Lockdown - Self and Friends

Lockdown - Self and Friends

Like other senior citizens I am also keeping myself engaged during lockdown in a number of ways. One of them is certainly to ring up a number of friends especially who are alone and single. I get interesting news & updates. ICRISAT Venkatesan, has found Viveka chudamani and Vivekananda’s lectures interesting. Another octogenarian Smt Sarojini, has taken up a course on Vedanta – called “Atma Vidya” conducted by a Swamiji. Sri Chary is onto a similar online course from another source. Mr Rajendra Rao passes time by helping out the mgmt in procuring essential things for the senior facility he is living in.   Sri Shankar Rao keeps busy identifying avenues to bridge donors and recipients.   Smt Kamakshi manages to be with herself satisfied with TV news, movies plus long chats over phone with her daughters abroad. Dr Vasunder Reddy is busy recuperating after a surgery. Dr Thomas and his wife are enjoying the calm, serene, noiseless surroundings of Ameerpet as all coaching centers and hostels are empty. Dr G Nageswara Rao, Vice President Aasara told how he is mobilizing funds for charity, how he is motivating seniors to be helpful during lockdown etc. He has been in touch with hundreds of seniors, making maximum use of staying at home.

Sri RN Mital and I had a chat this morning. He talked about AOSC organizing Zoom meetings, info he had gathered by talking to others etc. He said he has started watching birds from his balcony – He can now identify six birds, and recognize specific sounds of some. He says birds are good in communicating among themselves: one bird talks at a time and the other listens / waits for answering. He also shared with me joyful days of his 15 days long trip by sea to England in the fifties. One Hussain and his wife were his table mates in the voyage; they were very helpful and they continued their friendship over letters for a long time. While envying his sharp eyesight at 92, I marvel at his zeal and enthusiasm to celebrate life and living.

For me, TV serials have dried up. News is mostly depressing. Even the Airtel Dish TV Connection has conked off. So, for my part, I have taken to binge watching of Tamil Short Stories in the laptop. There are plenty of them. Some of them are so good that I get a re-play in my dreams.

In my laptop, the built in keyboard went bad, as once I tried to clean it with colinol spray. The new one I bought is faulty too – the cursor keeps jumping erratically – so badly that I cannot type even a few sentences. I resurrected one old external keyboard – luckily it is working fine. Hence this long note after a long time. In fact, just last evening, I wrote - using pen and paper – a long letter, took a photo and sent it by WhatsApp  to my daughters.   Except making To-DO Lists or Things to buy lists, my writing has been minimal.

I hope this encourages readers to share their views / experiences of life during lockdown!