Stay-at-home order

It is now nearly two months since schools closed in our state in response to COVID-19 spread. My children have e-learning and I worked from home until April 30. E-learning requires my children to be "in class" only on M-W-Fs for only about 5 hours each day. T-Th are teacher prep days and so my kids sleep in, do some homework (or not) and generally take life easier than when they were expected to be at school physically. So, I came up with different ideas of how they could be spending their time more productively. Not one was tried out or followed. Did I say my kids are teens now? 

So, after some frustrating days when they rolled their eyes at everything from board games to signing up for a Coursera course, I put my foot down and somehow wrangled a deal with them. They will each write a short essay of 150 words on a topic of my choice so I can put it up on my blog without requiring them to edit their piece. I am not sure what I promised in return -- maybe that I will stop screaming? -- but here is their first assignment for me. 

On the Thursday before spring break, my friend told me that the next day, Friday, may be our last day of high school for the year.  I wasn’t really worried or concerned unlike other people and I underestimated how much change could happen in our school district, even if change was happening in other parts of the country and in China and Italy. I never thought she would be right about it being the last day.

The number of big changes that are happening is insane. Prom is cancelled. Graduation will be virtual or pushed late into the summer. My Bharatanatyam performance cancelled. Video chats with an entire class and teacher. Piano lessons through Facetime. Videos of chemistry labs instead of doing the labs ourselves. Online college Q&A broadcasts instead of campus visits. I find it crazy that it takes a pandemic for literally the whole world to be experiencing the same thing. Even though I’m going through a lot of changes, they are nothing compared to what infected patients, life-risking medical workers, and laid-off workers are experiencing.

Throughout these weeks, I spend time with family, connect with my future college peers online, and text friends. I pay attention to the news a lot because there is no other time like now to be doing so. I learn about utterly distressing stories related to Covid-19 and just recently heard that a classmate’s relative was affected by it.

Even two months ago I would never have pictured being in this situation. Our lives might be limited right now but we must remember that we are all living through history and we are all in this together. I’m just thankful that my family and I are safe and that my community cares about protecting everyone, even if it means staying at home. 

 -- Lekha, a high school senior who, as one of Class of 2020, will be missing out on graduation parties and ceremony.

I did a lot of things during quarantine that I would’ve never done if I hadn’t been stuck at home for a long period of time. One of them is that I have baked and cooked every day. I’ve noticed that a lot of people I know are baking and cooking during quarantine. It’s a really easy and fun way to pass time in the day and it’s also a really good life skill. In addition, it makes me feel good when my family and friends enjoy the food I make. Last week, I made cake pops for eight friends and delivered them to their mailboxes. I had this idea because I saw a lot of people online writing their friends letters and sending them gifts to show their friends how much they cared about them and missed them. I decided to make cake pops because I love the ones at Starbucks and I knew they’d be a challenge for me to make on my own They took a very long time to make, since I had never made them ever before and because there were multiple flaws in the recipe I used, but I was really proud of the end product. All of my friends texted me later raving about how good they were and that made me feel really good and that the long process was worth it.

 -- Divya,who took 2 days to create the most colorful cake pops.

What I Enjoy Doing During Quarantine

          Walks:

The wind gives me small goosebumps. Millions of strands of green grass are approaching out of the ground. The road is almost empty of cars. The trees unapologetically stretch their branches as far as they can. The greyish-blue sky is quite dull. In the air, I can smell the soil and the thousands of animals in and around it. 

It is a plain old evening during Spring, and I am walking with my mom and my dog in West Lafayette. As simple and boring as it may seem, this is one of my favorite treasures during boring times like quarantine. This is the time of day where I can experience the calm, mysterious nature. Nature is a world that seems uninteresting, but when you walk through it, you can see how complicated and beautiful it is. From a distance, a tree looks nothing out of the ordinary, but when you walk under it, you can see the beauty of every branch and the thousands of lives it houses. When you walk through nature, you see a story that makes you forget all of your stresses. And humans are supposed to experience nature, for that is where they originally come from.

When on a walk with my mother, who at home seems permanently stressed with work and family conflict, I can see the inside of her. In the midst of nature, all of her stresses wash away, and I can see her invaluable knowledge, wisdom, kindness, and heart. I know that when she talks to me on a walk, she cares about me and is happy. Thus, going on a walk is one of my favorite things to do with my mother.

Walks bring my dog, Legacy, to her origins of nature, and she is at her peak of happiness. At home, she is constantly surrounded with our stresses and fights. But when on a walk in nature, when all of our stresses are gone, Legacy can come back to where she originally came from, the natural world, and experience it with us.

A walk isn’t just one hour for exercise. A walk brings you closer to those you love and closer to where all life belongs, nature.

-- Rahul, the youngest and therefore the sincerest when he puts his mind to it.

Indulging in Writers’ Woes, One & Two

"Be my cohort in verses," invites a poetic friend
While another reminds "You know, gentle vet stories are in trend."
Both unaware of the extent of my tumultuous soul
That makes me, in my luscious donutty life, see only the gaping hole
Left behind by the unexplainable itches & urges to write
For breakfast, lunch, and at night
When normal folk want to make love
But me, I am agonized by writer's blues, can't explain how.
Morning, evening, every waking, and every sleeping hour
Memories sprout, ideas bloom, like wild, spring flowers
Alas, no paid writer am I
Just a lowly perpetual student, sigh!
The irony:
If I spend half the time I dream and think about writing on my writing
And the other half on my Ph.D. citing
I would be more accomplished
And quite published
But alas, time management I have never grasped
Although its importance, many harped.
But I am digressing,
I intended to mention, to all friends of mine, without much buttressing
That er, um, hrrm, hum, if I may, have one, er, story out!
There I said it come what may
Leaving modesty, humility, all at bay
First-time writer's pride I cannot hide
'Twas the apple that I eyed
And therein lies writers’ woe two.
It comes after you steal time and write, phew!
Of course, it is the big question:
How does a writer share her arted, crafted fiction
With the seemingly busy, uncaring outside world
Without being thought of as shamelessly, self-absorbedly bold?
(But then, Reading as Power, never fails
So therein my altruistic part, I thee hail
To set me free with a sort of bail
From this other of novice writers’ ails.)
Lucky popular writers have their publishing houses
Do their dirty work for them without any grouses.
But no-name ones like me,
We learn to come right out, you see
And blurt out loud,
As above,
“I have a story out! Would you like to read?”
And gentlefolk, God bless their souls, always, even when taken aback, say oh, so graciously, “Of course! Your story, we’d love to read.”
And in those gentle, tender words, this restless writing soul of mine knows
Its moment of peace is in sight.


© Malathi Raghavan, 2000

Life's Turning Points

Author's Note in Yann Martel's 'The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios' begins like this:

When I was in my second year of university, aged nineteen, my studies ground to a halt. Just as the curtain was lifting on my adult life, with promises of untold freedom, what I might do with that freedom began to trouble me. I had always expected academic degrees--a bachelor's, a master's, a Ph.D. -- to be the banister that would steady me up the steps of my successful life. But that year I stared at paragraphs of Immanuel Kant in a state of dumb incomprehension, I failed two courses and the banister fell away. The view gave me vertigo.

And I am wondering why is it that despite having a somewhat similar existential crisis throughout my 14 long and miserable months at the College of Engineering, Guindy, I did not know about or consider the possibility of a writing life.

The only thing I knew for sure was that I needed to walk away, even if I didn't know what I was walking toward...

In retrospect, it has been a good, long walk, maybe even a demanding hike, but with plenty of inspiring scenery.