(Circa - Sometime during peak lockdown) We are sitting in a circle; this new circle of friends that has got formulated in recent months courtesy-the pandemic. We are basically a bunch of individuals who look forward to our weekly get-togethers on our building terrace comprising of you guessed it; a handful of us who have got close because of geographical circumstances that the lockdown has forced upon us. We like to tell ourselves that this is the ‘safest’ option we have as of now since we cannot meet any of our other friends in our regular haunts which we used to frequent in otherwise ordinary times. On one such balmy night; I find myself gazing pensively into the calm, inky blue sky and it almost seems like the Mumbai skyline is trying to seduce me with it’s beautiful purple and yellow lights twinkling and swirling all around me. The stars are sparkling. The moon is gorgeous with it’s light shimmering on the water like a promise. I’m abruptly drawn out of this reverie by a sharp nudg...
March 12, 2020. It’s not a special occasion. But this day is etched in my memory; one that I often recall, during these past few months with nostalgia. “What time and where?” he asks. I say, “Let’s not do a movie with the whole covid scare looming over us and wait a couple of weeks for things to settle.” “Coffee then?” she asks. And that’s how a bunch of friends decide to “catch up”. Did we know it would be the last time we would be stepping out properly for a social get together? Hell no! Had we known, the plan would have been more elaborate and we would have at least dressed up better. We headed out for a cuppa coffee. As things would turn out most unexpectedly (as often they do) we landed up in a hip South Bombay restaurant which was surprisingly packed to the brim for a Thursday night despite the pandemic fear haunting us in a somewhat abstract way. That night none of us could fathom the gravity of what lay ahead of us. Schools for the kids were declared indefini...