Tis the season.

The weather in Australia continues to surprise me. Its as if someone is closely monitoring the calendar. It’s the start of September, and presto ! winter is gone. The cold, harsh sub 10 degree nights have now changed to 17 degrees. Daytime tops 20. That can only mean one thing: spring is here. Warm days abound. Had to switch the heater to ac mode.

The change of seasons here is truly amazing. Looking forward to warmer days.

 

Milestones

 

The pandemic and lockdown have slowed things down. But time does flow. Its that time of the year again, time to lookback at those milestones.

Is it bad out there? Definitely.

But days like today give you things to reflect upon. And I dodged a bullet today.

I am grateful for my circumstances. Most grateful to the people in my family.

Hey blogger

Hey blogger, just wanted to tell you.  The new interface sucks.

A stitch in time.

Victoria is right now in its 4^th week of its stage 4 restrictions, which was enforced starting August 2^nd. This is more of a curfew than a simple restriction and is far stricter and fine grained than the earlier restrictions. And it seems to be working. Take a look at the graph of new cases being reported in the state of Victoria.

The 2^nd of August is right in the middle of this graph, when the number of cases being reported was at its peak. And then the counts go down gradually, as soon as the curfew hits the city, and later the state completely. It is a familiar pattern, the number of infections decrease as soon as the primary vector, humans ,are immobilised. Everyone is staying locked in , until 13^th September, the date these restrictions are scheduled to end.

Simply put, a stitch in time saves nine.

It is not , and was never, that easy to ask Victorians to stay in. Aussies are an outdoorsy folk, the live outside, under the sun and in the rain. They could maybe stay in a few weeks, but definitely not in months. All through this period, there have been conspiracy theorists and plain idiots calling for a boycott of the curfews, asserting falsely, that it violates their ‘freedom of movement’, whatever that means. There were also calls from small business owners to re-open in a controlled way, in order to bring back much needed business. Add to this the bunch the virus deniers and anti-vaxxers, you have a gathering of monsters to control. Having never experience a war first hand, and not used to being ruled under a regime, people here take their own personal freedom for granted, and not  a privilege. The only thing the country had going for it was the small population. At 25 million people, there are more people in the state of Kerala in India than the total population of Australia and New Zealand combined ! So some police presence on the road, and the new of Australian Defence Forces patrolling the streets was enough to herd in the dissenters. And of course, the heavy fines 😊.

So verdict ? It seems to be working. One can only hope the course will hold steady until the counts come down to 0. And hopefully, this will the last time this lesson need to be learnt. This is our second time doing this, remember ?

Can’t go back. There can not be a third wave.

Optimistically nostalgic

Quarantine makes you do funny things. Lately, I have been feeling nostalgic , more  than usual. I think it is a collective phenomenon, I have been seen more posts on Twitter and facebook about others also on a nostalgic memory trip. It is clear now that we live in a much more complicated world today, and we all yearn to live in a little more simpler times.

There is no denying it, the 90s was the best decade to live in India. Especially late 90s, and early 2000s, the transition to the new century and new millennium. We made such a big hype and hoopla about it, the move into the new millennium. Year 2000 was supposed to usher in the futuristic years, it had a certain ring to it, and it promised changes, and a better life. As kids, we loved all of this, a phenomenon that only occurs once in a thousand years. We are gen-x, and we would grow up and shape the coming decades. There was so much optimism in the air back then.

Not that it did not happen, it did. Changes did come, and life did get better, for most of us. But it also became faster. Without realizing it, we ushered in a new decade of being late, of getting busier. Despite all the technological advancements, people are always in a hurry, to get to places, to get more work done in the same 24 hour period. And that , for me is the big irony of the internet age.

Reminds me of that poem , Leisure , by W H Davies.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

 

And these are precisely the kind of things I used to do as a child. Walk and run in wide open spaces, looking at sheep and cows, climb trees, smell the flowers. Enjoying the stars at night, listening to sounds of owls, crickets and frogs. I had a cycle, literally grew up on one, which I used to pedal everywhere. And had a bunch of friends to meet and hangout with almost everyday. By mid 90s, new channels started appearing on the TVs, and internet arrived by the late 90s. But these were all so expensive, and out of the budget of kids like ourselves. So we would go out to a café and send and email, but also meet the recipient later in the day, and tell them we had emailed them. So the next day, they would visit the café and read that email.

Waste of time ? Sure. Waste of money ? 100 %!! But it was fun. And we did all this knowing we needn’t worry too much about the future. A bright, and optimistic future where there would be no problems, and everyone was happy, and had time for each other. Something told us we could still enjoy the outdoors, and each other’s company well into our thirties. In fact, we all wanted to grow up so fast. Thirties was the age to be in !!

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The thirties suck. Unless you have a few good things to look forward to. Small pockets of joy to nurture yourself on, and small challenges to overcome. Watching movies about contagions is one thing, living through that hell is something far worse. The only thing one can have in these difficult time is hope.

If you can’t hope to go back, you can always hope for a better future.