the backlog of this new year
Half of January is gone and I am terribly behind with all the promises I made to myself. Most of these are half baked and poorly articulated so it is easy to get around them if the flesh is weak. But what I have stuck to fervently, is the promise of dry January. That promise will be temporarily on hold for a few hours this evening, when I have intended to treat myself to just one drink to celebrate a billion covid-19 doses reaching 144 countries in the world, but that I feel is worth it…
So here’s the reason for the backlog:
2022 feels just the same as 2021.
2020 was special. 2021 was taxing, tiring, turbulent, terrifying. As 2021 closed, we looked around to see how many of us survived. We stopped counting our scars. Instead, we just felt grateful we still had one another despite everything. Some of us got a few vaccines shot into our arms. Some continued to remain sceptical. But all of us felt its harsh impact. 2022 feels like its 2021 on repeat or even a sequel. Do these end with a trilogy? I certainly hope so!
The WHO has said that the acute phase of the pandemic will be over by August – September of this year. That is eight long months. And this depends on how quickly we vaccinate people who have never received a single dose or those who are still waiting for their second. Another backlog… Fun fact: a few days after Mike Ryan of WHO made this statement, it was attributed to eminent epidemiologist, Bill Gates!
But I guess the biggest backlog is being able to meet family and friends in person. Not e-meet. No Zoom or WhatsApp calls. It feels awful to put it off month after month, year after year, and live in fear a thousand miles away and hope that precautionary doses keep them safe. My little niece in Australia got her first shot this morning, a friend and her two year old in Switzerland tested positive for COVID; and people in my fair motherland have taken their annual dip in the holy Ganges on Makar Sankranti.
We don’t need to just catch up but ALSO get ahead of the virus… so many people still need protection and we seem to revert to pre-covid behaviours so quickly, as if the experiences of the past have no bearing.
So here’s my modest wish list (note: not a resolution) for 2022:
- Showing my daughter that all the people and places I talk about really exist
- Telling more stories and writing them down for an audience that cares
- Doing my bit to end the pandemic
Being kind to conspiracy theorists- Stay masked,
live like a hermit - Improving my golf
- Cook better,
encourage my daughter to experiment with spicy food - Walking and hiking more – all of which were achievable pre-pandemic goals
- Catch up on all the Netflix backlog
- Reduce the reading pile on my night stand
Doing less social mediawho am I kidding?
And as for dry January – I’ll try and let that spill to February unless I get fed up sooner!
Here’s to a better 2022, fingers crossed.
The writer, and the other stuff.
Hello. I’m Gitanjali — development practitioner, sometime author, full-time mother, and very part-time golfer. I’ve spent the last two decades working across South Asia, West Africa, and bits of the world in between, mostly on polio eradication, regional integration, global health, and gender.
This site is a collection of essays I started writing during the pandemic and never quite stopped. Some are field notes. Some are rants. Some are about the strange things you notice on a video call when you’re on your thousandth one. They are written from Switzerland, where I now live with my husband and our daughter.
Writing is how I figure out what I actually think. I publish in case any of it is useful — or, at minimum, mildly entertaining — to you.
If you’d like to get in touch, you can find me through the usual channels. Otherwise, thank you for reading.
Gitanjali
The writer, and the other stuff. Hello. I'm Gitanjali — development practitioner, sometime author, full-time mother, and very part-time golfer. I've spent the last two decades working across South Asia, West Africa, and bits of the world in between, mostly on polio eradication, regional integration, global health, and gender. This site is a collection of essays I started writing during the pandemic and never quite stopped. Some are field notes. Some are rants. Some are about the strange things you notice on a video call when you're on your thousandth one. They are written from Switzerland, where I now live with my husband and our daughter.
Writing is how I figure out what I actually think. I publish in case any of it is useful — or, at minimum, mildly entertaining — to you.If you'd like to get in touch, you can find me through the usual channels. Otherwise, thank you for reading.