About the Book
On Sunday, March the
22nd 2020,
When India decided
To lock herself down
And send us—
Her 1.3 billion
ungrateful, undeserving,
Yet beloved children—
Into self-isolation
To protect
us
From the deadly infection
Of a bat-born,
Spikey ball-shaped,
Gorgeous-looking
Infinitesimal virus
With a name
Befitting a royal,
I set out to do
What all
castle-builders and nighthawks do
On bright and lonesome
Sundays
That have
nothing
Except dreams of hope
And fantasies of freedom
To offer.
Told from multiple
points of view, Commonwealth Prize-winning author Siddhartha Gigoo’s 'Love in
the Time of Quarantine' clocks 30 days and nights in the lives of two lovers
and a homeless family during a nation’s lock down and quarantine.
My Take on the Book
Hope everyone
is safe at home?
I recently came across this book and was really intrigued
to find out what it was actually about, as we are all quarantined and I wanted
to understand what/how is Love in the time of Quarantine by author Siddhartha Gigoo.
At first when I saw the cover of the book, I thought
it was some sort of love story and I predicted that it was going to be about
couples who are in love during the ongoing pandemic. But on reading further I
realized it was slightly different from what I thought it was going to be.
Each chapters are carefully written explaining a
situation or rather answering a few questions on how the times are spent in a lock down- 30 days and nights in the lives of two lovers and a homeless family during a nation’s lock down and quarantine. The content
of the book is categorized in such chapters as mentioned below:
-
The Celebration
-
The Preparation
-
The Race
-
The Purging
-
The Question
-
The Cleansing
-
The Game
-
The Room
-
The Sleep
-
The Savings
-
The Act
-
The Cure
-
The Expulsion
-
The Farewell
-
The Long Walk Back Home
Each chapter carefully narrated based
on its title. And here are a few poems which caught my attention.
The Celebration
Peering at the masked people
clapping from balconies, a child says, ‘why are they so happy, daddy?’ covering
the child’s mouth with his hand, the man says, ‘for us, son.’ ‘But why are they
clapping?’ whispers the woman to the man. ‘Because something good is about to
happen,’ whispers the man. ‘You always say that, don’t you?’ says the woman. …
Day 7 Saturday, March 28 2020
Day: you didn’t spare even a single
memory at last. Night: I learnt to be still at last.
Day 15 Sunday, April 5 2020
Day: you chose isolation over distance
at last. Night: you gave up feeling for meaning at last.
As you can see the author's way of writing the poems are unique
and has deep meanings. I noticed the author has inked down from his heart and I could connect with a few of the works. There
were some poem which kind of lost its meaning and had little to less meanings, but overall
the book was indeed a gripping read and
I would surely recommend to anyone who enjoys a good poetry read, on the contrary
you can pick a copy today to find how each one of us feel during a quarantine through the writings of Siddhartha Gigoo.
Book Details
Title: Love
in the Time of Quarantine
Author: Siddh
Pages: 58
pages
Format: Kindle
Price: Rs. 100
My Rating: 3.5/5
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