Virtual get-togethers

Originally published in The Hindu's Open Page. 

The virus that separated the whole world has paradoxically brought extended families closer than ever before

Thank you, COVID-19.

Could we pause, for a few moments, the constant doom and gloom of COVID-19 and reflect on some of the positives from this harrowing experience? I am not suggesting we forget the travails wrought by this pandemic and the heroic efforts of our frontline workers. I am merely stating that focusing a bit on some of the brighter spots of our day helps us stay afloat amid the tides of COVID-19 gloom.

Despite separating the whole world, the novel coronavirus has paradoxically brought my extended family closer than ever before. I hail from a large family of uncles, aunts, cousins and their spouses, and a growing number of nephews and nieces. Back in Chennai, the entire family would congregate for every festival in my grandparents’ house. Summer holidays meant cricket with cousins, and conspiring for plans to stay at aunts’ places. Even as many in my generation immigrated to the U.S. and Australia, the family stayed close. My mother and aunts would frequently get together for movies and shopping. The Deepavali congregations in Chennai continue like clockwork; even those in the U.S. get together at least once a year.

COVID-19 put an end to all this. Suddenly there were no more dinner get-togethers. No more movies. No more flights to Seattle or California to meet cousins. The naming ceremony of our family’s newest member went unattended by most of us. Every household in our family is now hunkering in isolation, hoping for better days to come.

And yet, something has changed. The family has come alive virtually. Our family's WhatsApp group, called “Namma Family”, used to be filled with unacknowledged forwards, but has now become the congregation-central for the family. Virtually we reach out to one another on the group through conversation, updates, photos, cooking experiments, and jokes. COVID-induced boredom has spawned off new hobbies and creative experiments in each one of us and the group has become the stage to share our new-found skills.

An aunt suggested a talent challenge wherein a nominee produces a creative work within a day and then nominates the next. What began as a chance for the tots to present their rhymes has now been embraced by the young and the old! With every submission, we are discovering previously unknown facets to our family members. We discovered a cousin’s passion for Sanskrit linguistics, another’s taste in poetry, and a third’s attempts at creating animations from still art. The MBA graduate created a survey to test one another’s knowledge in family lore. The questions brought back cherished memories from decades ago. Even the most reticent members of the group, and newcomers into the family have been swept into this exercise. Every creative project is met with thundering support, and feedback. The creative bar keeps being raised and we eagerly look forward to what is next.

If not for COVID-19, I doubt the Namma Family Talent Challenge would have existed. We would have missed out on so many creative masterpieces from our own and most of us would have continued spinning in the whorls of our day-to-day lives. This has been a silver-lining in my life during the times of corona.