now cooling breeze, some rain, soothing quiet except for the occasional cry of a nervous lapwing. In the morning you can almost hear a lotus bloom.
And tomorrow? Ah, yes. Tomorrow.
The mansion looks like an aristocratic lady dressed in sun rays, fussily rearranging them from time to time. The afternoon light—and its shifting shadows—have ignited a gentle glow onto its pale blue walls, turning the concrete into something lighter and softer, something that might perhaps dissolve if touched.
It’s a pity that this exquisite piece of architecture goes unnoticed. And not only these days when barely any explorer dares to venture into the crowded, cramped Old Delhi due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The edifice was ignored in the BC (Before Corona) era, too. Simply because it is located in a side-alley that outsiders rarely care to step in. Even the locals of this narrow street don’t really bother about this graceful structure stranded in their midst—seeing something so hauntingly beautiful every day might have dulled its qualities to their eyes. Besides, you need to crane your neck out to gaze upon the building.
The sprawling building lies in the hilly Walled the city you never see
City neighbourhood of Pahari Rajaan. More than half of its loveliness comes from its first floor balconies—each has its surface luxuriantly shaped into all sorts of floral patterns, as if it has slyly copied the intricate patterns of a bride’s wedding lehenga. The wooden windows—some are green and some are brown—are closed. A frayed mustard green curtain is swaying out of one of the balconies. Apparently nobody lives inside, the main door is locked. “It was built by a purane rahees (old rich),” informs a nearby grocer.
“His daughter lives in Noida and still comes over sometimes to check on the place,” he adds.
The alley also has the honour of being the address of at least two notable Walled City families—one owns the historic Shereen Bhawan sweet shop, while the other comprises the immediate descendants of late poet Musheer Jhinjhanvi.
Just next to the building’s gateway lies its “sehan”, or courtyard, which is now a narrow lane lined with single-room dwellings. They are home to a number of butchers and their
be done within a week,” the bench, which also comprised justices SK Kaul and MR Shah, ordered.
Formed in 1985, NCR, which spans 55,083 square kilometres and also includes parts of Rajasthan, was envisaged as a composite area for coordinated urban planning and development, but the lack of coordination among member states have time and again been exposed over the years in critical areas such a pollution control and mobility. In fact, experts blamed officials in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for not working in tandem to prevent the border mess during the lockdown.
“The idea [of NCR] was to decongest Delhi and allow integrated development in Delhi and neighbouring cities. Integration of transport was an important component. Instead of taking decisions considering NCR as a whole unit, the district administrations in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana are working in silos,” AK Jain, former planning commissioner, Delhi Development Authority, said.
State authorities welcomed the Supreme Court directive. “We will implement the order through complete collaboration with our sister states under the aegis of the Union ministry of home affairs,” Delhi chief secretary Vijay Dev said.
Amit Arya, media adviser to Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, said: “We will work with the other state governments on the modalities, and find out a way forward...”
While Ajay Shankar Pandey, the Ghaziabad district magistrate, said relevant directions will come from Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow, authorities in Noida did not immediately react to the issue. “...Let us go through the observations/orders... [and] let the Centre convene the meeting first...,” a senior government official said in Lucknow on the condition of anonymity.
Strict border curbs have hindered movement of commuters in the NCR region ever since the lockdown was first imposed on March 25. What added to the confusion were state-specific rules that, in turn, led to serpentine queues at Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad borders as the police turned away scores of commuters. For example, Delhi announced sealing its border for at least a week on June 1, two days after the central guidelines on a phased reopening green-lighted interstate travel but pointed out at the same time that state-specific curbs are allowed based on assessment of the ground situation. Though Haryana decided lifting of border restrictions after the Centre’s guidelines, commuters travelling from the national capital to Gurugram and Faridabad were back to square one with Delhi imposing stringent restrictions.
In Thursday’s hearing, the petitioner, Rohit Bhalla, a resident of Gurugram, pointed out the troubles commuters were facing and the confusion among them. He said measures adopted by states were disproportionately impacting citizens and violating their fundamental rights, including the right to movement under Article 19(1)(d) and the right to carry on with trade or occupation under Article 19(1)(g).
Specifically, Bhalla challenged the orders passed by officials in Haryana on April 29 and Uttar Pradesh on May 3.
In the April 29 notification, the Gurugram and Sonepat administrations directed residents of these two districts who cross interstate borders to arrange for accommodation outside Haryana, Bhalla said. He also pointed out that the Gautam Budh Nagar administration announced sealing of the Noida border on May 3.
“Restricting movement and activities to different extents in different areas falling within the NCR is in complete violation of the Union of India’s new guidelines dated May 1, 2020 which in fact allows movement for permissible activities [such as essential services],” the petitioner said.
The absence of a common pass system was another aspect Bhalla pointed out in his petition filed on May 11. Commuters in NCR have to apply for e-passes in state-specific portals.
“A person residing in one State, working for gain in another state and falling within permissible limits of the New Guidelines [of May 1], has to apply for passes in both the States and may get accepted by one and rejected in the other due to a complete lack of co-ordination in the said state departments, preventing his fundamental right to practice his profession or commerce in spite of the same being allowed by the New Guidelines,” the petition said.
