The Soft Lockdown Before the Hard One

 Characters:

• Ravi – A skeptical but rational technologist.

• Dev – A philosopher-journalist, prone to deep speculation.

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[Scene: A quiet rooftop café. Late evening. City lights flicker. Two old friends sip coffee as the conversation turns from casual to conspiratorial.]

Ravi:
You know, sometimes I still can’t believe how smoothly the world shifted during COVID. Overnight. Everyone just… complied.

Dev:
That’s the part that fascinates me. Not the virus itself, but how perfectly timed everything was.

Ravi:
What do you mean?

Dev:
Think about it. What made global lockdowns even possible? What allowed entire populations to work, study, and socialize while being physically cut off?

Ravi:
Technology. Zoom, Netflix, food delivery apps. Infrastructure held up well.
We were lucky.

Dev (smirking):
Was it luck? Or was it… preparation?

Ravi:
Come on. You're not implying the virus was timed with 4G rollout?

Dev:
Not timed with—timed after.
The mass adoption of 4G wasn’t just a tech milestone. It was a socio-political trigger. Without high-speed mobile internet, none of the pandemic mechanisms would’ve worked.

Ravi:
Hmm... go on.

Dev:
Let’s rewind. Pre-2010, the world’s still largely on 2G/3G. Slow, expensive, limited reach.
No mass video calls. No real-time media saturation. No behavioral nudging through notification systems.

Ravi:
Okay...

Dev:
By 2016–2017, 4G is everywhere—from Manhattan to Mumbai.
Cheap smartphones flood the market. Apps become reflexes. Social media isn't just a pastime—it's a collective nervous system.

Ravi:
So you're saying the world had to be digitally primed first?

Dev:
Exactly.
COVID wasn't just a pandemic. It was a global test of digital obedience.
They needed us online—fast, traceable, and emotionally vulnerable.

Ravi:
But wouldn’t that require global coordination? A level of planning that sounds… unreal.

Dev:
Maybe not coordination. Just convergence.
Governments, corporations, platforms—all pursuing growth, control, scale. Independently aligned, like magnets facing the same pole.

Ravi:
And the virus?

Dev:
Real or not, it served as a perfect catalyst.
It justified remote everything.
It normalized surveillance in the name of safety.
It rewired our instincts—fear replaced logic, screens replaced streets.

Ravi (after a pause):
So in your view, if the world was still stuck on 3G...

Dev:
...then COVID, as we experienced it, would’ve been impossible.
No seamless lockdowns.
No remote work.
No 24/7 fear feed.
No compliance through clicks.

Ravi:
Damn. So you’re saying before the masks, before the mandates...

Dev:
...came the towers.
And we built them ourselves

Gokarna Trip Final day

We would not be having the driver and the vehicle with us on Day 3 as he had some other duties. And we had had so much fun on Day 2.considering these two things; we had little expectations about Day 3, as we were all unaware of the real beauty of the Gokarna. So we all lazy souls (boys) woke up lazily around 8: 30 only to find Gauri knocking at the door. She was literally furious at us for getting up so late.

                We reached OM beach in an auto around noon. It is famous for its prominent shape, depicting the Sanskrit symbol ॐ. It was nice, blue water with waves cleansing our feet as we strolled along the beach. The Sun was scaling up in the sky and there was nothing to pass time for….we decided to move to Kudle beach after clicking some funny pics. Getting to Kudle beach was a bumpy ride in auto again. And then one has to walk 200 footsteps even to see the waters. But but but…the ones who get there, will never think of leaving the place. This was the best beach anyone of us had seen. I haven’t been to many beaches; still I can bet this one is better.

                The stretch of the beach is limited by hills going into the sea on the two sides. And there are huts-cum-hotels around, which are a nice place to chill out. We entered one of those….. (Forgot the name:-( ) and had juice & cold drinks. The view of the beach from hotel is also eye-catching. It soothes one’s soul & clears mind. Everyone hit the sea after that, having fun & mud-play. Only after all had enjoyed enough, we decided to move out from waters and have lunch.

                There, I and Suhas brought up the discussion of extending the trip by a day. Each of us wanted to spend more time on Kudle beach. It was that irresistible. (Even Nachiket, though he’d no extra leaves available). After some brain storming, the uncertainty of return journey forced us to cancel the extension plan. There then, at the best spot of our trip, we devoured some delicious dishes of food too. And we left Kudle beach with some great moments captured forever in our minds.

                I intently am skipping the return journey part as no fun moments I can recollect, of this part.

