By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 27.03.2020 (Live Mint): Autumn (March – May) is one of my favourite seasons in Sydney, my home for two decades. Bright blue skies, gentle sea breeze and the mellow warmth of the sun provide a perfect setting for outdoor barbecues, picnics, music and theatre events. But as new shoots were just appearing on the charred landscape after a prolonged spring-summer of bushfires, droughts and floods, which had devastated communities and the economy, the novel Coronavirus (COVID 19) put a full stop to life as we know it.

`Social distancing’ is the diktat we must all abide by, if the spread of current contagion has to be halted. All non-citizens and non-residents have been banned from arriving in the country and Australians have been advised not to travel overseas. This big island continent is fortified. Friends far afield from Nepal to the UK are trying to get a flight home. But with the country’s flagship carrier, Qantas, slashing 90 percent international flights, these are trying times.

It has also stirred panic buying amongst the populace. Hoarding has spread like a virus, leading to acute shortages of staples, daily utilities and certain medicines. Australia produces enough food to feed three times its population of 25 million, but that is no comfort to many in the times of Corona. The most coveted item has been the humble toilet paper, which has led to blows among customers in supermarket aisles. Many are now thinking of the good old Indian way of washing and installing bidets in their toilets. If anything, this habit change can only augur well for the environment.

While the toilet paper crush has manifested the worst in humanity, others have warmed hearts with their concern and generosity by helping strangers, the aged and the vulnerable with shopping and meals. It has been a time of self-introspection, and connecting with neighbours one had only waved at while rushing in and out of the door.

Several offices, academic institutions and businesses have asked people to work from home. For some, it has been more productive as they save on long commuting times to their workplaces, but for others, slow internet and absence of a designated workspace has proved to be a difficult transition. Self-discipline and time management are key to working from home, something many freelancers can relate to. Social media has posts from people seeking shared spaces, others are going to their near-empty local cafés to work.

A friend, who lives near the world-renowned Bondi beach, told me how people working from home were now taking short breaks to go swimming or surfing during their working day. A rejuvenating exercise in these times of fear and gloom. Australians love the beach and the bush.

Sport is a big part of most people’s lives and post-match drinks in a pub with mates is a ritual. For the regulars at football, rugby or cricket matches, live steaming isn’t the same as going to the stadium in their team’s colours. Living next door to the Sydney Cricket Ground, I have got used to the loud cheers and the festivities before and after matches. It has been eerily quiet as the matches are being played without any spectators in the stands.

March also heralds the beginning of festivals – Parramasala, Vivid, the Sydney Writers’ Festival followed by the Sydney Film Festival in June, attracting thousands of national and international visitors to this harbour city. Each of these events and several conferences have been cancelled. COVID -19 has only magnified the woes of the tourism, cruising, airline, hotel and hospitality industries and the hundreds and thousands of people they employ.

The uncertainty of where this pandemic is heading and a vaccine at least a year away, it is pushing the most vulnerable to a tipping point for survival even in a developed country like Australia. Are you afraid of Corona? Asked a South American international student, who helps me weekly with household chores. Most of her other clients had asked her not to come to work. Her meagre earnings further reduced.

For casual workers and sole traders, which includes many freelance journalists like myself, these are financially challenging times.  A friend, who works at a florist, told me that with weddings and celebrations cancelled, few people were buying flowers. With restrictions on visitation in aged care homes, getting `Quarantine bouquets’ delivered to nursing homes was a way of showing elderly relatives that the family was thinking of them.

Children are learning video conferencing skills in case they have to resort to online classes. Advancements in technology have made virtual learning, working, doing business and socialising possible, keeping us connected in the times of mandatory isolation or “home exile” as Albert Camus called it in his 1947 fictional novel, The Plague. For now, far from the madding crowd, there is solace in the sanctuary of my home.

A common refrain is that we will have to re-invent the way we live and do things as this may not be the last pathogen to shut the world. Let’s catch up over coffee post Corona!

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