When no faith matters enough

Serai Roxan Shah was born on August 6, in the midst of the Great Lockdown. On her father’s side, she had one set of great-grandparents, on her mother’s side another. Both sets were much beyond the legal age permitted by the lockdown rules to cross the thresholds of their respective urban flats to take a peep at the new arrival who had propelled them to a status beyond the grandparent stage.

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I long to hold my great-granddaughter. I expect her to respect all religions, even those that her Hindu, Zoroastrian and Christian grand & great-grandparents cannot boast of!

In an era where longevity has established its presence, great-grands are not difficult to find. The grands have been around for donkey’s years and they have an established role to play — spoiling the ‘brats’ being the most prominent of them all! Can the great-grands displace the grands in nature’s scheme? No. Why was the question so easily answered? Because Serai, and at least one set of greats, both require the help of other humans just to exist.

Serai’s great-grands on her father’s side are Parsi Zoroastrians. On her mother’s, Goan Catholics. Both the ‘great’ couples practise their respective religions. The baby’s grandfather on her father’s side is a Gujarati Hindu. Grandmother was a Parsi Zoroastrian. Since she died before her time in a road accident, one of the names the baby carries is hers.

Serai’s grandfather, on his mother’s side, was a Parsi Zoroastrian. The grandmother is a baptised Roman Catholic from Goa. So, Serai’s parentage is Hindu, Gujarati, a big dose of Parsi Zoroastrian. She also sports Goan Christian blood emanating from my wife and me. The days when religion and community dictated the boundaries of choice of life partners are fast losing relevance. The new citizens will find it difficult to fill census and miscellaneous government forms that want them to state their religion because they don’t have any! In some sections of Mumbai society, religion hardly matters.

Serai is not a Hindu name. It is not Zoroastrian or Christian either. The girl’s mother, who is my granddaughter, wanted to christen her first-born with an unusual name. That, too, is a new trend. Young parents search for names that no other friend of theirs could have thought of. This entails a lot of reading and research. My granddaughter told me over the phone that Serai was the way the Hebrews spelt Sarah, the name of Abraham’s wife. And my granddaughter is not a Jew!

The couple also departed from custom in assigning the second name to the child. Traditionally, in Gujarat and as among the Parsis, the father’s name follows the given name to proclaim paternity. But the couple wanted to commemorate the child’s deceased grandmother, though I am not sure if the good lady spelt ‘Roxan’ without ‘ne’ at the end of the five letters. As times change, one will have to keep a tag on the way common names are differently spelt for fear of offending sensitive individuals.

It will be a while before my wife and I can set our eyes on our first great-grandchild. The pandemic has changed many accepted rules of ordinary existence. The way we work, for instance. I have not left my daughter’s home since March-end, when we moved here to circumvent our building society’s rule preventing domestic help from frequenting the building from their own homes for fear of carrying the virus. It was a perfectly legitimate order but sure to deprive two old people of sustenance. I had never learnt to cook. My wife’s physical condition does not permit her to enter the kitchen. So we had to move. Fortunately, both our daughters live not far from where we live and both are always there for their old parents.

Before the lockdown, I attended the office of the Public Concern for Governance Trust (PCGT) five days a week. Two months later, we met on Zoom with students, discussing what PCGT could do in these days of Covid without endangering ourselves or others. Almost every third day, I listened or participated in webinars on Zoom. These webinars were set up by what we call PCGT campus ambassadors, there being one such CA in each college with which we interact.

Our experience of webinars has been more than pleasing. It gives the students who organise it confidence and self-satisfaction. To the college’s participants, knowledge and a chance to state their views. I think it is a format we could use after the pandemic is behind us. For the trustees, too, it has provided a path to remain active and useful. It is good for the old to know that the little time they have on the face of this earth is not wasted waiting for the lockdown to end.

Since restaurants are closed and ‘fine dining’ is not available, eating at home has become the norm. Health in general terms has improved, despite the fear of the virus lurking in the air outside! Doctors do not make home visits if they can avoid it. A new system of tele-medicine has sprung up. This may not continue after the lockdown because patients are more comfortable with a physical examination that gives hope to anxious minds.

I do hope and pray that private cars maintain their present noticeable absence from the roads in compliance with lockdown rules. The absence of cars in huge numbers has helped to reduce pollution. Mumbaikers were favoured for this period with clear skies and breathable air till the rains came. Coughs and common colds reduced, coinciding with the reluctance of doctors to examine their patients physically. These were some of the blessings of the lockdown!

Will these blessings last? I doubt it. Besides, I have that great need to set my eyes on baby Serai and hold her in my arms. She may not follow any one organised religion, but I expect her to respect all, even those that her Hindu, Zoroastrian and Christian grand and great-grandparents cannot boast of!