I have significantly slowed down in my urge to chronicle the events during COVID. It's been going on for too long and many, like me, are desensitized to a certain extent. It has been 400+ days since we have been mostly staying at home and working from home. "New normal" is a cliched expression now. And thankfully the "new normal" is not looking too bad in the Bay area. Though it is different story in some other parts of the world, especially in India.
First, the better news. Both me and my husband are fully vaccinated now and are past the two weeks' buffer time post-vaccination. So theoretically, we are fully immunized now--at least 95% likely to not get sick from the coronavirus, if you believe the clinical trial statistics provided by Pfizer, the vaccine that we got. As of now, 28% of all Californians are fully vaccinated. There was that minor uneasiness when the news came out about one batch of possibly contaminated Johnson and Johnson vaccines. But that seems to be resolved by now. I have shared plenty of jokes with my friends and clients---"I am Pfizer girl," answered by "I am a Moderna woman."
Meanwhile, the public schools have opened in a hybrid model. My son opted to exercise his "fully remote" learning option, because he has a good set up at home and is not uber-social anyway, but for a lot of students having the opportunity to go back to school was a blessing. Some of them really wanted to have human interaction. Some simply needed better infrastructure than what they have at home---"digital divide" is a real thing even in the silicon valley. Many extracurricular activities, including most of the sports activities resumed, giving the parents a little respite and the kids an avenue to channel their pent up energy. Professional sports leagues are allowing a limited number of sports fans to attend the games live. It is hard not to be hopeful.
But a big part of my sense of hopefulness also depends on what is going on in India, and unfortunately it is getting grimmer by the day. My own uncle (in his early sixties) and cousin sister's husband (in his forties) are right now hospitalized with COVID. Thankfully both of them are stable. But just a few hours back I heard from our school chat group that a batch-mate of mine has passed away in our hometown after suffering for almost a week. I went numb. Her name is--was--Madhumita too.
At least today is a Sunday. So even if I am distraught inside, I am fortunate to have family around. Husband is doing the taxes, son is finishing up his homework---all of this normalcy of a weekend matters hugely. And then there is sports. I lean heavily on sports when I have to process my grief. Playing tennis myself helps the most, but I am nursing a knee injury now, and cannot play. So I have to satisfy myself with watching tennis--and cricket too (the Indian Premier League cricket is going on now).
Speaking of tennis and injury, I have this interesting hiccup-y relationship with tennis. I play and then I get periodically injured. It is a constant cycle. Part of me wished I were not good at tennis. Then I would not play intensely enough to get injured, especially when I am fully aware that I have a far-from-perfect knee situation (seen the MRIs--it is not pretty inside my knees.) But as it stands I improve in between successive injuries. So I don't quit. I just patiently wait for the injury to become a thing of the past so that I can resume playing again.
Just like the whole world is patiently waiting for this pandemic to be over so that people can resume life again.
