Ravi Speaks:
I have completed two years after Retirement.
Got retired in the month of October-2019 and today in October again-I completed exactly two years. When I look back and try to recall any major event coming across in my two years tenure-it is mainly the word “LOCKDOWN”.
Yes, immediately after getting retired I had for a big change gone with the whole of my family to Europe and spent almost a fortnight traveling from one European country to another and it seemed to be very thrilling and challenging also since we had gone to that side during the winters. No doubt a very memorable period which I have already jotted down into my written stocks. But one thing which I would always remember is that the word Corona was heard there only in Europe for the first time. Since those days the Chinese city-“Wuhan” had already come in the news and the number of people getting into hospitals had already started. Still that time we never had an inkling of the suspicion even that this Corona would be the hot, dominant, and disturbing topic in the coming months.
I remember after coming back in the first week of January from London all my family members along with me again went to western coastal areas of Gujarat. There we did not stop and went to see all the religious places like ‘Dwarka’ and ‘Somnath-Temple’ as well as the surrounding areas. Went to the seashores near ‘Patliputra’ and even to the ‘Ghir-Jungles’ coming under the National Park statures. This time also went off as a memorable one and we came back to our home in Delhi safely.
It was only after that the news of COVID started picking up and every day we started listening to the daily scores rising especially of the people getting the virus and spreading the disease even faster. Exactly after one more month, the Lockdown was announced by the PM and we started restricting our movements within the four walls of our homes. Initially, everything was looking to be within our control and suddenly after say a month or so-people started showing restlessness and even many paid the price for such neglects-which were at that time not permitted to be followed at all. These neglects were just violations of the COVID-rules.
I remember we as the parents were very much worried about our daughter who was at that time still in France following her last concluding semester in her post-graduation. We were trying all possible ways to get her somehow back to India since the situation in her area was also pretty bad those days and all the students there were locked up in their residences only. Finally, as the luck would have it the Indian Government managed to get back the students from France also and in that batch, she could get the chance to reach back.
Slowly and steadily remaining at our respective homes became the order of the day and the ‘New Normal’. We had almost forgotten to get up early in the morning and the lethargic approach towards our daily chorus started engulfing our daily activities to a greater extent. Placing our daily needs in the form of orders to be delivered at home became yet another way of remaining in touch with the outer world and realizing that we would only with that path manage our daily needs too.
Yet another particular sight which we had almost become habitual was the provisional material and the vegetables getting at least ten to twelve hours initial stay at the outside entrance gate-where the table and the basket was permanently placed for the delivery man to deliver the ordered goods.
Till September the Lockdown was strict and slowly in October we had come out for the first time after the clamping of the lockdown and gone on a five-day tour to Shimla-the whole family. That time it looked as if we were allowed to come out of the Jail after almost six months and we realized that it was the sensible step taken by us that time. We all had heaved a sigh of relief and started experiencing the natural fresh air of the mountains and even the changed atmosphere from the one in Delhi where the red zones and infected zones were the area markings done by the municipal authorities.
In November the people slowly and steadily came back on the normal track. During this time, I had a great desire to shift from that densely populated Delhi areas-where we were living for almost three decades to a serene and comparatively lesser polluted and peaceful area of Gurugram. So, in the first month of the new year, we shifted to the new area and left the south Delhi area after a long 30 years stay. I realized that after retirement it was the right step taken by me and that proved to be fruitful also later when in Delhi the second wave came like a tornado and engulfed thousands of people. We were also here but luckily not in the south Delhi area-where the area in the second wave was declared as the red zone for some time.
Since then although the lockdown was again clamped and the people had again restricted themselves to their respective homes but we did not feel that sort of uncertainty at least which we had when we were in Delhi.
During the last three months or so we had gone once to Jammu and once again to Gujarat for almost a week and this time things were not that uncertain and bad as they were in the first phase. Maybe the advent of vaccines and the people also getting themselves vaccinated had changed the picture and the scenario drastically.
This time with the double vaccination people had gathered special confidence and even they are more aware of certain precautions-which have become the new normal and people have adopted those in their daily functioning.
Coming back to my two years tenure as a retired man-I got five to six months only as a free man other than being a “Lockdown-Man”. If I count as to what tangible and concrete, I did during my two years- I would say nothing except keeping myself safe at this age of sixty from the invisible enemy. Tried my utmost to be healthy and for that, a little daily exercise etc has been doing the trick for me to remain at least free from any complications-God forbid!
One thing which I realized after two years is the fact that I have started managing my free time in a manner that I don’t get bored or hackneyed. I somehow manage to scribble a line or two down on the notebook or even do a bit of creative designing. During the last couple of years after the retirement- I could manage to get one book published and the other one is in the pipeline. This all could be managed while being at home in the Lockdown and had it been the other way round maybe I would have nothing concrete to my credit and I would have spent a lot of money on unnecessary things and still would have been left high and dry without anything as my NAV {net asset(assembled)value}.
I pray to God that the journey must go on like this and no more COVID for anybody-please. We already have had enough of it and we have learned enough of lessons also.
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