Prathap Nair: Welcome to the second season of record of change.
Prathap Nair: I’m Prathap Nair, your host for this episode.
Prathap Nair: Here at the podcast, we follow eight people from around the world to understand the effect of the Covid 19 pandemic on their lives.
Prathap Nair: Today, we’re headed to Bengaluru, India to talk to Alan Rocha.
Prathap Nair: Alan says the prolonged lockdown has made him appreciate the smaller things in life.
Prathap Nair: Though it has not made him anymore religious than before, he’s looking forward to a drastically stripped-down version of Christmas celebrations with his parents.
Prathap Nair: It has also, in a subtle way, changed the course of his long-distance relationship with his partner.
Prathap Nair: We hope it’s for the better.
Prathap Nair: Let’s dive in.
Prathap Nair: How are you Alan?
Alan Rocha: I am good.
Alan Rocha: How are you doing?
Prathap Nair: Good too.
Prathap Nair: So the last time we spoke, you had not met your boyfriend, your partner, in so many months.
Prathap Nair: You were going to meet him.
Alan Rocha: So yeah we did meet at the end of the month, end of September, we spent a week together, we got to spend time after roughly six / seven months.
Alan Rocha: Yes.
Prathap Nair: How did that go?
Alan Rocha: It went well, it was different.
Alan Rocha: We both knew that it's going to be like this for quite some time now, going forward.
Alan Rocha: The ease of meeting each other will not be as it was before.
Alan Rocha: So yeah it felt good after meeting for a long time.
Alan Rocha: Yeah.
Alan Rocha: But then there was a little bit of a strange feeling too because you're meeting after so long.
Alan Rocha: Though we are staying connected but yeah meeting face-to-face too makes a difference.
Prathap Nair: Did you guys meet after that?
Prathap Nair: Are you meeting from time to time?
Alan Rocha: No.
Alan Rocha: After that we will be meeting in the end of December.
Prathap Nair: Okay.
Prathap Nair: And you told me you were going to talk to him, you both were going to talk about opening [your] relationship so you can meet other people.
Prathap Nair: Have you done any of that?
Alan Rocha: We did discuss that and we are currently in an open relationship.
Alan Rocha: So yeah, we figured that this distance is going to be longer and felt we won't be able to meet that often.
Alan Rocha: So yes, open is what we will do, so we are less sexually frustrated.
Alan Rocha: So yeah we have an open relationship now.
Prathap Nair: So tell me this, would this have happened, would you have opened your relationship if this pandemic had not happened?
Alan Rocha: No I don't think so.
Alan Rocha: I think this September made it a year since we had been together.
Alan Rocha: And we wouldn't have taken up this topic or spoken about it at least for some foreseeable
Alan Rocha: time, we weren’t even thinking of it, because of the pandemic, things kind of got advanced.
Alan Rocha: Maybe this would have happened a little down the line but this got pushed further and advanced further.
Alan Rocha: And we did bring up this topic because of the COVID, yes.
Prathap Nair: Because before that you were meeting each other a week.
Alan Rocha: Yeah we have a meeting at least once in two weeks.
Prathap Nair: I understand.
Prathap Nair: And so, since we spoke last time, things are slowly opening up…
Alan Rocha: Pretty much everything has opened up in Bangalow.
Prathap Nair: Okay.
Prathap Nair: So how different does your life look right now as opposed to how it looked in September when we spoke.
Prathap Nair: Now it looks like it's all gone back to normal, are you making use of this liberty to go to office at your own convenience.
Alan Rocha: See this liberty was there even for me in the month of June / July, it was slowly kicking
Alan Rocha: in because real estate I work with the company which is related to real estate business.
Alan Rocha: So they all had picked up work since June because they couldn't keep their labors idle.
Alan Rocha: So the work happened at all these residential buildings.
Alan Rocha: So our company also obviously.
Alan Rocha: Since we are working in line with the builders as such, our business also started picking up.
Alan Rocha: So I'm still going out but I think there's no sense of complete freedom, whereas we can go in and walk into any office or walk into any site for any meetings.
Alan Rocha: It all has to be pre-planned, pre-approved and then we can take anything forward.
Alan Rocha: Earlier the luxury of say scouting or just doing a random field work just to scout and see certain potential clients - that has become a really tough task.
Alan Rocha: So that sense of freedom in work has come down because of the COVID situation.
