Daily Musings #11: Living in a post-pandemic world and growing old

When you live in an apartment building in which the windows of each apartment provide a peek into apartments across from yours, the happenings in other apartments become your business too. You may not be curious at all about what’s happening in those apartments, but sometimes you can’t help it.

A couple of days ago, I was sitting in my apartment finishing up a painting. The afternoon sun had moved and its rays provided a glare directly at me making it difficult to work. As I got up to adjust the sheer curtains on the large French windows, I noticed something unusual in the apartment across from me. There must be around 50-60 people in the living room, all silent looking at one directly. Although it was hard to make out their exact facial expression because of the distance, it appeared that the mood in that room was sombre. At least, it didn’t appear to be jovial or celebratory. The entire scene made me feel a bit curious about the congregation.

A few minutes later, when my househelp came in for her evening chores, I asked her if she knew what was happening in that apartment. She didn’t know anything for certain but she too felt that something was not right. The next morning, when she came for her chores, she informed me that a 50-year-old man had a heart attack and died immediately on the spot. She got this info from one of her colleagues who goes to that apartment, so it was definitely reliable. I was shocked to hear about it.

In the post-COVID era, the passing of relatively younger (in the 40s and 50s) and healthy individuals via heart attack has become more common than before. Today, as I was scrolling through my Twitter timeline, I learned that this is probably due to the mRNA vaccines. I don’t know if this is true, but the speculation is rife that the COVID vaccines have led to an increase in heart-related issues.

When I told this to my mom, she said the same thing to me that the incidence of heart attacks has risen. The fact that someone like her who lives in a small town in India is also aware of this news, makes me wonder how many of us have accepted the post-COVID reality that comes with a new set of challenges. I think one of the biggest challenges has been to accept COVID treatments despite knowing its side effects.

Talking or writing about death is difficult. As someone who has recently turned 50, the news had a disturbing impact on me. Every age comes with its own challenges. Ever since I turned 40 years of age, the news about the passing of elder family members and relatives became more common. Yet there are quite a few who enjoy good health even in their old age. I think we all hope to be in the latter group.

Listening to this piece of news and reflecting on it hasn’t been easy for me, especially as I have been confined to my apartment due to a muscle injury in my leg. But the good part is that my leg seemed to have healed. Now, I can resume my normal activities as soon as the doctor clears me.

What do you think of this post? What are your views on the side effects of COVID vaccines? Surely, I think the vaccines helped the world get back up on its feet and get moving after the pandemic had brought us all to a standstill.

To be honest, I started writing this post a few days ago but couldn’t continue with my reflection on the incident. Today, I finally decided to complete it.

How making mandalas helped me survive COVID lockdowns?

Today, after a long time I feel like writing my thoughts. I have always found comfort in writing but during COVID lockdowns, there was a time that I didn’t want to look at my laptop, not even to write. There were times, I would sit down with a blank writing pad in front of me with pen in hand, but thoughts won’t flow. It was as if my mind was stuck and my thoughts were jammed right inside. No matter how hard I tried to come out of it, I just couldn’t sit down and write.

If there were thoughts, I would shoot them down as not worth writing about. That’s when I knew that I am feeling stuck in a thought pattern, that I need to get out of it. Fortunately, for me there was an art store nearby. It was the first shop to open after the lockdown was removed. So, I went and bought a sketchbook, a set of paints and few brushes. Thus, began a journey of finding myself through art.

Art has been a saviour for me in this lockdown. In the past few months since I started my art journey, I have been making an artwork almost everyday. I wake up in the morning and start thinking about what to make that day. It definitely helps me disconnect with my immediate reality, which doesn’t seem very exciting any more. The lockdown situation due to COVID has made us confront our life realities in a very different manner. First of all, it has forced us to stay in the same place day in and day out and follow a routine.

