We welcomed 2020 with Tutul Bhai’s song at Fire & Ice, had the family picnic in Reverie Resort, NPSB picnic in Savar Dairy Farm, DIU family Day & 18th Founding Anniversary at our Ashulia Campus, weddings, birthdays, Parisa’s school sports, Abbu’s get together for Chacha-Chachi coming from Australia. I even took students to Dhaka Art Summit at Shilpakala Academy, and to watch Hamlet in the theater. We had ‘bashanta boron’ at Uttara Campus and an international conference on Postcolonial Perspectives in February at Dhanmondi Campus. Parisa took part in a choreography from school to celebrate the 21 years of The Daily Star and also in the 9th Inter-School Bangla Olympiad where she recited 'abar ashibo fire' but didn't get any prize. She also participated in a shooting for a program titled 'Tiffin er Fakey' for NTV.
The year started in such an eventful manner but who knew things will change so drastically from March? We stayed home, played games, made funny videos, performed songs with Raj, continued teaching from home. I cooked a lot trying out YouTube recipes, I also became a barber as I gave haircut to myself, Parisa, Saniyat and Raj, but we had our proper haircut at Nagomi when businesses started opening up. Pohela Boishakh and Eid were celebrated at home. When I felt very suffocated, Raj took me to 300 feet or Dia Bari. One such memorable trip was to the 54.7 km four-lane Dhaka-Mawa Expressway. But gradually people started mingling in small groups. Ma called us and eventually in Kurbani Eid they all came to our place. Restaurants opened and we went to Horse and Horse, Coffeelicious, Tabaq, Trouvaile, Coffe Beans and Tea Leaf...our favorite places looking at cautious people. Our anniversary followed by Parisa’s birthday was celebrated at a small scale at home. Asma’s birthday was celebrated in a grand manner at Sao 26 (another favorite place) and even after the birthday dinner we kept eating and drinking.
I discovered in October that Parisa had trouble with her piano teacher Shimul Sir for long but never talked about it until I overheard one of her painful online classes. So we shifted her to DIMA. She also lost interest in her school's online classes and kept saying ‘I will study myself’, ‘I don’t understand anything’ etc. She sat for her midterm exams on her own. And now I am dreading the results. Another dreadful thing happened at news towards the end of the year and I was outrageous. I think this happened because I opened my mouth at a presenters’ get together... Well, this petty issue could be overlooked as this was nothing compared to the great loss I suffered from. I lost my Khala on 14th March and Boro Fupu on 17th May, Raj lost his Boro Khalu on 10th August – the losses were too much to bear. I felt really guilty thinking I couldn't do enough for Boro Fupu who took my mother's place when I was away from Ammu at a young age. 2020 was a year when death news became so normal that we forgot to feel stunned. Many big famous names from national & international media also disappeared. The emotional turmoil that I thought I would not experience anymore became evident when Abbu came over one day with my birth certificate and he had tears in his eyes. I cried like anything when he left. Parisa witnessed it but didn't know what to do as she had no idea how to offer solace to a grown up crying woman. 😛
Parisa changed a lot! She became glued to the screen of the phone (we had to buy her one because of the online classes), gaming, TV etc. We watched Avatar: the Last Airbender together. The change is we used to race each other in reading books and now we watch series in Netflix. She did a few sketches, wrote chain story, did some canvas painting, created & played crossword puzzles but mostly she was glued to the screen. She took interest in digital art. She also took up cooking, made yummy pancake for which Jico went crazy, made a delicious chocolate cake for me on Mother's Day of which I ate half, also made Daduni happy with her cake, made one for her birthday as well. She has become very witty and straight forward in her comments/opinions. I found certain changes in her as to she doesn't like to be held close much, she has short responses, not emotionally expressive, but I think this is part of her growing up. Her friendship with Nabiha and Mak became stronger, as Labiba left for Dubai, she lost connection with her. Cats took over our house due to Tomtom's overenthusiasm about them, she became so involved with TT that it was a pain. When TT became sick, she cried her heart out and I had to take her to the vet. 😑
Our Activities
I took my first online class on 18th March and this continued for the rest of the year. We had so much pressure at work that I felt suffocated at times and even thought of hibernating. The connection with present and ex students was strong. Peuly invited us at her place and cooked all her yummy dishes for us. We started attending physical office from Fall. Going to Ashulia was like a picnic for Poly and me as it gave us fresh air to breathe and a scope to roam around, soon students started to join, and we had lovely addas at Bono Maya, food at Dewan Restaurant where Shanto attended us as if we were queens. We had a great get together at Momen Sir’s place and then went for a boat ride.
I conducted couple of international programs for Daffodil, attended plenty of webinars/sessions online and ultimately became so tired of them that I would do something else after joining the session. I took part as a discussant in 2 online talk shows - Corona's Impact on the Education Sector and Women Empowerment. I continued doing yoga and saw the result shedding almost 12 kg of weight. For my appearance most of the time I faced negative comments. 😕
Colleagues
I never write a lot about Raj but two things to mention for 2020 are - his excitement at getting PS5 and his sickness. I think Raj had COVID-19 as he became really sick early September. We had to nebulize him at home first. Then he went for COVID test which came out negative but he had all the symptoms. The doctor said he had lung infection with high BP and he gradually recovered. My in-laws also had COVID but they recovered in due time.
Well the terrible 2020 came to an end and I do hope things will go back to normal or 'the new normal'. The thought that overpowered me the most in the year was human connection. I found how life offers new connection, new relationship, new bonding so that people continue having their support system to function fully and continue living to the full extent.
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