Zoom Call With School Friends

 This evening, I spent more than two hours on a Zoom call with my school friends. I was going through my old posts and I came across in early April last year which was also about a Zoom call with school friends. It feels like we have come full circle over the past 12 months. As the world was locking down last spring, old networks sprang to life through Zoom. I am in touch with my school friends via our Whatsapp group, but that was our first Zoom call. As I wrote that evening, the call had the warmth and familiarity of a hot bath in the height of winter. Over the next few months we had more Zoom calls, but at least according to me, we never managed to replicate the magic of that first call. As lockdowns started to lift in the summer, the Zoom calls stopped. Now, that India is back under lockdown, we decided to have a Zoom call today because those of us in the diaspora also feel like we are under a lockdown of sorts. And, this Zoom call felt like a long hot and soothing bath too. Crises push you to connect with those who matter and let the others fall by the wayside.