The young man, one of my brilliant and enthusiastic colleagues walked in today with his wife, a smart yet quiet girl and declared, ‘she is everything to me, my life and my lifeline.’

‘I come here often he said, referring to my office, we discuss everything non academic and creative and that is something I love doing’

I looked at the couple and smiled.

‘Times have been tough’, he said, ‘who can blame Sushant Singh Rajput for what he did? That brilliant boy was pushed to do what he did.

Anybody else would have done the same.

The past months I too ……..really..he paused.

She helped though, her love and her care and my friends’.

The young girl smiled understandingly, ‘this boy, he talks a lot about death mam….’

She is a health officer who felt that it is this quarantine that has finally got the government machinery some recognition, ‘usually we are always in the bad books, no matter what!’

‘You know what, she always asks me to talk about her work. Like if we meet someone and they ask her what she does, she will in turn look at me , no, not because I am the control freak or something, some how when she speaks about her work, people don’t seem to get it, and they instead look at me, so now she has deputed me to do all the talking.’

‘I think of farming, perhaps that’s something I should do. You see farmers are resilient, and I have been trained in it by my father, so what if I did my PhD and I love teaching, I can always pick up the plough’.

They looked as if they were made for each other, the man being creative and outspoken the girl silent and observant and that she said, ‘ is what makes their journey together interesting’.

I was thinking of lifelines for living, how important it is to be understood and to be heard.

I guess that is what makes the difference. When Anju called me from Chandigarh yesterday after a long hiatus it felt good.

The quarantine is affecting everyone in different ways, my mother who lives but 8 hours away from me, panics, ‘when can I see you?’

These are tough times. Challenges are one too many. Even the strongest need support. So reach out and stay connected.

Cheers!