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Never-ending vacations: How people stuck on holiday are surviving the Coronavirus lockdown
The idea of an extended holiday might evoke joy in a few, but as Maharashtra extends the lockdown till May 31, we speak to a few stuck on vacations for nearly two months
Choula Verma, 43, would’ve never thought her four-day-long vacation would turn into a two-month one. She goes to the market once a week and stocks up on veggies and fruits from the local Nashik market. “Spring onions for ₹5 per kg, onions for ₹10 per kg and grapes for ₹15 [per kg],” a shocked Verma says and adds, “The farmers here are just dumping their produce in the market.” The Mumbai-resident, who is currently at her vacation home with her husband, son, mother-in-law and their dog says, “We didn’t anticipate anything like this. We arrived in Nashik on March 15 after my 16-year-old son’s final exams got postponed… We just brought four sets of clothes with us.”
Shortly after the Vermas arrived in Deolali Cantonment, the government called for the Janta Curfew on March 22 and a subsequent nation-wide lockdown owing to the Coronavirus pandemic. But, having spent all this time with her family due to the lockdown, which is approaching the 60-day mark, she has learnt an important lesson. “We had forgotten the fun of living a simple life. And now, with no fast food options, we realised what an expensive life we once lived. But now we know we can survive with just the bare minimum,” she says.
Like Verma, there are others whose holidays have turned into unprecedented endless stays as India enters the 4th stage of lockdown. “My biggest travel plan for the year was to come to India, which unpredictably got extended for quite some time now,” begins 26-year-old Anshitha Nambiar. A student of TU Chemnitz, Germany, Nambiar was excited about visiting her family in Bengaluru after she got done with her three-month-long internship in Düsseldorf. “I am almost done with my Master’s course and scheduled a month’s vacation to meet my family, after which, I was supposed to start with my Master Thesis at Vodafone,” says Nambiar, who arrived in Bengaluru on 26 February. “Confident” that things would return to normal after the Janata Curfew, Nambiar was sure she would be able to depart on her scheduled date — March 30. Now, a month-and-a-half later, Nambiar has run into another problem as her two-year-long residence permit in Germany expired on May 17. “I was confident to return before the expiry and renew it from Germany… But now, after numerous emails to the Bengaluru German Consulate, I received a response after a month saying that I would have to book an appointment and follow the usual visa procedure which one follows for obtaining a visa for the first time from India,” says Nambiar, adding that the consulate is currently closed for appointments.
But, not all vacations have been unprecedentedly extended. Some, like Daniel Netto, knew that the lockdown was “inevitable” and travelled to Goa to wait it out with friends. Working in the independent music industry as an artiste manager and festival producer, the Mumbai-resident says, “Work is slow, as it mostly entails online live streams for various brands.”
The 26-year-old, who celebrated his birthday during the lockdown believes that if your birthday fell during the quarantine, “you get to have the cake but the increase in age doesn’t count”. Describing his daily routine, Netto says the first half of his day is spent reading, cleaning the pool, exercising, eating meals prepared by a professional chef he is quarantined with and taking “true Goan-styled siestas”.
Overall, Netto is thankful he isn’t in Mumbai, as he points out, “There is a lot more space at our home [in Goa] for everybody to continue living and not get into each other’s personal space. The population density is far lesser in Goa.”
