Thoughts In Isolation

We are in a lockdown. It has been ten days or so that I am homebound. The longest I can remember. When I was young once I had to stay home for 21 days. I had contracted chicken pox (the milder and non-fatal form of small pox). That was different. I was sick and was considered risky for the society. Now I know there is a word for it. Quarantine. I was quarantined for three weeks. This time is different. I am perfectly fit. Normal with no trace of any illness, yet I cannot go out. Not just me, my entire family is at home. The whole city, as indeed the entire country is not supposed to go out. They are trying to control the spread of Covid-19 by keeping the entire nation behind shut doors. 

Today is a Tuesday. Last Friday night, ten days ago, when I came home from work I knew I would stay at home for two days, that is Saturday and Sunday, and possibly try to visit office on Monday and see what the situation was like. An internal circular from the MD's office had already come informing us to work out the feasibility of working from home. Schools were already closed for a week. And there was a general fear among all against going out on the street. 

On Saturday I had planned to take an electrician to our house in Metro Park to fix a faulty line. But we were not too sure if we should actually go. The old electrician with a white stubble on his sunken cheeks, a freelancer who lives just behind our house, came at the appointed time. We were to go together in our car with the aluminium ladder. I told him about the fear and asked him whether it would be prudent to go. He agreed with a dry, disappointed face. I told him, we will go once this panic blows over. He looked at the floor and nodded in agreement. Let me know when you want to go, he said resignedly. I felt sorry for him. I gave him Rs 100 for coming. He seemed a little hesitant. I told him, we will adjust this against your future charges when you actually do the work. The old man seemed happy. It is not always easy to deal with an honest man. I had to convince him quietly that he was being paid for a service.

A couple of evenings before this I was walking to Gariahat through the Dhakuria Lake. There were two younger boys walking in front of me. They were from a poor family. Since our speed was more or less equal I could hear the conversation between the two for some time. One of them seemed to be a Swiggy delivery boy. He was ruing that he didn't go out to work as there weren't many orders to take. They are paid on "per delivery" basis. "It's pointless you see. This other guy at work who always gets more deliveries than me got just two deliveries the whole of yesterday. Why waste your time? I didn't go." 

I realised that the virus scare has already hit these daily wage earners. Monisha had stopped using taxis. I am sure lots of other people too. The hawkers in front of our office were mostly gone. In fact even when the lockdown wasn't announced, the road in front of Exide in the evening was eerily empty. People were already avoiding unnecessary travel. The momo shop was closed. There were hardly any buses on the roads. The drive home via HSBC was a breeze.

April 9, 2020
Honestly I cannot remember what day it is today. It could be Wednesday. Or Thursday. The stock market climbed for a few days in succession. Couple of days ago, Mr Chatterjee issued a note to all the employees saying salaries would be cut. He himself has taken a 30 per cent cut followed by directors and ex-com members who are 25 per cent down. I am in the 20 per cent category - DGM to EVP and rest are 15 per cent. Fair enough. We have not been selling anything for the last more than two weeks. We just paid a big dividend to the shareholders. Our daily fixed cost is Rs 5 crore. Outstandings are Rs 900 crore. Huge stockpile of inventory in anticipation of bumper sales of inverter batteries in March due to the oncoming summer season. So the going is already pretty tough.

The Indian government's decision to impose this 3-week long lockdown is being squarely ridiculed by the economists and business people. This might save lives but it will kill livelihood as I understand. We cannot hope to beat the contagion by sitting at home. Lockdown and isolation are luxuries that the middle class can afford. My electrician cannot really afford it.

April 19, 2020

It was a Sunday today. Though in such a complete lockdown the individual days of the week cease to have any special meaning, it was an off day for Monisha ( on working days she works most diligently from home). We decided to go to Sepncer's to try our luck with some purchases of grocery items. The roads were completely empty. I chose to take the inner route through Kabir Road and Raja Basanta Roy Road to go to the Gariahat Spencer's. There were a few cars parked in front of the store. Entry, contrary to normal times, was through the side gate which is usually the exit. People were lined up in a disciplined way at the marked spots with sufficient gaps in between. You could enter only if someone came out. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it might be. We stood in queue for about 15 minutes before we could go in.

We made a purchase of some Rs 4000. Frozen green peas, tea bags, rice, flour etc. We couldn't find the specific biscuit that we wanted. Couldn't find Maggie either. Most of the popular branded food items have vanished from the shelves and have not been replenished.

I remembered reading a page one anchor story yesterday of a migrant labour somewhere in Gurgaon, who sold his mobile phone for Rs 2500, gave the money to his wife and committed suicide leaving four children behind, the youngest of who is a five month old child. He couldn't face the battle of unemployment with so many hungry mouths to feed. And here we were going back home with grocery that is mostly unnecessary for us in the near future. I felt and am still feeling guilty about it. And mind you, I have just been told by my office that my salary has been reduced by Rs 20,000 per month. Except for stopping a few SIPs, resulting in less savings, this won't make much difference to me in the foreseeable future.

I started reading the Discovery of India. Last night I finished reading Nehru's letters to Indira.

Anarchy

William Dalrymple's Anarchy made a wave in India when it was published late last year. I had bought the book, possibly my first ever purchase of a hardbound first edition, but couldn't make much progress with it. After finishing Sapiens during this Covid-19 lockdown I took it up as my second project and finished it today. It's a 400-page book and I am happy with my speed. I almost feel like a mountaineer conquering difficult peaks.  