Alan Rocha: Everybody's still back to say the new normal I would say but there's a sense of caution still..
Prathap Nair: So what are the precautions they're taking?
Prathap Nair: For example if you're going to meet a client what kind of precautions are being taken?
Alan Rocha: So these days, clients or even our company mandates face-to-face meeting is only encouraged when there’s a dire need.
Alan Rocha: Otherwise we are encouraged to do virtual meetings.
Alan Rocha: Don't entertain any walk-ins for a meeting, all has to be pre-planned.
Alan Rocha: So they do take the necessary precautions because nobody wants to be in the receiving end of the COVID infection.
Alan Rocha: So yeah precautions are there.
Alan Rocha: They are not very open to meeting face to face just like that.
Alan Rocha: And if we do meet people then there is a sense of social distancing in terms of the
Alan Rocha: conference room how many people can be seated or in any cabin how many people can meet.
Alan Rocha: And if it is at a site level, we are asked to prepare gloves mask temperature checks all those basic guidelines have been followed.
Alan Rocha: Yeah.
Alan Rocha: That's what's happening at work.
Prathap Nair: Okay.
Prathap Nair: Have you done any fun stuff in the past three months?
Prathap Nair: Have you picked up a hobby at anything in lockdown?
Alan Rocha: There's no new hobby that I've picked up.
Alan Rocha: Probably I started paying attention to the plants outside.
Alan Rocha: I never do earlier.
Alan Rocha: Since we last spoke, I remember telling you that we shifted homes.
Alan Rocha: So the earlier days, I had planted pots across and I had few plants and they never used to survive.
Alan Rocha: So now I'm at least paying attention to them.
Alan Rocha: And I can’t say gardening because there's hardly five, six potted plants but yeah I’m paying more attention to that.
Alan Rocha: So I can say that there's a small developing habit or a pastime.
Prathap Nair: What kind of plants do you have?
Alan Rocha: I don't know the names of it, but yeah two lilies and then yeah two ferns.
Alan Rocha: That's about it.
Alan Rocha: I don't know the names of it.
Alan Rocha: I am not an avid gardener.
Alan Rocha: As long as they're alive.
Alan Rocha: That's the goal number one.
Prathap Nair: Okay cool, So did you visit your parents?
Alan Rocha: No I'm going after a year in this month for Christmas.
Alan Rocha: So I visited in the last year for Christmas and I was supposed to go and meet them for Easter which was in the month of April.
Alan Rocha: Unfortunately from March 22nd is when all this happened the lockdown happened.
Alan Rocha: So even though the lockdown was lifted, I did not want to risk traveling at that point of time.
Alan Rocha: Because I'm sure a lot of people would want to travel back and forth.
Alan Rocha: But yeah now for Christmas I am traveling home.
Prathap Nair: How do you think this Christmas will be?
Prathap Nair: I think it'll be weird?
Alan Rocha: I think it’ll be really different because, I don't know, because for me Christmas revolves around going for midnight
Alan Rocha: mass to church, come back put baby Jesus in the crib, then have a little bit of wine & cake with each other and go to sleep.
Alan Rocha: And the next day morning, you start feasting on all the food mom has made, but this
Alan Rocha: time it's going to be totally different because there is going to be online mass.
Alan Rocha: So mass is going to be at home.
Alan Rocha: I don't know how an online mass will impact but I don't think I would get the feel of Christmas.
Alan Rocha: But yeah the feeling of Christmas probably also would not be that much this year because it's just going to be the four of us.
Alan Rocha: I don't think either my mom's side or my dad's side anybody is planning to get together because most of them are on the older side.
Alan Rocha: So I don't think anybody would want to risk but yeah it's just going to be the first time Christmas with just four of us.
Alan Rocha: So probably we'd have to reinvent ways of enjoying Christmas.
Alan Rocha: I’m not particularly religious, I'm not someone who would go to church.
Alan Rocha: I hope my mom isn’t listening to this but I'm not going to church every Sunday.
Alan Rocha: So I remember her giving me grief when the lockdown started, she said you have to listen to online masses.
Alan Rocha: So I was like, no I think I can just pray to myself, I think that would suffice.
Prathap Nair: But you didn't find yourself swaying towards religion during the lockdown in the past eight nine months.
Prathap Nair: You've not felt any more religious than before?
Alan Rocha: No nothing of that sort.
