The pandemic and our urban habitat - Essay

 Collage by Utsav Chaudhury

Before the pandemic entered India, I was busy completing the remainder of my 90 day

internship in Goa; with dreams of leaving work and exploring Goa for the month of May. Alas to

my surprise, the lockdown came into effect and along with it the absolutely confusing months

of March and April where everyday was going into a forest, hunting and gathering for the

week’s supply of vegetables, spices, Maggi and others. It was a situation like no other and to my

good fortune I had moved into a new apartment with 3 new roommates, which meant we could

divide in groups of two and distribute the shopping list amongst each other. Alternate days of

coming back from the ‘hunt’ and laying all our food down on the balcony floor for it to sanitise

under the sun rays while we tallied up and divided the expenses amongst ourselves was our new

normal.

Although it is no doubt an extremely scary and panicking situation, where the basic necessity of

everyday food wasn't readily available, coupled with the hoarding mentality of people was

traumatic to us and many that lived around us. The pandemic really made it crystal clear how

inept our emergency plans are for a national health crisis, and how the struggles of the common

men was ignored. Although to Goa’s credit, they did take many initiatives to send back migrant

labour to their respective states of residence, some food and shelter relief was also provided for

them, this wasn't the case for the entirety of the state. As a semi urban town where I lived

suffered immensely in providing for the people that lived there.

Even after the negative effects of all this, looking back I made many good memories with the

people I was surrounded by. From cooking meals together, playing music & games and other

activities, spending time with my roommates was some of the finest memories of the period.

From our struggles we made friendships with the shopkeepers who called us as soon as they

were able to acquire the cheese and chaas we want, from our landowner who forgave our rent

and also made it mandatory we have daily essentials every morning and Dean D’Cruz who made

sure everyone was paid their salaries in advance, showed how the connections we make with

people are extremely important and in many cases, even life saving.

The strength in our urban habitat is not just to have rampant development in bringing people

closer physically, where families live beside, above and below each other, but also to encourage

and allow for interactions and socialising amongst each other. I could see people who lived in

smaller cottages talking to their neighbours about daily happenings from their backyards.

Apartment neighbours talking from balconies. Even the day, when everyone came out to their

balconies to clap, bang kitchen utensils or to whistle, there were smiles as people from one

balcony would look into others and would match each other's rhythms and songs that were

being played.

In contrast to where I live in Navi Mumbai, where the density of people is much higher and the

interaction amongst the people is lesser, a situation like such would have become more difficult

to even irritating or annoying. The personal connections with shopkeepers would've been

seemingly impossible. Also the amount of stress being put on to the authorities who have to

look after the millions of people residing in each and every corner of the city.

Ever since the start of first year, I always wished for a 3 month pause where I could take a pause

and work on my hobbies, and the pandemic gave it to me. All in all my experience in the

pandemic was being indoors and spending time with good people whose company I enjoyed

along with having plenty of chances and time to expand my creativity and spend time

developing and testing new life skills. And even though I savoured those 3 months, I wish a

time like that never comes back.