Gokarna Trip Day 2

                As decided on NIGHT 1, everyone got up early in the morning. We were to head for “One of the largest” waterfall in Asia…..JOG FALLS-70 kms from Gokarna. We 4 guys were ready in half an hour, as no one dared to bathe for long with cold tap water on a cold morning ;) I remember Suhas came out after bath and jumped into bed under the blanket shivering like anything. We literally got sure that he’d caught fever. But he was just over-reacting to the cold there.

                All six people gathered in the lobby of the hotel with Sumo ready outside the door. There few guys wanted to have some TEA (They definitely had guts to have tea even after all the bad experience since the trip was started). Being smart, I opted out :D:D …. And as expected, they had another bad experience. Don’t worry guys; “Experience” does come with mistakes. HAHAHA!!

                Only after getting into vehicle, we came to know that Gauri had poured that tasteless....umm…bad tasted….whatever….tea by a plant without getting caught by the servant, who’d prepared it after so many efforts at 6:30 in the morning. By efforts, I mean it. He really had to go out in search for sugar as it was not available in the kitchen. POOR SERVANT!!! And POOR PLANT!!! :-( :-( :-(

                Hush!! So lets move to Jog falls now.

We reached at Jog falls around 10:15 AM. On the way, we had two halts. One for breakfast and one for some snaps by professional photographers (we had 6 professional photographers in our troop:D:D) at…I guess…back waters of Jog falls itself. Everyone jumped & rushed to see the waterfall as soon as we stepped out of the vehicle. But to our despair, this was the biggest & the only disappointment of the trip for us…….amongst the places we visited. There was hardly any water in the falls. Never mind, we compensated the loss by taking as many pictures as we could, at this place. (Definitely not as many at the Rajiv Gandhi National Park last year :P ) The funniest moments were ……………my “SOLO” photo…and… Suhas‘s “Big fall”. I will not go in those details here. As they are better told, and not written.

                After relaxing for a while, we returned to the vehicle. There our driver told us that we could’ve walked down to under the waterfall. I said “Next time”.

                While on the way back through the ghaat, the roads reminded us of the “Michael Schumacher” of Coorg. We were moving towards Murudeshwara, a holy place where we saw picturesque temples, with designs carved on the walls, a Gopura and a 15 storey Idol of The Lord Shiva. But before that we stuck to our mantra, as said, ” आधी पोटोबा , मग …” The hotel where we had lunch was located little inside from shore in the seawater. We had to order Thaali as they (too) refused to serve us anything else. The Thaali did taste good, given the ambience of water-clean to the base and looking out for the water-rides available at the beach. Later everyone settled for ice-cream. After lunch we moved towards temples. We had a view of the beach, the Idol of Shiva and the village around from the 18^th floor of the Gopura. The huge Idol of Shiva is sitting on an artificial cave which gives us a trip to the mythological background of Gokarna with real-to-life idols of Ravana, Ganesha and Shiva. The sculptor is so perfect in honing those to reflect real life expressions out of them. While strolling through the cave one can also listen to the story being told on the speaker, which was obviously in Kannada. So we stayed with Gauri :-) :-). Good that she had done some homework on the history of Gokarna with her mom; it was easy for her to describe it to us while passing the sculptures. 

                Only after stepping out of the cave, we realized it was worth stepping in. 

5PM

                We were out of the temples and all set to get wet in the clean waters. There I rushed to have my first ever water-bike ride, which I enjoyed a lot. By the time I returned, all these guys had booked a motor-boat ride for the group. This was amazing than earlier ride. Even for Nachiket and Gauri, who can’t swim!!  After the rides we stepped into waters and played till the sunset. We were hoping to witness the sun sinking into sea. But it chose to set in the clouds instead. We came out after spending enough time and got ready to return to the accommodation.

                So the fun factor of Day 2 was 100%

                Here I’ll skip the details of the dinner….good night          (day 3 to follow)

Home v/s Heart

Until last year I followed what my heart said. And then Sahara came up with the “Pune Warrior Indians” being launched on the IPL platform. Nothing surprising to say that some strings of my heart moved in sync with thousand other hearts to show support for HOME team. 

With the beginning of IPL season 4, I supported PWI and MI whole heartedly in each clash before they came face-to-face a few days ago. That was the day when I felt my mind split into two halves. One was wishing for GOD to remain unbeaten…. which meant MI’s victory. And another was praying for wickets of Mumbai Indians to fall at regular interval to make PWI win. This battle inside my mind kept on with the On-field battle till the last ball of the match when MI needed 1 run off 1 ball. The seasoned mind (with 3 seasons) stayed with GOD’s team while the strings attached with Pune craved for a victory for HOME.

