Lockdown Liaisons by Shobhaa De

Author:Shobhaa De
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: S&S India
Published: 2020-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

A WHIFF OF ETERNITY

I have to be honest - I mean, I could die of Covid-19 tomorrow! What’s the point in lying at this stage? I could die. You could die. We could all die. The thing about this little shit of a microbe is that it spares nobody. The scary corona thing - the bloody pandemic - has made non-liars out of all those of us who wasted so many years pretending, pretending, pretending. I had decided to stop lying and pretending. I liked girls, not boys. Okay? You have a problem with that? Go fuck yourself. No more hiding and playing games.

Had Minu been wearing any other perfume but THAT one when our eyes met on the jogging track near home, I am sure I would have stayed away from her. I mean… all I had seen were her eyes above that heavy duty mask covering most of her face! As I jogged past this mysterious woman’s taut and fit form, gloves and all, I got a whiff of ‘Eternity’ - the one fragrance in the world I had sworn I would never allow myself to react to - not after my break-up. Not ever! Like jilted lovers block out sentimental conversations, voices, notes, gifts, touches, I had blocked out a particular fragrance.

But that was two years ago. My nose was sensitive and active again. I was sniffing and smelling with enthusiasm. But ‘Eternity’ still hurt. It continued to haunt. I had broken several other promises made to myself during that difficult period. I had changed cities, quit a great job in Delhi, found a lousy new one in Chandigarh and now… here I was, back in Mumbai with my tail between my legs.

Imagine! I was forced to come ‘home’ to live with my parents after a break of seven years. Heartbreak had extracted its price. I was determined to start on a fresh, uncomplicated note this time. I couldn’t afford to screw up. My parents were not overjoyed to have their single, unmarried and now overweight daughter back in their smallish flat in Dadar colony. But they weren’t that cruel either to not let me back into their simple, retired, professorial lives.

Just as I was settling into this unexpected new life, wondering what the fuck to do next, the world turned topsy turvy and Narendra Modi announced the fucking national lockdown. We were given four hours to deal with the devastating news that was going to change our lives forever. Four hours! Initially, I didn’t get it! What? A microbe in China was screwing the world? Rubbish! We were overreacting - what sort of nonsense is this? A bat in Wuhan had more power than a nuclear bomb! I ignored the news.

But my parents kept saying, ‘Very contagious, very contagious… don’t step outside, wash your hands, drink hot water, gargle with salt.’ I laughed and pretended to be busy. My office had announced WFH (work from home), I was in a brand new job, an alien set up, I had to earn that desperately needed salary.

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