I am Fine

As the uncertaintIes of the times continue, I hear anxiety and worry in so many voices. There’s concern for loved ones far away, for people they couldn’t meet and for the future that has now strange and stretched timelines. So, the Sunday Times write up touched a chord with me. And it touched deeply.

In his article, ‘Long, hard wait for a way home’, Rohit Brijnath writes that for those waiting to see elderly parents who live in other countries, there is a sense of helpless in the times of CoVID 19. It is an emotional time of constant reassurance, of panic subdued and frustration fought. Yes, that resonates with me too as I stay glued to my phone, checking on my mum, grand mum & mum-in-law in cities that seem even farther away now. In my case, there’s another city far away… where my daughter lives.

Concern and worry are constant companions and phone, a great friend-in-need, the only reassurance in a way. As Brijnath says, ‘over video calls, we study their faces, gauge moods, weighing their loneliness & over-reading their body language, aware that sometimes to protect us, they hold back the truth. “I am fine,” is the beautiful lie of our times’.

(To all whose loved ones are far away and the travelling scene remains uncertain and to the migrant workers who tell me in their distress calls, “Aami bashaye janai na je aami oshushto. Aami boli Je bhalo achi.” (I don’t tell at home that I am unwell. I tell them, I am fine).

Yes, I am fine too