With such rallies of emotions, let’s see how I handle it on 4^th May when I witness my first ever cricket match on the ground. PWI desperately need a win, because it has lost one more match with 25 runs as I finished this note.

Gokarna Trip

Departure from Pune: 25^th Dec 

After all the trails of mail threads since July we 8 guys (later reduced to 6) were up for a trip with the location-Gokarna. Special thanks to unreachable & unupdated Geeta; we managed to book hotel rooms and bus tickets a day before departure.

((((Conversation between Geeta & Suhas a day before departure

G – Is Shruti coming to trip?

S – No.

G- Then I will not come either.)))))

Rahul informed the bus route as Nigadi (8pm) - Aundh (9pm)-Katraj (11pm). So, relaxed I and Gauri reached at Aundh by 8.45pm, waiting for Geeta. Gauri enquired at the Aundh booking counter about the bus and to our surprise the bus was not travelling via Aundh. We were expected to reach Katraj by a shuttle pick up service from Aundh to Katraj. And we were like……..we won’t make it. An uneasiness of uncertainty started to take over us, as we couldn’t make any move unless Geeta had arrived. Meanwhile, Rahul kept us updating about the Bus location (which they were traveling in) and bus route. So we planned to chase the bus to catch it near Chandni chowk and search for an auto. But no auto driver gets ready for this isolated place. By that time, Geeta arrived and again we brain stormed and finally decided to reach Katraj by 11 pm. It seemed reasonable but not affordable. So we broke the journey as Aundh to Shivajinagar by auto & Shivajinagar to Katraj by bus. And we made it there before 11 pm. As we had some time till the main bus comes, we got ourselves a cup of tea to beat the cold, which Geeta guessed to be made of some other animal’s milk than cow. People started guessing the animal to turn Geeta’s face more pale.

DAY 1: 

                We all woke up at our destined bus stop of Hubli around 6 AM. And to the surprise (rather shock) of “Avomin addicts”, we were told that Gokarna is no less than 4 hrs from where we were standing at. Thanks to Gauri--the only Kannada (do notice…its Kannada, and not kannad :P) speaking member of the group, who made our trip easier & more rejoice-able. We had to travel Hubli-Ankola-Gokarna with connecting buses with everyone hiding himself under the blanket to avoid the strong chill in the air.

And OH!! How can I forget those sweet yummy Cup (waati) cakes of Yellapur?

10: 30 AM

We shaded our coverings & inhaled the cold, blessed air of Gokarna.

“Hotel New Prasad Nilay” was just adjoining to the bus stand. Everyone stretched himself on bed as we stepped into our rooms. I, Suhas, Rahul & Nachiket adjusted ourselves on a double bed, while girls felt it spacious in their room as they were only 2.

Our driver was expected to arrive at 3:30 PM in a Sumo.  For us to get ready, I had to request the Hotel staff for every bucket of warm water (4 buckets of them). In the meanwhile, I had collected some info about sights around Gokarna from hotel owner. And he gave us a full-fledged plan for a complete day, whereas we had only half a day left.

3:30 PM

Everyone gathered in the lobby and decided to visit temples & nearby beach. Oh wait wait wait!! 

What they say???........” आधी पोटोबा , मग विठोबा” 

We adhered to this idiom throughout the trip :P. We went to a HORRIBLE restaurant to taste some HORRIBLE non veg food items. Enough description of lunch. As we had some time before the temple opens, we went to the beach. It’s on a throw-a-stone distance from temple. There everyone except me opted for bhel puri at one of the stalls that made their faces sore to add to the lunch symptoms. But coconut water helped all of us feel better.

Then we went to this famous Gokarna temple, where Su, Rahul & Gauri joined the “Abhishek” queue. Nachiket, Geeta and I stood in “Darshan” queue. Which school plans a trip for school kids to a temple on a Sunday?? It stretched “Darshan” queue too long to stand with hardly some food in stomach for me. I opted to sit at a side pavement listening to “Om Nam Shivay” mantra being chanted on a loudspeaker, till everyone returned.

                I opened my eyes after almost half an hour of sleep to find Su, Rahul & Gauri relaxing at the other end of the pavement. Nachiket & Geeta came after another half an hour. We moved out again towards beach shops to buy some items. And for the third time that day we risked ourselves into another restaurant. And the story repeated. Even after consuming 2 cold-drinks with it, I could not finish the Gokarna Special Maggie I had ordered. I gave up after 2 cold-drinks.

                To pass some more time, we shopped/ window-shopped for some goodies. And we ended the day with the food in another Hotel at its closing time.

               By the end of the day Nachiket had added Kannada word-“maadi” perfectly in his dictionary :D

 DAY 2, 3 to follow...