It isn’t done

You’ve stayed the course.
Since March, you’ve stayed home as much as you can, perhaps 100%, perhaps close. If you’ve ventured out, you’ve done so masked, maybe double-masked, maybe with a visor, perhaps gloves, to pick up essential supplies. Whatever you brought home, you immediately sanitised. If you’ve had home delivery, you’ve answered the door masked, and immediately sanitised everything, after, of course, tipping the delivery person, because you know they are indispensable now. You’ve cooked what ingredients you have.
You’ve had only the people at home for company — sometimes that’s good, but you could still use a break, sometimes that’s awful, and my heart goes out to you — or perhaps you live alone. You haven’t spoken to friends in person for months. You’re sick of video meetings and working from home though you’re grateful to have a job, let alone one that lets you work from home. Or you’re out of a job and wondering how long the savings will stretch. You know that you’re better off than so many others, and you’ve tried to do your bit to help those less fortunate. You’ve stayed TF home.
But you’ve had enough. You’re *so* done with the virus.
You want to scream. You want to walk without a mask. You want to walk without fear. You want to just go out and have a normal day. And you think, why not?
After all, restrictions are being eased; lockdown is officially over in some places. And all around you, you see people returning to work, going out to shops, hanging out in each other’s homes. Going to restaurants. Celebrating festivals in crowds.
But it isn’t over.
Yes, numbers are down. But they’re not anywhere near zero yet. And if you look around, around the world, you’ll see that wherever restrictions have been lifted before numbers were down to trivial, opening up has resulted in infections rising again. Yesterday, the USA, which has been opening up, recorded its highest single day of new cases.
In India, many people who have no option are returning to work, to commuting. Restaurants are now open, and are filling up. With festival season starting, and social distancing being sacrificed at the altar of bonhomie and enjoyment, not to speak of the start of cooler weather, which results in more pollution and a rise in respiratory ailments, it seems inevitable that we will see a rise too.
Also, complacency has set in. I’m seeing people walking around without masks, or lowering their masks to sneeze or cough (!) or to talk on the phone. That last one puzzles me most; I use an old-style candybar phone, and folks I talk to can hear me through the mask; people with fancy touchscreen phones shouldn't be having issues.
So, friends, if your circumstances permit it, continue working from home. When you do go out, remember social distancing and wearing masks, carrying sanitiser and washing hands obsessively.
You’ve stayed the course, so don’t let all the sacrifices you’ve made so far, all the inconveniences you’ve faced, all the behaviours you’ve modified, be in vain.
You’re so done with the virus. But the virus ain’t done with us.

Poetry with Prakriti: a brand new avataar

Prakriti Foundation's Poetry with Prakriti festival is responding to travel and public gathering restrictions by reinventing itself as an online festival, with readings on Zoom, on the first three Saturdays of every month, starting October 2020 and running up to September next 2021 from 7 p.m. IST.

The poets featured will be a mix of well-loved names and emerging voices, in English and other languages, from India and abroad. The format is to have one poet on each evening, to read their poems for 15 minutes or thereabouts, followed by around 15 minutes of answering questions from the audience.

I’m helping out with the festival in a couple of ways: acting as moderator for the Q&A sessions that will follow each reading, and in outreach.

Here’s how you (and any poetry-loving folks you know and care to forward this to) can get notified of who is reading and when.
1. You can sign up for updates at https://groups.google.com/group/poetrywithprakriti. (This is a one-way newsgroup. I.e., there will only be emails from the admins, who are Meera Krishnan of Prakriti Foundation and I, and no back-and-forth chatter. There will be three emails a month, approximately, telling you who the poet reading the following Saturday will be, and giving you the registration link.)
2. Or, email Meera at prakritifoundation at gmail and she’ll add you to their mailing list.
3. Or if you’d prefer your updates on WhatsApp, please contact Meera or me with your phone number, or email her at the same address.

On social media, you can follow Prakriti Foundation on
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
If you could amplify posts on those platforms, we would be very grateful.

And yes, please share this with friends whom you think might be interested.

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Prakriti Foundation is an arts and culture NGO in Chennai (India), founded in 1998. In a city accustomed to a regular diet of classical performance, Prakriti has been the space where scholars, researchers, artists, critics, poets, and filmmakers have been able to present their work to those who engage with it on serious terms. One of its four annual festivals, Poetry with Prakriti, features eminent and emerging poets (from India and abroad), with each presenting four different readings of their poems to small, intimate audiences at several venues in the city: schools, colleges, cafes, galleries, boutiques, banks, IT parks, green public parks, and other commercial establishments.