Splashes of New Normal

Even we oldies and betters in this laid back country are now well and truly into the phenomenon of ‘new normal’. We assumed this new manner of mostly social integration in our behaviour, and work pattern, as we emerged from the lockdown and scary four month shut-in caused by that dread Covid 19 pest that whizzed across the entire globe and is still devastating in many countries.

‘New Normal’ is defined by Wikipedia as “a state to which an economy, society etc settles following a crisis, when this differs from the situation that prevailed prior to the start of the crisis. The term has been used in relation to the financial crisis of 2007-08, the aftermath of the 2008-12 global recession and the Covid 19 pandemic. The term was used in 2005 by Peter M Sandman and Jody Larnard in relation to methods of manipulation of public attitude towards avian influenza…”

The worst hit country – USA with India catching up fast – soon grabbed the term and used it freely. Its saner population is following stringent measures of keeping safe from the infection, in spite of laissez faire advocated by its President. A couple who entertained freely where people invited would sit from 1.00 pm to 5.00 at the lunch table had to stem all invitations. “Too hot a summer to eat out ” since eating in open spaces – gardens – is the new norm. With autumn setting in, this duo too would place tables out and serve food probably in disposable packets with disposable cutlery. Another single living man first had a meal away from home in late August since freedom in the US was curtailed (unofficially; with Trump more concerned with the economy than lives of Americans) in March. Selected are restaurants that have outside tables and disposable cutlery. Work on line from home is still the norm all across the States.

Local acquiescence to New Normal

Just as we Sri Lankans observed lockdowns and shut ourselves in our homes, barring minor karachchals in densely populated patches in Colombo and among druggies, we are much in new normal.

First our dress has changed; we are now all face-masked. A habit now so that exiting the home door is hardly ever executed with the face uncovered. Returning home from office or a jaunt, first was hugs to the children; touching with affection stay-at-home parents or a flop in a sofa to flick slipper/chappals/shoes off one’s feet. No longer. It’s first to the washbasin and a thorough hand scrub with many throwing worn clothes to the wash or at least sunning them. The sun is Covid 19’s greatest enemy, even its only, unfortunately, so far

A major breakthrough is tripping. Many are the loaded cars, hired vans, even buses that are on the roads carrying people on holiday/ pilgrimage/sight-seeing. No such luck in the States.

Personal experiences

Not even a week elapsed after the official lockdown was lifted when a friend and his wife invited me and two others to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Only just emerging from being all masked and gloved even to buy stuff from door to door vendors (bless them!) my involuntary question:”Myee, will there be Chinese?” This restaurent was invariably full with luxury busloads of tourists from the Land of the Great Wall, now set on its Belt and Road Initiative and neo- colonialism that is enriching its state controlled population. Servers all masked and gloved with no serving by them. Dishes were placed on the table and we had to help ourselves.

Then a meal at a many starred hotel where very politely a manager advised us to don our face masks whenever we arose from our table. The sumptuous brunch buffet dishes were safely behind glass screens. One pointed out choices and it was served on a plate and handed over.

No common touching of serving spoons. Hence my son’s first admonition when I said I was having guests for lunch: equal number of spoons to guests for each dish – no common touching. My retort: you will have to buy me more cutlery! This, along with the most prominent item on display: paper serviettes and a hand sanitizer.

It was good experience staying over in hotels. The Tissawewa resthouse, now the Sanctuary at Tissawewa needed not much precaution since clientele was small during our visit. I wrote in an earlier article in this column the observance of face masks by the throng of pilgrims with however, scant attention paid to social distancing at the two most sacred Buddhist sites.

On a later date we stayed at EKHO Lake boutique hotel in Polonnaruwa. Excellent service! It is the old resthouse that sat on the bund of the Parakrama Samudra which had an extension built into the wewa to accommodate the young Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1953. It underwent three complete refurbishments to emerge an excellent place of R&R with the magnificent view of the wewa, claimed to be largest man-made lake in the world. Peace, beauty and appreciation of my good fortune to visit a place such as this in one of the most ancient and highly civilized cities of ancient Lanka, enveloped me. Appreciated also was the best of Sri Lankan hospitality given by the courteous, hardworking Udesh Sasanka and his team. Again not much need of new normal as the sun shone strong and the winds blew across miles of water to be inhaled by us. I realized with a start that it was the first time I really sat near a nephew as he showed me photographs in his sophisticated cell phone. Earlier, we were so conscious of proximity.

Lunch at that most gracious, spacious, orderly Bawa designed Heritance, Dambulla, was a disaster, I am loath to say but needs be truthful. The hotel was crowded, a discount in price being offered as is the new normal practice of most hotels. We were asked to wait for our lunch until the full dining room was vacated. When we went in, social distancing seemed to be thrown to the winds. The hotel management was keen to maintain this restraint, but not the hungry, rather the greedy lunch seekers. They pushed with plates or their bodies those in front in queues forming at the various food points; broke queues and barged in to spaces left by conscientious persons and showed themselves to be salivating more severely than Pavlov’s mice. Hotels should limit the number of their clientele. Income raking should not compromise safety measures and the public really have to pay more attention to decent behaviour.

Benefits of New Normal

True some, particularly the younger persons who love their freedom and adore going about in pairs or groups, are stymied and chafe at restrictions. But we older people really do appreciate the constraints which to us have benefits.

It is accepted and almost proven beyond doubt that common infections like colds, coughs and slight rises in body temperatures are much less frequent than in pre-Covid 19 times. Of course a sore throat is not to be even considered, worse than the plague!

Temperature checking at most entrances is just taken in one’s stride. Only a pause in one’s progress forwards. I heard it said that nearing the gadget to the forehead is being replaced by arm temperature taking as some radiation enters and may be injurious to the brain. I often wonder as I pause with the gadget at forehead or arm, what the reaction would be if my temperature was higher than normal, me being an extra warm-blooded creature. Telephone hastily shouted into; sirens blasting as an ambulance approaches and me whisked to Angoda to the IDH. The other home in Angoda preferred, thank you, in these rapidly infecting Covid times!

We in this beautiful, thrice blessed island, when Kuveni’s curses do not prevail, thank our good fortune and the vigilance and self sacrificial performance of duties by the Presidential Task Force to monitor, trace and track down those affected with the wicked flu; for the ease with which we transmitted from severe lockdown to easy freedom, albeit masked and punctuated with officialdom. We have slipped quietly into the new normal. We don’t, or at least, should not gather in numbers in public places nor in restaurants and clubs. Social gatherings are gaining momentum. People are travelling around. Our dignified old way of greeting is now universal. Queues though, are still body to body lines. Why ever cannot our people realize a queue does not call for breathing on the person in front so that he feels the hot breath touch his ears and bare arms and will certainly creep into his nose! That is a custom of New Normal often broken in our country’s impatience and lack of good comportment.

May this new normal become customary and continue long since a newer normal would mean another crisis. The world has been devastated more than enough for centuries to come!