“Ye Tumhari Meri Baatein”: The Pandemic
Well, to be honest this was the first thought, or I’d say the first title that came to my mind when I thought of a life changing, turn-around event that has occurred in my entire twenty three years of existence. Not necessarily a life lesson, to be honest I am not that guy Haha! but yes enjoy this biter-sweet experience of mine.
March 16th 2020
I was extremely happy to have a couple of admits from my dream schools in the United States of America and thought this will be my year — Spoilers: It was my year, not going to lie Haha! but in a much more unpredictable and different way.
My friends and I, planned to cover entire South India within these last two or three months left for us to graduate. Madhurai, Rameshwaram, Kodaikanal, Munnar and what not? every tourist spot, uncovered, was on my list. Started off with Kodaikanal, and thought we have time to cover the rest of them, so we will do one place every month, or every three week.
Excited to use my new phone to capture all of my South Indian journey, before I fly home and eventually to California 🇺🇸; I still cant believe that I was all set to be in Los Angeles for Fall 2020.
Well, then came 15th March 2020
We all thought that it will be a three-four months, maximum five months, vacation sort of thing and I was optimistic that I will have some time to spend with my family before I start my masters degree.
So we kept our closets untouched, did that pile of laundry before leaving, packed our bags with clothes that was enough for three months, booked the flights ASAP as the flights were getting filled, lightning fast and got rid of all illegal stuff form our hostel room(s) 💀 IYKYK 😏
This is the last picture, taken at J234.
Chennai airport became almost every VITian’s pitstop, freshers roaming around with their ID cards inside the airport, it was just unbelievable that these many VITians did not live in Tamil Nadu. I believe seventy to eighty percent of students enrolled in VIT, every year, belong to other states, especially from North India.
MONOPOLY
Last semester was fun, My friends and I made a ‘Rivaaz’ (Some sort of Custom) to play monopoly like every night. Parth, Devesh, Naishal and I played monopoly almost every day. Parth being that wiz kid, who calculates any and every number thrown to him, within a matter of seconds dominated the game. Actually he was amazingly good at every other board game, which made me — Average board game player 🤓. — look like a noob. Well I hated that but, this gave me a chance to irritate him by deliberately making calculation mistakes and taking more time, yes those mistakes were intentional PARTH! 😤.
During our last game of Monopoly, I was so emotional, that I refused to complete the game, because I knew it was going to be the last one in the campus. We also, had Hart Lounge’s Shawarma — Every VITian knows what this was, and how important this was, I shall surely cover this in this series.
Well to be honest this was something that I am glad that we did during our last semester, otherwise we would have had nothing to remember from our last semester in undergrad. Except how chill the entire semester was.
Homecoming; The fear of COVID?
I took the next flight from Chennai to Varanasi ASAP I got that email from the Registrar, and the flight was of 16th March 2020.
Took a bus to Chennai early in the morning, with Dheeraj and Utkarsh. Had that typical south Indian breakfast; Thank god we had that meal for that one last time in Chennai, because little did we know that this whole thing will take a bit longer to end, and everything will not resume by June 2020.
I did not put that hard earned N95 mask off my face the entire time I was on the bus and flight. The masks and Hand Sanitisers were in acute shortage during that time. I remember I bought that N95 mask for 180 INR, which was not worth more than 20 INR on any normal day.
Adding to my paranoia, my co-passengers were a couple of foreigners, I believe Europeans. I lost it, I thought “Now, I am going to carry COVID for sure”. Well this is what happens when you rely too much on Indian Media and less on facts. But, to be honest, at that time, we knew very little about this virus and how contagious it was, so everything seemed to be fair.
After reaching Varanasi, Ali bhaiya who came to pick me up was all set with hand sanitiser and a bunch of masks. You wont believe he had a soap bar too, just to be extra sure that I have my hands cleaned properly.
Well that was it, I left the South of India, VIT and all my college friends promising them that I will make to the Graduation ceremony; generally students pursuing masters don’t get to attend their graduation ceremony as the event takes place in September and people have already started their Masters degree by then. So yes, I promised all of them to see them on our graduation ceremony. Well rest is history 🥲🤣
Uncertainty
I was home, making Dalgona Coffee, Exploring Tik Tok trends and playing PUBG most of the time. To be honest that lifestyle was a dream for many undergraduate students, but was extremely unhealthy at the same time.
Sleeping around five in the morning, waking up around two in the noon. Pushing ranks on PUBG, without even stepping outside the home for days. Actually I believe I didn’t step outside my room, for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. I was not sure about where this was going, when will this end (writing this while awaiting a third wave is just hilarious) and, when and how I will start my masters at USC; I got into USC for Masters in Business Analytics.
Everyone was unsure what to do, whether to step outside or not, I mean stepping outside was made such a big deal, as if we did commit a crime, or something equivalent.
This thankfully, made me gain an unhealthy amount of weight. Well thankfully? Haha, we will explore that in some other blog of this series.
What did I learn?
So, finally after saying “ I am not that guy” I am here to give you all some life lessons. #hypocrite
But, My greatest advice will be to do that thing you are thinking, ASAP. You never know what might happen tomorrow, or maybe the very next moment. For instance, who would have thought I would be going to the UK 🇬🇧 to pursue my masters — Surprise Surprise, if you already didn’t know about this — after getting an admit from USC.
So, just do it.
Also, click tonnes of pictures and make tonnes of videos. Trust me you wont regret this afterwards. I just wish I made like ten times more videos when things were better, took aesthetic pictures of all the food I ate, made those Videos while we travelled like normal people. So again, Just Do IT.
Also, Go watch The Office, that was the second best thing that happened to me during the pandemic. We shall talk about the best thing in the next blog.
