Search for books on pandemic and Amazon has page after page listed. There are those that talk about the history of pandemics to those that list out lessons for a post-pandemic world, others go on and on about practical ways to get a healthy lifestyle during a pandemic and then those that have articles from different people on their perspective of the virus that spread to all corners. Neo-liberalism, politics, and economics meandering through these traumatic times and not just the patho-physiology of the virus-sphere, are just some of the subjects for published works. Articles and reports in the media attempt to separate facts from fiction even as writers and publishers fall over each other to give us ‘complete guides’ on self-care during quarantine or even ‘interesting trivia’ on Covid-19. This virus has indeed conquered the planet.
Talking about the initial phase when we saw ‘human beings being in captivity and animals moving about freely’ is Smita Naik Salunke in her book ‘Within four walls of the mind’ where, among other interesting observations, she points out how ‘this period coincided with a time when human beings had to compulsorily wear a mask in order to protect themselves from the virus.’ Most of us who are connected through the virtual network know and probably remember a lot about those weeks when ‘the planet appeared to be breathing freely in all its glory while 7.7 billion human beings were breathing through masks…’ and between sharing their pictures of dalgona coffee or handstand T-shirt challenge and the beating of thalis while standing in the balcony of their homes we went on ostracizing healthcare workers from our neighbourhoods because we somehow were unable to get rid of the ‘unfounded stigma attached to the infection when they returned home from work’. So yes, there have been elements of extreme comedy cold-pressed with tragic incidents like migrant workers walking hundreds of miles with the well-oiled network of civil servants and our elected representatives waiting in meeting rooms debating their course of action. The author has painstakingly listed many incidents that happened during that traumatic period, and this is just one reason why her book makes sense. After all, an honest perceptive record of what happened cannot always be left to those authorized historians who might place only curated stuff for future generations to read and analyse.
The author hasn’t just written about what most of us were doing during the pandemic stay-at-home time but there are mentions of the Palghar lynching in Maharashtra, the accusations hurled at Jamaat leadership for their carelessness, the ruling party and the government being blamed for their delayed response to the covid emergency. The book, therefore, is not just about men accepting the ‘idea that they couldn’t get away without helping around at home’ but takes the reader on a short adventure into the way the author went about dealing with these new ways of living at home. Incidentally, her fifth year Kathak exam was held online and as we all know it is during this period that a mass fascination for online interactions, courses, workshops, and even teaching got acceptance. I know of many people who would never have tried to understand and adopt technology had it not been for this phase of every-activity-going-on-at-home and when work from home became known to everyone. Life had then jumped into the deep-end of binge-watching web series, cooking, baking, dressing-up for pictures to be shared on the social media, and even reading and writing. Fitness routines at home, adoption of yoga, art, cooking, and counselling, to name a few, adapted themselves to be communicated online. The book takes us back to those times and does it without stepping on any ideology, religion, and belief. For those readers who might be looking for texts in acrimonious arguments with the way some people and officials behaved might not get what they want. The book keeps away from any reference to any form of intolerance.
The author does try to sound statistically savvy and not wanting to be considered unaware of any history trivia, tells us that during World War II there were an estimated 70-85 million people who perished but the current pandemic had already affected 38 lakh persons and the total count was increasing steadily… and that WHO had condemned the 35 pandemic-related serious attacks on healthcare workers in 11 countries. These factoids were not necessary at all as anyone who wanted such facts and figures had only to search the web to find them. It is better to stay with the sort of narrative that you have decided for your book… and if it has to meander with your own life at home and your own perspectives of what happened, just stick to it. I believe bringing in statistics simply to sound erudite does nothing to enhance the value of a creative non-fiction. Statistics are continually changing, and no number is the final number in their world and similarly, political actions keep hopping in and out of being good, bad, or ugly and one can never say with surety that that one political party or an individual from the bureaucracy is and will always remain despised. Mercifully, such digressions are few and don’t really harm the over-all flow of the narrative.
This book is not over-flowing with statistic-encrusted insights or some inquests into the way technology was harnessed. This is neither a work of fiction with a story plot that leads a reader towards intended and unintended perspectives and visions. However, the book serves a bigger purpose in bringing an authentic experience of the author during the first phase of the pandemic so that we as readers sigh and re-open closed chapters from our past to maybe assess the way we had reacted and interacted with that period. The book is really one mind prodding another.
Book details:
Title: Within four walls of the mind
Author: Smita Naik Salunke
Publisher: Notion press
ISBN: 978-163873-568-7
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Arvind Passey
30 May 2022
