QUARANTINE

"Living That Quarantine Life"

The word “quarantine” got its fame in this current year (2020) eventually gripping over the people’s vocabulary as a common language, and now we are using it just like an adjective for every word. Even in some cases, it's been used inappropriately (but nobody cares, including me). To be properly specified, it is defined as a state or place of isolation where the person arriving from another place carrying the infectious disease is kept. This word gained popularity due to the situation of a worldwide pandemic caused due to Corona Virus (COVID 19) in which people across the world were compelled to stay at home. The virus is undoubtedly communicable & infectious thus it's spreading rapidly among the people and the only cure suggested by the doctors is to stay at home and staying clean. I will write a blog on COVID 19 later on, but the moot point is that the people who are detected as positive are kept in quarantine. In this way, the word got oddly recognized. This was a brief history of the word in our present dictionary.

I was also not much aware of the word, but when I got to know I thought to use it in a contrasting way. After the declaration of nationwide lockdown, I find out a way to create a series on my family, by capturing the uncommon moments of everyday life and giving it a surreal storyline. It not only helped to gain more time with family but eventually challenged me to take pictures while being confined to one place. Being a street photographer and photojournalist (actually not, just telling to create a weightage in words). I like to find stories outside the home but it was at variance for me. I was rather confused about what to click as all the activities were very common and obvious to form a picture.

Having no option left I tried to mimic the usual. I captured the everyday behavior and actions and tried to make it as an individual gag. Though the pictures are not in the form of photostory it tells an entire tale of a family when confined in one place. It's similar to the book “Manojder Adbhut Bari” penned down by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, an eminent author of Bengali Literature. In the book, the story revolves around the family of a little boy named Manoj, where each member of the family carries unique traits, later on, this book was made into a movie. It was an inspiration for me and I attempted to compose such a concept...

Caged.

Work From Home (WFH).

Unpaired.

Firefly.

Shades.

Unknown Entity.

Faceless.

Expectation Hurts.

This was a reflection of my ongoing quarantine days. At initials days it was difficult for me to stay cramped at one place and not stinging around, (I hope it was similar for many others also). So rather than complaining, I tried to utilize this golden opportunity to mull over and confront myself, and the ultimate result was somewhat satisfying to me, as I feel I could have done better. Truly speaking this lockdown helped me a lot to brush up myself and spending quality time with family which I think will not be possible to this extent after this pandemic is over. Finally, I would say tying up at one place also provide good results…