SANS (SUN) SCREEN (16-May-2021)

Covid imposed quarantine has unleashed a surfeit of challenges the world-over especially for households.  WFH – Work From Home, is the new norm!

Many families in India have three generations under one roof, truly Unity in Diversity!  It is an art as well as a science to balance the intents, thoughts, ensuing actions, and resultant outcome of truly diverse groups.  During the pre-Covid era, we had children from the youngest generation packed off to schools and colleges for almost the entire day; while we the parent generation packed ourselves off into cars headed to our offices as well the extended late-night meetings and the weekend parties.

Grandparents in a ‘home alone’ mode would heave a sigh of relief.  Lo behold, their mode propelled them to switch on the TV sets never to switch it off again for the rest of the week.  The soaps and the serials became a part of their daily rigmarole, and without the dialogues on-screen in the background, they were tight-lipped to recite pooja shlokas.  On a day when the cable went kaput, that meant the God in their pooja room went into a state of daze, a la solitary confinement, for the plot was lost to pay obeisance to Him!  A surreal phenomenon it seemed that the chores would be on auto-play if only the TV screen and the associated sound (call it noise?) flowed incessantly.

The virus tucked everyone to confine within home precincts.  In the WFH ploy the parents were on video-conferences the entire day – dad in his make-to-do blazer worn on his boxer shorts, while mom wiped her beads of sweat and dabbed a make-do make-up to look her best.  The young college-bound girl and the school-bound boy feigned camera-smartness as digitally savvy age-group to put their best front forward in a virtual manner.  Grandparents in a state of quandary!

Grandparents’ daily chores, be it the grandma’s pooja shlokas or the grandpa’s morning ablutions reached an impasse.  Their auto-play was impeded, and they wore a dejected outlook or so it appeared; they felt heavy-footed and appeared clueless like two people stuck in quicksand endeavoring to dance to their favorite tune.  The pandemic-induced restrictions imposed a longer stay at home with no resolution in sight.

A pact was made that TV screen can be on only during the absence of any virtual sessions, be it classes or meetings.  This condition was never satisfied around the clock; the grandparents disposition an imposed second-level lockdown at home termed ‘sans screen!’  This applied to the TV screen alone which distracted the kids’ online sessions, but the screens of all other digital gadgets stayed on.

A perfect logjam, grandpa vented out his frustration and hit upon an idea to head out to the pool for a special infusion of Vitamin-D, a recommended immune-booster.  Grandma reminded him that the pool stays closed and insisted that the sun-screen lotion be his rescue aid and so he applied it all over his body.  Only to be told a little later to don his ‘mask’ and strictly follow ‘Social Distancing’ measures at the pool-side. 

An escalated frustration level with multiple levels of impediments forced the grandpa to instead lie down on the cot in the living room with his swim trunks.  Grandma quipped ‘you are in a sans screen situation smeared with copious amounts of sunscreen on you!’ Grandpa roared when it became evident to her that it was his snore, in his slumber! 

So much for the grandparents’ sans (sun)screen dilemma!