Playlists for a pandemic
On week 1, I enjoyed disco. I wore my speakers out playing every chart-topper of the disco genre. I adorned my room with the prettiest of lights, moved all my furniture to a corner of the room to make space for the occasional dance moves and sunk into this new personality I have adopted for the current week. The summer sun tore through my room, setting an unusual warmth onto every piece of furniture and every human body that walked into the room. I enjoyed an occasional glass of wine or two and secretly rejoiced as the rest of the world was gasping under the foothold of the looming pandemic.
On week 3, I took to the blues. My days lulled into dreary nights as the tunes of Janis Joplin and Freddie King kept me company. The sombre music became background noise to my daily functioning. The summer seemed to be undergoing a minor glitch as spells of awkward rain poured down while the sun shone through the entire time, giving quick glimpses to tiny sections of a fully formed rainbow thatI could not witness outdoors. My room was a pile of half-read books, undone laundry and an unresolved lump of emotions. A single glass of wine would give me an agonising headache which would take hours to recover from. The trepidation and fear of the outside world was seeping into my secure little cocoon.
It’s week 6 and I prefer silence. I ran out of genres that soothe me. Most of my furniture have found their way back to their original spaces. Books are being consumed more mindfully and the laundry is always crisp and folded. I often wake up to stormy skies and fall asleep to the nippy aftermath of the incessant rain. Ginger tea bags have replaced the glass of wine, video calls with familiar faces and amorous conversations with a few unfamiliar ones substituted for the void that engulfed most nights. Patience, a rather alien virtue crept back into my mind and I continue to wait.
I continue to wait till I find a new genre that will guide me into next phase of this ‘new normal’ and till then, I make playlists out of those songs that held me together, in the face of a raging pandemic.
