There are myriad wars being fought and at fronts other than across the nation against COVID-19. Some battles are fought within the four halls of a house.
So, when India geared up to listen to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on 14 April 2020, expecting the 21-day lockdown enforced to combat the COVID-19 threat to end, 19-year-old Mansi Bhanushali sat with bated breath and her fingers crossed hoping for it to end. “Not again…not again,” she muttered under her breath in abject fear, eyes clenched as if to change the inevitability.
And, within moments of the PM’s announcement, as her family got up to return to their routine, all set to repeat their lockdown activities in confinement, Mansi rushed to the bathroom for that moment of privacy to break down in isolation. It was simply heart-wrenching to stay away from her beau Sanjay who she had been seeing for over five years since they met at a coaching centre in her locality for SSC.
Sanjay lives three blocks away from her ground-floor apartment at Navrangpura in Ahmedabad West and would, inevitably, pass by her place to reach the main road. But she had not been able to see him since the lockdown was announced. She had to be content with WhatsApp messages, phone calls and Zoom calls through the day, while all the time, dodging her strict parents, brother and a pesky cousin at home. A depressed Mansi would “have had nothing short of a nervous breakdown” by her own admission.
All outdoor plans get foiled
“And now, with the lockdown being extended and with an end to the whole Coronavirus episode nowhere in sight, I am scared she may do something drastic,” says Sanjay who is always accessible to Mansi as a rule. The two had made plans to visit Goa over the first long weekend of May 2020, since more than two months, “with friends of course,” but had to drop the plan following the lockdown extension. “I was disheartened but Mansi was heartbroken. She was really looking forward to spending time away from her orthodox parents for the first time with friends. This extension has really hit her hard.”
Their friends have now been planning on meeting at a common friend’s house – on a terrace large enough to accommodate them all with the social distancing in place too – after the lockdown ends. “But, this time around,” says Sanjay, “we aren’t telling Mansi. If the lockdown continues and the date may have to be extended further, she won’t be able to handle it.” And, while Mansi and Sanjay have been hoping for the lockdown to end and meet as usual, miles away, at Nagpur, Namrata Gosai too has been waiting with anticipation for things to mend.
“It was a love marriage, and everyone knew how her husband Vinod was simply too possessive of Namrata for comfort. As Namrata resumed work at her office after marriage, much against her in-laws’ wishes, Vinod’s mother added fuel to the fire even cast aspersions on Namrata’s character. She even ensured Vinod force Namrata to leave her job and stay at home says Namrata’s sister Vaidehi, also married and living in Mumbai.
“Why, her in-laws had issues with her talking to me too regularly. It’s only after the lockdown began that I put my foot down and started to call her daily as a routine,” says Vaidehi. “And, thank God for that. Namrata reveals to me how she wishes the lockdown ends soon. She has made peace with the fact that she can’t do a job any longer but has another demon to deal with at home during the lockdown.”
Lockdown triggered domestic squabbles
Forced to stay at home too, her suspicious-as-ever husband fights endlessly with her over small, inconsequential things while her mother-in-law, after triggering the situation, keeps away. Frustrated than ever, during the lockdown, Vinod has even started to physically assault her over the smallest of things.
“Now, following the lockdown, it’s clear that they cannot live together and we’re looking for a legal solution to work out a separation between the two. However, owing to the situation now, there is little we can do but wait it out for things to normalise,” says Vaidehi, worried for her sister. “I even approached a lawyer in Nagpur but he maintained that the issue was a Civil one and needed a resolution through court,” she says. So, once the lockdown ends, a separation seems inevitable for the disillusioned couple.
Lockdown offers no legal solutions
While a separation is the preferred option for many, the lockdown simply does not offer the space or structure for a legal separation as in the case of Namrata who will just have to wait it out and hope things don’t get worse, at home than what it is. And, when the lockdown is over, the two can – after a mutual process – hopefully head their own ways. While love, for some, moves things, a peaceful separation of ways, holds the key for others.
And things aren’t exactly hunky-dory if you’re a kid either. Life is as tricky if not worse for four-year-old Fizan, stuck at his home in Colaba, Mumbai. The child attended just a day of school, for the first time in life, before it shut down following the onslaught of COVID-19 and has been closed since. But that isn’t an issue for Fizan who has been struggling to understand why he is prevented from stepping out of home. He cycles, rides a battery-driven motorcycle with his brother Dayan sitting pillion, plays cricket with his father even football with the rest of his family but all…indoors!
“I want to play,” he says in utter exasperation to his father, meaning to say, “play outdoors.” His businessman father Faheem Khan stuck indoors too during the lockdown, picks him and cajoles him, “Bas, Id ke baad bahar khelenge,” hopeful that the Coronavirus threat will be a thing of the past by the time Id arrives towards May end. “Insha Allah,” quips his brother and insurance consultant Wasim Khan.
Like Fizan Khan, millions of children across India await a change in ground reality and an end to the lockdown just so they can run like they did, in parks, play on swings and fall, even hurt for a bit, just like the good old times. Parents have been caring for the elderly and the young in small homes, too cooped for comfort and need a break themselves. The stress is killing and tempers flying as they have poor little by way of respite from each other’s tantrums and the space to move, grow and evolve as they did. After all, it is a lockdown and everyone is stuck…at least for now.
In comparison to the rest of the world, India has reacted well in time to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic by locking down the nation. And, while social distancing may well keep the virus at bay and provide enough time to ‘flatten the curve’, millions across the nation are fighting wars within the four walls of their homes. And, mostly, winning them too!
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Gajanan Khergamker
Gajanan Khergamker is an independent Editor, Solicitor and Film-maker. He is the founder of the International Think Tank DraftCraft.
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