While I love routines, I find it rather boring to confine my life to routines. But this mundane aspect of my life has been quite comforting in post-COVID world. Because there are some aspects of our lives that perhaps even COVID has not been able to disturb. For example, waking up and having a morning coffee. To be honest, I have never really been a morning coffee person. I have always been someone who would wake up early in the morning and go for a walk or exercise. But in the last few months, I started waking up super early around 4 am. I would really enjoy waking up early and listening to the silence of the early mornings.

I would make a cup of coffee, sit down on my desk and start making a mandala. This simple routine brought so much joy, comfort and stability to my life that I never thought was possible. Although I would go for a walk or exercise after my morning mandala sessions, there were times, when I would just sit down all day on my desk and create mandalas.

While I would love to write more, I think I will end it here. I want to start small and be consistent with my blog this time. I have been trying to revive my blogging practice and connect with more like-minded souls out there. Hopefully, this will help me do that.

I would love to know what habit/s helped you during COVID lockdown?

Has COVID altered us forever?

“Do you have raw turmeric?” I asked the vegetable vendor. He replied in the negative. I walked to another vegetable stall and asked for it. I again got the same reply. I asked another vendor, he too said, he didn’t have any turmeric. I was disappointed. The last vendor explained that a lady came in the morning and bought all the raw turmeric available in the market.

I was upset. I had walked down to the vegetable market in the evening especially to buy turmeric so that I could make my special turmeric tea. Ever since the lockdown began, I have been getting bouts of infection. Usually it starts with a slight sore throat and exhaustion. I go to the doctor, just to rule out the possibility of COVID infection. I do get sinus infections easily, so it is hard to tell as the symptoms are so similar.

While I take the medications prescribed by the doctor, I also try home remedies such as jal neti, gargling, steaming and drinking turmeric tea. Depending on the severity of the symptoms, I try to do either one or more of these. Before COVID, I used to rely on home remedies to cure my sinus infections. But ever since COVID spread, I go to the doctor promptly.

COVID has changed our attitude towards healthcare. While earlier, we would take minor ailments casually, now we are worried about them.

As I was talking to the vegetable vendor, I noticed, he had cold. His mask was covering only his chin, with his nose and mouth exposed. I was alarmed. When I questioned him, his helper told me that from tomorrow he is not going to come to the market. Usually, I won’t be so alarmed about a vendor getting a cold infection. But ever since COVID spread, I have become extra vigilant.

This is the effect of COVID, simple ailments such as cold and cough are now considered a threat to human life. We have all become extra vigilant about others not following precautions such as wearing masks, washing hands or using sanitizers.

Although most people get cured of the COVID infection, it can be fatal for some. In India alone, there have been over 6 million COVID cases, of these over 95.5k have died. However, the good news is that over 4.85 million people have recovered. While these figures give us hope, the truth is that we all remain vulnerable to the threat of contracting the disease.

Though in reality the disease affects our physical health, we cannot deny the psychological impact it has had on humanity. The fear of catching COVID can be crippling for some of us. Every time, I develop a slight infection in my throat or nose, I am sick with worry about catching COVID. It is this fear that has got societies to collectively come together to ward off the threat of this disease.

Whether it is wearing masks or using sanitizers or avoiding public gatherings, we have developed new codes of conduct in public life. We have to let go of our old behaviours of touching or hugging each other, so that we can remain safe. But the question that is truly worrying is how long will we remain gripped by the fears of catching COVID.

If you are looking for a simple home remedy for cold infections, here is my recipe for turmeric tea

I usually take a litre of water and add the following ingredients:

• raw turmeric or turmeric powder (1 tsp)
• fresh ginger root or ginger powder (1 tsp)
• few strands of saffron
• a cinnamon stick
• 3-4 manuka raisins
• a couple of cloves
• a black cardamom
• few tulsi (holy basil) leaves

Keep it on stove and let it simmer slowly until the water reduces to half. I usually have it with honey and lemon throughout the day. Sometimes I add black tea and boil it a bit to have it as tea.

Let me know in the comments if you try it and how do you find it.