A little joy, a tinge of hope

A scene inside Sarkhej Roja, a mosque and tomb complex, some distance away from Ahmedabad

Three women finish their prayers inside the Sun Temple at Modhera village in Gujarat

Pigeons wing their way inside Sidi Saiyyad mosque on a quiet afternoon in Ahmedabad

A Jamini Roy calendar and reflections on a mirror at home

With the home becoming an office of sorts during the pandemic, this is what one of the rooms looked like at times

A Christmas night in Bandra. Hope there’s joy to the world this Christmas after so much of sadness

A man takes a quiet puff outside his home in Bandra

A coffee shop in Thane. With Covid-19 putting a stop to sit-ins, shop owners found ingenious ways to take orders

This dog perhaps figured out that the best seat is inside a coffee shop when the humans chose to sit outside

With Covid-19 cases dipping in Thane, customers headed to the shopping markets ahead of Diwali

Two women while away their time in a somewhat empty Marine Drive. Cops often asked people to go home to reduce the crowd on the streets

In a refreshing departure from the usual, a bride takes a photograph of her husband in Marine Drive

A kandil at home during Diwali was a nice way to brighten the mood

Far from the maddening worries, a family enjoys a quiet and beautiful moment at Tiger’s Point, Lonavala

Monkeys spread love—not virus—at Tiger’s Point, Lonavala

A typical scene at Land’s End, Bandra. One hopes such moments come back in 2021

A lady sets up her small tea stall early morning in Khandala with the rolling hills as her backdrop

Fisher women get on with their hectic business at Sassoon Dock, Mumbai

Couples at a rather quiet Marine Drive. Definitely different, but just as beautiful

This year’s Ganpati/Gauri visarjan was a quiet affair in Thane with Covid restrictions hampering the celebrations

Films at home provided the much-needed succour during the lockdown period

A still from a film…such films helped all of us kill boredom at home during the pandemic

A scene from the living room. With little chance to step out during the pandemic, I discovered how gorgeous our surroundings looked in the night

IPL on TV. The cricket tournament for two months helped people track scores rather than discuss the wretched virus

A street scene in Thane…life, fortunately, is stirring back to normal

Life at the Gateway of India. Maybe not the same, maybe a lot subdued, but one can always sense the signs of hope

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The year 2020 has ticked off all the boxes, but for the wrong reasons. There’s very little good—if any—to talk about, as we are all swamped by our doubts and anxieties. Covid-19 has messed up our lives like nothing else did: it has changed the way we live and work, the way we socialize and share—in short, it has altered life itself.

The year began on a promising note as we (a fellow photographer and I) travelled to Ahmedabad to shoot the city. We took everything for granted then—the bustling markets, throbbing streets, the riot of colours, history and cuisine, little realizing that everything will fall silent in a matter of weeks.

Lockdown followed soon and the intrigue of confinement began. Days seamlessly—if not meaninglessly—merged with the other, as we lost relevance of time. We stared blankly at empty walls amidst growing boredom and worry. There were no answers to any of our questions; every evening, TV anchors put a figure to the new Covid-19 cases, and discussed at great length, an incomprehensible curve which charted its own trajectory. Soon enough, even the Covid-19 numbers lost much of their meaning.

It was perhaps at this point, and out of sheer frustration, that I started shooting our home, something that I had never even looked very closely. It was a worthwhile exercise as I discovered many new things: the morning light from the window, the dark and deep shadows, the twinkling of lights in the evening, the kandil during Diwali—everything created its own visual magic. It was, in some ways, serendipity, but more importantly, also a means to keep the virus out of my thoughts.

But over the past few months, things are getting a little better, as I found out from a recent trip to Lonavala. People are stepping out, streets are humming back to life, business is picking up. People are once again doing some of the basic things, like roaming, meeting fellow folks, going for a stroll, or just enjoying a sunset.

We are not yet out of the woods, but there’s hope on the horizon. After months of uncertainty, we want to reclaim our lives, our little joys, and the desire to be with fellow humans. Isolation is a word best forgotten in time.

This photo essay is not an effort to document the hopelessness of the pandemic, but an effort to show our resilience and spirit, and our untiring effort to get back those lovely days lost to a spiky virus.