Paddy aka Padmanabhan took out the tickets and passport from his vintage black pouch and checked them for the nth time, Renuka looked at him and sniggered. She had seen him do this for over 40 years and she also knew what would come next- checking for the yellow ribbons tied on all pieces of luggage as a mark of identification. They were getting ready to leave to Charlotte in North Carolina to spend time with their son, Ashwin. This was part of their routine visit to spend a few months with their NRI son. They had been doing this ever since Padmanabhan and Renuka retired from their work. They usually travelled in January and returned in July. The plan for this year was just the same. Little did they know that there was an alternate plan being made for the entire world.
Paddy and Renuka had an extended stay at Charlotte and were unable to return due to the lockdown. While their grandkids were happy about the unlimited time they would get with their story teller thatha and the all efficient paati, Paddy’s mind was clouded with mounting number of things that needed attention back home- milk delivery and newspaper that would resume automatically after 6 months, cleaning of the house, payment of government taxes and so on.