In all, eight laboratories are now under investigation for not adhering to the protocols defined by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) before allowing people to take Covid-19 tests. A show-cause notice sent to them said: “...data submitted by you in the ICMR portal and to the health and family welfare department in which it has been observed that a large number of asymptomatic patients were tested without following ICMR testing protocol.”
The eight labs together were able to carry out 4,000 tests a day, according to figures they shared with HT. The government initiated a similar enquiry over discrepancy in data against another laboratory, Dr Lal Path Labs, in early May. The largest chain of private laboratories in India, Lal Path Labs alone had the capacity to test 4,000 samples. According to officials who asked not to be named, the lab is yet to be allowed to resume tests.
The controversy around testing comes at a time when the national capital has been recording an increasing number of new cases. On Wednesday, the city crossed the 1,500 mark for singleday infections. On Thursday, this number was 1,359.
The Delhi government issued fresh orders to hospitals on Thursday to discharge any mild on asymptomatic Covid-19 patient they may have, and said that facilities that have been approved for treating Covid and well as non-covid patients should turn away any patients.
“We already have our dedicated COVID-19 facilities. Three more private hospitals were added yesterday (Wednesday). And if those private hospitals with mixed use (20 per cent reserved beds) are facing logistics issues, then they will be fully converted into dedicated Covid-19 facilities,” deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said, adding that “the focus is to save lives”.
ICMR has approved 16 government and 22 private laboratories in Delhi for Covid-19 testing. Of the seven private laboratories, five have refused to comment on the matter.
Fortis hospital, which outsources all its tests to SRL diagnostics, said: “We have been following ICMR protocols or guidelines and we conduct tests only after receiving all the relevant documents from a patient. There have been some queries raised on sample assigned to “OTHERS” category as per the ICMR form. We are responding to these with further details on the same.”
“SRL is actively engaging with the MOHFW (Health and Family welfare department) and DGHS (Directorate General of Health Services) to understand the gaps. As an organisation that is at the forefront of fighting this pandemic with the government, SRL understands the sensitivity and seriousness of our business and is keen to fight the Covid battle along with the administration,” said Arindam Haldar, chief executive officer of SRL in a statement through Fortis representatives.
The other laboratories include: City X-ray and Scan clinic, Prognosis Lab, Pathkind Diagnostics and Star Imaging.
Union health minister Harsh Vardhan, too, joined the issue on Thursday, saying there was a need to ramp up testing as well as surveillance, contact tracing and containment in Delhi. “Rising cases, high positivity rates and low testing levels in many districts are worrisome,” Harsh Vardhan was quoted as saying in a health ministry statement.
To be sure, Delhi tests the most people in the country per million population. On Wednesday night, this number stood at 11,615, at least 50% higher than Andhra Pradesh that comes second. The national average is 3,183 per million.
Experts say that while the idea of putting an end to frivolous testing is all well, Delhi is also excluding high-risk individuals. “Our (India’s) condition is probably worse than Italy, but we don’t know since we aren’t testing enough. We don’t acknowledge our real status in terms of disease spread because it seems our focus is largely on proving we are doing better than other countries in managing the disease. We have tested about 3.9 million people from a population of 1.3 billion, which is roughly about 0.3% of the population. How can you plan how to control a pandemic for the rest of the 99.7% of the population by merely looking at the results in 0.3% of the population?” said
Dr T Jacob John, former virology head, Christian Medical College, Vellore John.
On Wednesday, the Delhi government tightened its testing criteria to exclude any asymptomatic person without known co-morbid conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
ICMR guidelines allow for the testing of asymptomatic direct contacts such as those living in the same household on the fifth and 10th day.
After a meeting with representatives of the laboratories, an internal communication from the Delhi government on Thursday read, “Enquiry is on against these labs for taking samples against the protocols of ICMR. All the CDMOS are requested to suspend the registration of all the phlebotomists of all these labs… Also pl ensure that no samples are sent to this wef (with effect from) today.”
The Delhi government currently registers all the phlebotomists or laboratory technicians who collect the throat and nasal swabs with the district authorities, without which the samples cannot be collected.
In addition to Fortis, which used SRL, testing has also been stopped at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital as per the Delhi government directions. Both hospitals treat Covid-19 patients. On Wednesday, the government declared Sir Ganga Ram hospital as an entirely Covid-19 hospital.
When asked about the testing controversy, Dr Rajeev Garg, director general of health services, Government of India, said: “Today the health minister had a review meeting with the Delhi Govt in which the matter was discussed and resolved. There have been no wrongdoings from our side and it was clarified. There is no problem,”
After the change in testing protocol an official from one of Delhi’s government laboratory, on condition of anonymity had told HT, “The earlier category allowed for the testing of family members living in the same house or doctors and health care workers exposed to a Covid-19 patient even if they were asymptomatic. Most of the cases – around 70% -- were picked up in family members tested. Now, the government is allowing the testing of only those who have symptoms.”
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