This is the first Dalrymple book that I have read so far. I must say that I intend now to read all his books. He is a historian. These books are his research projects. They are extremely thorough and well researched. They might not have revealed anything stunningly new that past historians did not know but no one wrote history like he does. You read it like a story. As if it was a novel. This makes history interesting to the general public. I am sure many young school students who have read Dalrymple at an early age would want to grow up to be historians.

I studied in a school where the worst teachers were given the task of teaching history. Most of them would ask one of us to read the book aloud and promptly go to sleep. We had a reputation for bringing out excellent science students who went to IITs and other reputable engineering or medical colleges. But our track record for producing good students who excelled in the field of humanities or liberal arts was terrible. History was just not a priority.

If history was taught like Darlymple does it would have been a different story for me.

Now, let me tell you very briefly what I thought of Anarchy. I was interested in reading the book because it promised to tell the story of how a joint stock company from London, the East India Company, could grab an entire country with millions of people (I think 200 million when they took it over) and rule it for 200 years. Well, the company did not rule for 200 years but it created the way for the crown to take over from them. Technically the company ruled it for a little over a hundred years. From the Battle of Plassey (we call it Palashi) in 1757 to a little after Sepoy Mutinee 1857.

The book is rich in research and Dalrymple quotes his original sources all the time in their original language. There is very little that Dalrymple himself says in the course of the book. The story is told mostly through other people who were present during those times. The most important chapter of the book is the Epilogue perhaps where the author talks about how the lessons of the EIC could equip us to deal with the large corporations of the modern world.

I learnt a few new things from the book. First of all and this I consider the most important - I changed my opinion about Warren Hastings. Not that I had a strong opinion about him before. To me he was just another colonialist. Reading the book I realised that we should perhaps put up a memorial for him here in Calcutta. He loved India more than he loved England. I must make it a point to read the first translation of the Gita whose introduction he wrote. I wish he had written an autobiography. There are some biographies on him that I will try to procure. The last one was written in 1935 though. Many of us know that he was impeached for his "misdeeds" in India but very few know that he was subsequently exonerated from all the charges because they were patently false. He was framed by his rival who even lost a duel with him.

Another important thing I learnt is the fact that Wellesley, who actually built the large expansionist colony grabbing bits and pieces of the empire from regional rulers like Tipu Sultan, Nizam, Scindias, Peshwas etc through deadly wars was basically funded by the Marwari money lenders of Calcutta. I am sure there will be other books on this subject. This subject is worth exploring.

What I did not like about the book was its descriptions of the gory details of various wars. The loot, torture, rape, killings are described in great gory detail. Could he avoid this? Perhaps he could but then that would probably have made it into another drab history text book. It had to be a bestseller, you see.

Sapiens

Mampu made the bookmark

The Covid 19 lock down has given us a unique opportunity to read fat books. We are just in the first week and I have already finished the Sapeins - a 464-page international bestseller from Yuval Noah Harari. I am very proud of this achievement. For the last 30 years or so I had got unused (is there any such word?) to the idea of reading fat books. Not that I did not try. I did, but I was repeatedly frustrated to discover that my progress was always very slow. Before long I would lose interest in a  particular book and keep it aside for some imaginary time in the future. 

Not that I did not read anything in the last few years. I finished the autobiography of Sourav Ganguly in one sitting last year. I finished quite a few good books on mountaineering fairly quickly. But I have struggled with many other serious books with good literary or intellectual value. For example I have not been able to read any major work of fiction in the recent past. I so much want to read Amitav Ghosh but I have not made any progress with him. I want to read William Dalrymple. Two of his books are rotting on the shelves. There are many more authors, subjects and titles but unfortunately I have been a failure. 

Somnolence has been the biggest enemy that has stood between me and the books that I wish I could read. The moment I sit down with a book I doze off. Is it a sign of boredom or just a biological need? I think it's both. 

Mampu went berserk here

Earlier this month, on 5th March, on DN Road in Bombay Mampu was very excited to see new books being sold on the footpath at Rs 100 each. All fast selling titles. I knew they were pirated copies and I have reservations about buying them. It is not a moral or ethical question. It is about quality. But Mampu went berserk. She bought Michell Obama's Becoming, Harari's 3 books and a couple of other books of fiction. 

Last Saturday, sitting at home out of fear of the Corona virus (the nationwide lockdown had still not been announced but our office had issued work from home advice and the state government had issued a 5-day lock down order) I decided to attack the Sapiens. 

Some intellectuals of a higher order might dismiss the book as popular science. That might well be so. The book is about human evolution over the last 70,000 years or so. Now, to tell that story in 464 pages you cannot afford to get into the depth of any one particular subject. Harari does not attempt to do that by any stretch of imagination. What he does is he connects various dots in human evolution and tells the story. 

I definitely learnt a lot of new concepts, new ideas, new ways of looking at things. I am definitely a more informed person. I may not remember all the new things I learnt but they will definitely remain in my overall consciousness.

Not all the details Harari gives are 100 per cent authentic, I felt. They may not be grossly wrong but they are somewhat approximate truths. I suppose it is impossible to be 100 per cent authentic when you are dealing with such a vast vast subject. But I like the book overall. 

There are certain personal biases that take over the main theme of the book in certain portions. But that's what is to be expected. There are many philosophical points of views that Harari pushes. I am fine with the philosophy but just thought that they were beyond the scope of the book. 

Overall I am very happy that I read the book. I can never remember the nitty gritty details of a book. I only remember the impact it had on me after reading. This book will be remembered as - I am glad that I read this book. It opened my eyes to a lot of things. Taught me to look at things from a different perspective.