I managed to beat the pandemic!

Hey folks! What’s up??

I hope you are doing great, writing a lot, reading even more and enjoying your days. And of course, staying safe! It feels great to be back, talking to my poetic buddies. Yeah, I know, I just dropped off the scene without warning, and back the same way… I guess that’s just me being me!

On a more serious note, things have not been quite as easy as that. With the second Covid-19 wave devastating my city and my country, it has been pure mayhem. The situation was an out of control spiral, shortage of medicines, oxygen, hospital beds… so many of my family, and from every family I know, sadly passed away. And then I got caught too. Thankfully, the rest of my immediate family recovered without complication but I dived in deep- prolonged fever for over a month, low oxygen, high D-dimer, and lots else, but I will not bore you with the details. It was a long illness, a terrible one, and a longer recovery. When even lying down makes you short of breath, it really brings home the value of each moment.

It has been a time of slow, rambling walks over the now-rare remnants of the ancient Aravalli mountains, my Fido sniffing deep into the grass for stuff that his daydreams are made of and me finally living the dreams I had- of one day being able to get up and watch him play in the overgrown grass- dreams that kept me going when hope wasn’t too thick on the ground. On the days when it rains, we just slosh round the edges of the ponds, listening to the frogs raise up a cacophony, croaking for their mates. Dripping shoes and the raindrops beating their tiny drums on our raincoats… I am so happy to be alive to see all this again. But most days, it doesn’t rain. The heat and humidity are like a thick, airless coat upon our skin and we walk in the shadows, stopping to catch the whispers of the wind where we find them, looking at trees lying prone, hoping to slake their thirst in the water cupped in the lake beneath. Soon, this lake will dry off, leaving behind heads of grasses standing motionless in the heat, patiently waiting for the seasons to turn…

Ah, well, that has been that, and now I am finally at my computer again, letting my fingers do the talking.

Are you listening??