Author Archives: khzrt

Have you noticed how email etiquette has changed over the past month? Before the world was taken by surprise by a virus, we would start our emails with “hope you are well” and conclude them with “best regards.” Relegated to mere pleasantries, these phrases added a level of decorum to the casual work communique. AndContinue reading “Day 10”

It’s an amazing sight. Aida and I walk along the sidewalk of Ocean Front Walk in Santa Monica, with the Pacific Ocean as if in grabbing distance on our left side, and I cannot help but notice how we end up dancing with each person who ventures into our vicinity. You see, we walk lostContinue reading “Day 9”

They say laughter is the best medicine. They say facing the sun washes away all fear. They also say that love is the answer, that forgiveness heals, and that wondering is what keeps us awake – in spirit as in mind. All of this, undeniably, is true. Yet there is one unsung activity – deservingContinue reading “Day 8”

“Can they do that?” the examiner asks me out of nowhere as I pour over my paper, pen in hand, trying to figure out the problem he had assigned some moments ago. “I’m sorry?” “There, look,” he instructs as if still in examiner mode, throwing his phone on top of my math, right in frontContinue reading “Day 7”

Having spent the entire day at home, shifting the mass of my body from one corner of one room to the other corner of the same room, rearranging the arrangement of my bones as I sat on the sofa, first sideway leaning on my left hip, and then sideways leaning on my right hip, andContinue reading “Day 6”

What does someone’s reaction to the current situation say about that person? If I see someone visiting the supermarket in gloves and a mask… is that person overreacting?  Is he being smart?  Is she being cautious… maybe she has symptoms and does not want to infect us?  If someone walks too close to me, reaching across the aisleContinue reading “Day 5”

“Don’t arch your backs, keep them straight,” I hear Aida instruct from the living room. “More than halfway there, just ten seconds.” She’s in front of her laptop, propped up against the sofa pillows, leading an online home workout session. She keeps time with her phone and is recording the session with mine. She’s inContinue reading “Day 4”

Seriously, how much can one look outside the window?  It’s always the same view, yet you look out each time as if what you will see this time will be different than the last.  But it’s the same. I still look out.  I see the same long, beige-ish white wall of the Hampton Inn across from my balcony,Continue reading “Day 3”

It’s not going to go away soon. At least, not as soon as we think it is.  Here they are, politicians and governments sneezing out dates like prophets – dates when the lockdowns are going to end.  We latch on to those dates midair, confusing them with the D-Day that the virus is going to pass.  April 12. AprilContinue reading “Day 2”

Circling the Americana in Glendale, I witness a sight unworthy for a Tuesday spring afternoon.  The bookstore Barnes & Noble is closed, with bundles of the day’s newspapers thrown in front of its locked doors, neglected – as if deliberately ignored for the omens they bear.  “Two New Deaths” my glance picks up, words flashingContinue reading “Day 1”