LOCKDOWN AT SALBAN

How has our life been affected at Salban during the lockdown? Although there is a dark cloud of anxiety hanging over us for the situation worldwide, our days are no different from any standard day without guests at the homestay. As I wake up each morning and go through my daily routine, I am immensely grateful that we are blessed to live in this little corner of the world. The birds sing as usual, the wheat ripens in the spring sunshine and the butterflies flit in and out of the vegetable and flower beds. I have two of my family of four near me. There is phone and internet to keep in touch with my son, larger family and friends. What more could I ask for?

Although we were reading and watching news about the Corona pandemic since January, the tourist season continued quite well for us right into March. In fact it was the busiest winter Salban had experienced so far. However, we started getting a bit anxious when our daughter Faiza called from Ladakh to say how her upcoming wildlife guiding trips were all cancelled, as well as a tourism event she had been signed up to work for in March. Our Holi weekend was spent with guests from Delhi, among whom was a lady who headed the administration of one of the largest private hospitals in Gurgaon. Although she was in a relaxed and festive mood, I could sense that a part of her was always worrying about the developing Corona situation and that she was preparing for the challenging situation on her return.  

Our guests were still arriving on schedule, and on March 16 we welcomed a British couple who were booked for five nights and eight safaris. They were well-travelled lovely people full of enthusiasm for the rest of their India trip in Kanha and Satpura. But a sobering thought clouded things slightly -- Kaziranga from where they were arriving had been shut down the very day they departed. The 17^th and 18^th of March went swimmingly for them, dotted with many spectacular sightings. But every day was ending with a question mark, and on the 19^th morning the news arrived that Satpura had been shut! So our guests philosophically accepted the fact that they’d have to return to their country once Kanha was done, and there was much talk of self-isolation and lack of loo rolls in the UK, some in jest and some quite serious.

But suddenly things started snow-balling with every hour, and on the 20^th morning Kanha National Park was shut down. Soon the announcement was made that no international flights would be allowed in and out of India from midnight of 22^nd. So tickets were frantically changed and on the 21^st morning the our guests left Salban post haste to make their journey back home via Raipur and Mumbai. On the same day Faiza arrived late at night, as she didn’t want to get stuck in Delhi. Again it was in the nick of time as all trains and flights soon came to a halt, and then the LOCKDOWN was announced by the Prime Minister on the night of March 24. I sat on the sofa and watched TV news post dinner and didn’t respond with any immediate panic. But Jhampan had a quick reaction – and all credit goes to him for being so energetic. He called up our chemist to keep the shop open and drove 25km to Baihar at 9.30 pm to stock up on medicines. That was probably the only emergency stocking up we needed to do.

So we’ve been under lockdown for eight days. I’m reading umpteen articles on self-isolation, going through social media posts that advice humanity how to make use of the long hours at home, and I’m talking to friends on the phone about what they are doing cooped up in their apartments. But suddenly the truth about my already ‘distanced’ existence hit home when I read a FB post on 20 questions to “Know Yourself Better” and one of the questions was “Who did you last speak to on the phone?” The fact was I could not remember! I had probably not made a phone call for at least three days after Lockdown. I’ve never been a phone chatter and use WhatsApp only for any important communication. So, I was actually someone who’d been practicing self-isolation for the past four years! Books, music, pottering in the garden, walks to the lake behind the house – and the routine of day to day life kept Jhampan and me going quite happily for months on end. And yes, for the first three years we didn’t even have strong internet, so there was no option of surfing, watching films etc. (Now we are spoiled with Jio and I am back to my binging habits.)

Our biggest occupation in Kanha is watching nature change with the seasons and nurturing our garden and farm. Our retail therapy extends to weekly trips to the little Malajkhand shopping centre which has the usual grocer, daily needs store, laundry, chemist and fresh produce market. Our eating special meals is limited to home when we cook and bake any fancy food we desire (and it happens quite regularly!) Our exercise is walks around the farm and to the adjoining lake. Our entertainment is watching films on TV or Netflix on the Ipad. So that is exactly what we are doing in times of Corona and Lockdown.

Of course, it’s not all as idyllic as it sounds. Kanha has had a huge influx of tourists – domestic and foreign – till March 20. There are hardly any hospitals nearby and zero testing facilities. If anyone here experiences ‘symptoms’ he or she should actually drive off to a big city to be treated. But of course, lockdown prevents that and anyway none of the locals here can afford to do so. We are watching and reading a lot of news and feeling miserable about the state of affairs in the world, in Indian cities and hospitals, at the borders, and among the migrant communities who are desperate to come home. All they want is to return to their villages, like our little village of Baherakhar, where at least a thali of rice and some rotis awaits them with a reassuring certainty.