What Brought On COVID?
Chinese wet market, Wuhan lab leak or the plan of an all-girls' trip...
Well, let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was the husband, the friend, the other friend and me. (They are all still very much here. This is just for effect.)
The ‘husband’: He doesn’t remember many things. He says he only remembers the important things. We are still figuring that list out. I often tell him if he ever had dementia, we would never know!
The ‘friend’: Pallo is as lazy as me except that she runs some 10 kms everyday. Or at least rubs it in every time she runs.
The ‘other friend’: Ranjana. She is a serial planner.
Then there is ‘me’.
Now, there are two parallel tracks to the story and I am like Ajay Devgn in Phool aur Kaante in a leg split after the motorcycles have gone in different directions.
Track 1
August-September 2019: Ranjana plans an all-girls’ trip to Georgia where two of her foreign friends and both of us will visit Georgia in April 2020.
That is the plan. I am a bit iffy. We chat a couple of times to do basic checks of passport status, money, stay, food, etc. Very preliminary.
I mention it to the husband. Of course, I tell him everything. I also sometimes don’t tell him things but feign like I did. “Arrey, you don’t remember, I told you this…” sort of thing.
As expected Udit didn’t remember anything about the trip on the couple of occasions I mentioned in passing in the following months.
Track 2
December 2019: Three of us—Pallo, Sabita and myself—with our families drive down to Bajoon for New Years. We stay at the Fagunia homestay and have a brilliant time.
On 31st or 1st night, we have a bonfire going and everyone is happy high. There is music and Pallo is doing her “rice sowing-exorcism-brownian motion” dance—this is where she bends, touches the ground, rotates her head with her hair open and runs back and forth on a small stretch. And this goes on.
Pallo says “we should have an all-girls’ trip”.
I say “The last two days have shown that the two of us want someone to wait on us at all times. Who other than our husbands will do this”.
For the record, for this very reason an all-girls’ trip has always remained unfathomable to me!
Udit, having downed a few beers, says, “Arrey, aren’t you planning the Georgia trip with Ranjana in April sometime.”
I gasp. A few others gasp too. For me, the music has stopped. Pallo stops mid-dance which is in the exorcism stage. And all of us freeze.
You see, I hadn’t yet told Pallo about this trip. And the last person I expected to let the cat out of the bag on this very occasion was Udit. The one time that I didn’t expect Udit to remember anything, he did.
She was drunk-angry; as in not so much angry as shocked.
“Shocked at being cheated” shocked.
“How could you not tell me” shocked.
But, mostly “How can you go on an all girls’ trip without me” shocked.
It took me a good part of that night to explain to her that a) “I was going to tell her” b) “It is just another plan which might never work out” c) “It mostly will not work out.”
While I worked at plugging the breach of faith, everyone else had a gala time at my expense.
Finally, after a lot of apologising (I felt guilty too), hugging, kissing and promising an all girls’ trip with her, Pallo said, “It’s’ ok. Have fun.”
"HAVE FUN.”
“HAVE FUN” WAS THE COVID PANDEMIC. THANKS TO THE HUSBAND AND THE FRIEND.
Needless to say Georgia never happened.
Earlier this year, Ranjana once again came up with an all girls’ trip idea. This time to Uzbekistan.
I said “NO” and immediately messaged Pallo—“there is a plan” and “I have said no”.
She messaged “Why? Both Udit and You go, if there is a pandemic both of you can wfh from there.”
Nope. Cannot incur the wrath of her “Keratoconus-wali blur nazar” again.
Pallavi aka Pallo is one of my closest friends from Oxfam. She is a straight shooter and if she happens to talk to you first thing in the morning, you might want to kill her. Like, violently kill her.
But I love her. And if you are allowed only one friend, she is perhaps the person you choose to be with. You will have a super friend but you won’t miss your enemies either.
...to all girls trip...one day...some day...
Being an audience to the later drama I would like to add some more perspectives here. After watching “Zindagi Mile na Dobbara” I had this urge of going for “girls only trip” again & watching this drama more intently with an expectation that the lovers’ spat of Pallo & Savvy will turn into a successful plan for girls trip. Only two people were convinced there that this plan will never work were two handsome counterparts of these two beauties - Yash & Udit. Udit was more relaxed that Savvy’s entire attention was shifted to pacify “feeling betrayed” Pallo, Yash enjoying entire drama with a sweet smile on his face just murmured “imagine these two going together for a trip, they are so lazy - entire day it will be Pallo you do, Savvy you do & both ended up ordering in- room service only”. Although, my feminist heart was excited to accept the challenge, I knew he was not wrong 😂😂😂.
Thanks Savvy for reminding that trip again. It’s one of the best trips I had