Sunday, June 20, 2021

Life in Mar 29 - June 20, 2021

 

This episode is dedicated to Second wave, Deja vu of being locked in at home again. Some things change and somethings remain as is. The good news has been that none of us were personally impacted in this wave. The situation in the outside world was very grim. Things have improved since then. But we continue to live in a lock down world. 

The grim news period of mid-Apr to May3rd week was very sad. Lots of deaths and struggle for survival. The period may be still bad in 2nd/3rd tier cities but its coverage has died down. In the era of sad times, it was just a matter of living from one day to another and hoping that life would be normal one day. Twitter was so bleak that many stopped reading so. The government response to the pandemic has been expected - denial, blame someone else and no accountability.  

But life continued in these pandemic times as well. For us, the privileged ones, reading this edition may feel like that we were living in a different world. That may be true. It did feel to us as well. Gated communities, robot vacuum cleaners, internet, books, movies, zoom calls with families, work, salary, everything continued. This is true fortune in these times and for this I am grateful. 

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First things first - We got a new cat - Taco. Kanishka has been searching for ages and finally we got it. The previous owner send via an auto to us 


Last month or so has been about making sure that the new one - Taco and the old one - Puchka are able to co-live. This has been a learning experience for us. Cats being territorial etc do not like their space being shared. It took us two weeks for us to introduce them without any carrier. Things have shaped well. There are still occasional fights but overall, things are positive. Our world has revolved around these two cats (& work) but it has been a good thing. To be able to live in a world where the struggles are tiny and love/joy without any conditions. 



In the above pic, both of them are starting at birds who come to eat food at a bird feeder that I had installed close to six months ago. It took time for birds to discover it but this is precisely the reason it was installed there. 

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Birthdays & birthday cakes

My birthday cake was truly special this year. Thanks to Kanishka for choosing the design


We also decided to create Samosa+Sweet boxes to distrubute to all the guards in society. Mummy papa took this as a mission and some 50 boxes +20 bags were prepared, each containing Samosa+Kachori+Laddu+biscuits. Marathon effort done in a day. 


My birthday was extra special since the lockdown during the day was lifted and everyone visited us. Breakfast consisted of Bread pakoras, Grilled sandwhiches, Cold pasta salad, dhokla and coffee with cake :) 




For Kanishka's birthday, I decided to get a cat shaped cake from Crave in Koramangala . The inside contained Chocolate custard filling and this was a vegan cake. Pretty delicious, i would say


Aarti's birthday had ice-cream cake from Baskin Robbins and delicious brownie from a home-bake It has been a season of cakes

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Books

Finished Arkady Martine's A desolation called Peace.  3.5/5

Fredrik Backman's A Man called Ove - 3/5 . The middle part becomes slow but the end is definitely brings tears

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Movies/TV

Mare of Easttown - 4/5

Binge-watched it over a day. Fun to binge watch it


Brooklyn 99 - Season 6 - 3/5

Becomes little repetitive but still a good one to watch with food.


Kim's convenience - Season 4 - 2.5/5

Very okay-ish; nothing goes nowhere in this season.


Nomadland - 4.5/5

Loved it very very much. The concept, the movie, the acting. Highly recommended


Rewatched - A time to Kill (3.5/5), Lincoln lawyer (3.5/5), Fugitive (3.5/5)

The Client - 3/5

Again, a good one to watch to forget the world outside. 


Snyder Cut Justice league - 2.5/5

I could not tell the difference that much. Still that same level of lame

Army of Dead - 2.5/5

Again, a mindless film, good for the days that went. 

The Mitchells vs the machines - 2.5/5

The ending is pretty bad. Start/mid is decent.


Kitty Love - Homage to cats - 2.5/5

Only if you love cats. 


Queen's gambit - 4/5

Very well made. Makes one to play/learn chess


Searching for Bobby Fischer - 3.5/5

Good kids movie with lot of heart and chess


Enola Holmes - 3/5

Good time pass flick. 

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