Prathap Nair: Okay did you attend any online mass after your mom's…
Alan Rocha: ..uh nagging?
Alan Rocha: No happened I haven't attended any online mass.
Alan Rocha: Uh I just do my regular morning prayers whenever I wake up…
Prathap Nair: So you don't pray every day?
Alan Rocha: But I don't basically follow the standard I have to go to church every Sunday If I don't go to church, it's
Alan Rocha: considered to be a mortal sin…so no that way I'm not that religious but, I do say some prayers before I wake up
Prathap Nair: Has your prayer ever included this pandemic
Prathap Nair: ? Alan Rocha: Yeah I definitely did pray that this ends soon but I did not question him.
Prathap Nair: I think this is kind of self-brought by us.
Prathap Nair: So you can't really blame God.
Prathap Nair: I think this was something which is supposed to hit us sometime now or sometime in the future.
Prathap Nair: We have to pay more attention but I think we should be more keen about our surroundings.
Prathap Nair: I think people are more aware right now.
Prathap Nair: I hope it stays like that.
Prathap Nair: Once the vaccine comes in, everything gets forgotten It's quite easy that we all go back into our old ways.
Prathap Nair: From what you're saying, it looks like people have gone back to their old ways.
Prathap Nair: Do you think there will be an awareness?
Prathap Nair: If you were to say like a few lessons that you had taken yourself from this pandemic, what would you say?
Alan Rocha: I think a major thing is I should not take things for granted.
Alan Rocha: That's what I have, like certain things I just kept it aside I thought okay this will just move on.
Alan Rocha: But I think taking things for granted as what I have understood that should not be the case after this pandemic.
Alan Rocha: We need to be more vigil, appreciate whatever you have at that point of time.
Alan Rocha: Don't too crib much.
Alan Rocha: The biggest takeaway for me during the pandemic is that.
Alan Rocha: And yes I'm being more self-sufficient and not just relying on somebody or leaning on somebody just for basic things.
Alan Rocha: And then I also realized appreciation to all these menial things in life.
Alan Rocha: But washing vessels after cooking, my God, I don't know how my parents did it.
Alan Rocha: Every night I cook, in the morning there are dirty dishes in the sink.
Alan Rocha: And then I'm like I cook in the afternoon and I cleaned that up.
Alan Rocha: And then again it's filled up with dirty dishes.
Alan Rocha: So yeah that's a profound appreciation to my parents - who clean dishes - probably in India where we get maids to come clean it.
Alan Rocha: But yeah that's what I meant like such small menial things which did not make much of a difference now you pay heed to it.
Prathap Nair: Cool so that's what the pandemic taught you.
Prathap Nair: Since the lockdown started did you go out to a restaurant to eat?
Alan Rocha: Yeah I did.
Alan Rocha: So for my work, when I'm traveling around for some meetings in between, if I have to grab lunch,
Alan Rocha: I do go grab lunch at local restaurants, and not many people are actually dining in per se.
Alan Rocha: I think most of them are delivery boys standing in queue to take up all the deliveries and go.
Alan Rocha: But nobody's really dining in there are a few brave hearts dining in, and enjoying the luxury of space and less hustle bustle in the restaurants.
Alan Rocha: But yeah sadly because of that a lot of places are shutting down in and around Bangalore which is a very sad thing
Alan Rocha: to see because things were just opening up with such grandeur and then this thing happened and they can't survive.
Alan Rocha: So a lot of places are shutting down sadly in Bangalore per se the weekend culture of shopping or going out for eating.
Alan Rocha: And the funny thing is Bangalore is empty because all the IT crowd, since they've got work
Alan Rocha: from home and they're all gone to their respective hometowns, so there's no crowd too.
Alan Rocha: And on top of that nobody's venturing out and going to restaurants and pubs or even you know meet up and spend time.
Alan Rocha: So yeah it's quite a different scenario.
Prathap Nair: I hear Tobi barking in the background…
Alan Rocha: No that's not Toby, that's another dog on the other street..
Prathap Nair: So speaking of which, how are Toby and Penny?
Alan Rocha: Penny got knocked up and she hasn't come back home.
Alan Rocha: I think she's gone to go give birth somewhere.
Alan Rocha: She hasn't returned, it's been a week I guess.
Alan Rocha: I was raising her as a combination of a house cat who ventures out.
