A Boy in Wellies
India went into a complete lockdown in March 2020 as a response to the spectre of novel coronavirus transmission and a probable public health catastrophe. In the city of Bangalore, a four-year-old, eager to be outdoors, found himself locked up with his parents in their plush 30th-storey apartment overlooking the northern part of the metropolis that went quiet and motionless.
With only a large collection of Lego toys for company, little Daiwik whiled away his time playing with them and watching cartoon shows on TV. Realising that four-year-olds are not meant to be cooped up at home, his mother packed his clothes, toys, books, and his favourite munchies and sent him to his grandparents’ cardamom and vanilla farm in the verdant countryside of Kodagu (Coorg). The least populated district in the state of Karnataka, Kodagu is in the Western Ghats, one of the eight biodiversity hotspots in the world. So off he went, away from the high-tech classrooms of his city school to take online classes from the rain-drenched courtyard of his grandparent’s home on the estate.
From high-speed Internet to slugs on the farm, YouTube entertainment to watching caterpillars metamorphose to yellow butterflies, walking in manicured gardens with paved tracks to sauntering around newly sowed paddy fields, snacking on packaged chips to relishing farm-foraged mushrooms, little Daiwik’s life, and learning underwent a remarkable transformation during the pandemic.