Alan Rocha: Because I adopted her similarly.
Alan Rocha: So she was not very keen on sitting inside home.
Alan Rocha: I think she's due and that's why she's gone off somewhere to give birth, because, I think at home
Alan Rocha: since Toby is there, she obviously is a female cat and once they give birth they'll be more guarded.
Alan Rocha: So she doesn't find this a safe space.
Alan Rocha: So I'm sure she'll come probably with the kittens later on…
Prathap Nair: She has opened up her relationship with you and she has brought back babies…So have you met any new people after you guys decided this?
Alan Rocha: I did meet a few people.
Alan Rocha: I thought a lot of them will have, you know, contentions about meeting because one if I'm a person who's
Alan Rocha: venturing out a lot, they might be a little, you know, wary about meeting but I didn't find any such problem.
Alan Rocha: I think it's quite the opposite which is happening.
Alan Rocha: Because earlier if I say I live in Koramongla and a place named Whitefield is supposedly considered as another city, because it's so far
Alan Rocha: with that amount of traffic, but now people are actually willing to travel that distance because there is no traffic on roads to come meet.
Alan Rocha: The distance within the city is now shorter and I feel because there's not many people on roads.
Alan Rocha: There is traffic, but it's bearable.
Alan Rocha: The pandemic has shrunk distances within the city.
Prathap Nair: Yeah at least within Bangalore.
Prathap Nair: But are the buses running?
Alan Rocha: Buses have started running, yes, and a lot of people have started travelling.
Alan Rocha: I can see a lot of posts from people going to travel.
Alan Rocha: I think my boyfriend is going to Kodaikanal now with a bunch of his friends to celebrate his birthday, not his birthday, but his friend's birthday.
Alan Rocha: So yeah, there are people venturing out for I think local tourist destinations within the state.
Alan Rocha: In certain states, it's quite strict because I think Kerala and Maharastra I think still have more strict rules for coming in and going out.
Alan Rocha: But I think there are people touring and there's a lot of people coming to the local tourist spots which are open.
Prathap Nair: So domestic tourism is picking up.
Alan Rocha: Yeah definitely picking up.
Alan Rocha: 20:01 I don't think India can afford another lockdown anymore.
Alan Rocha: Even if a lockdown happens, I think it will be met with a lot of backlash.
Alan Rocha: Because I think the lockdown that happened for those three months itself has shattered many things.
Alan Rocha: Now mostly focus is on rebuilding rather than again hindering that process of rebuilding.
Alan Rocha: So I think now everybody's notion is either you stay safe, take your precautions, this thing is not that big of a deal, I guess some of
Alan Rocha: the emotions are either you get it and it might pass through or you already have it and you are out of it, just that you were asymptomatic.
Alan Rocha: 20:47 That's the notion.
Alan Rocha: I think now everybody's just gunning for, just holding on until a vaccine comes and then back to your normal.
Prathap Nair: Will you take the vaccine?
Alan Rocha: I haven't thought of it, but I don't think I would immediately.
Alan Rocha: Probably first of all I think the vaccine to reach each one of us would take a long time because uh I think the
Alan Rocha: government also, I was reading an article that the main concentration is not to vaccinate everybody in India.
Alan Rocha: And it's about vaccinating that targeted group which needs or is suspect to transmit.
Alan Rocha: So I think the frontline workers and the ones who are in the target groups that would be the first ones to
Alan Rocha: even receive it because I am sure availability of the vaccine is not going to be easy in the initial days.
Alan Rocha: So even if it comes to an option of me choosing to take the vaccination, I think I can see it happening early next year where the choice of it will come to me…
Prathap Nair: So, I wish in whatever lockdown form you’re going to be celebrating your Christmas, I wish you a merry Christmas.
Alan Rocha: Thank you so much, same to you.
Prathap Nair: Next week, my colleague Stephanie talks to McKenzie Roller, an 18-year-old who moved to the American South to do a gap
Prathap Nair: year work experience with Vote.org, a national non-partisan organization that helps to register and inform eligible voters across the US.
Prathap Nair: Stay tuned.
Prathap Nair: Follow us on your favourite Podcast provider and look for us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or our website, recordofchange.com.
Prathap Nair: This podcast is implemented with and by members of the Bosch Alumni Network, a community that brings together
Prathap Nair: former and current fellows, grantees and staff members of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and its partners.