Cast Away

I am not a big Hollywood buff.  But Tom Hanks is one of my favourites.  Cast Away is a Tom Hanks movie which depicts the life and struggle of a FedEx executive whose plane crashes in the Pacific, and he is washed ashore an uninhabited island.  Slowly he makes a living out of nothing in that island.  He spends four years in that island before being rescued by a passing ship.  Tom Hanks carries the entire movie on his shoulder.  One can see only the character played by him on the screen for more than an hour!  He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor for this movie.  (Tom Hanks has won Academy Award twice, but not for Cast Away).

I had a similar experience last year, of course, not as tough and testing as that of the character in Cast Away.  No, my plane didn’t cash land in an ocean.  I was forced to isolate myself for fourteen days as part of the Covid protocol.  I travelled from Tumakuru to Thiruvananthapuram during the last stage of the first wave of Covid-19.  I didn’t want to take the risk of isolating myself at home, because there were elderly people at home.  So, I decided to stay in a hotel, which was earmarked by the government for quarantine for travelers from outside Kerala. 

I drove straight to the hotel from the airport.  I was given a room on the sixth floor.  I was told that no room boy would be available, and I had to carry my baggage to the room.  I noticed small tables kept near the door of each room in the corridor.  I realised its use little later.  As I reached the room, I got a call from the Manager explaining the Covid appropriate behaviour that I was supposed to follow.  I was not allowed to come out of the room, not even to the corridor.  I could order food from the restaurant.  The boy would keep the food on the table near the door, ring the bell and leave.  I was supposed to pick it up and eat.  All food was supplied in disposable containers.  A set of crockery was available in the room, which I was supposed to clean.  No housekeeping service.  There was a broom and a mop for me to clean the room.  No laundry service either.  So, I had to wash my clothes.  The only sight of outside world was through the large window of the room!

Of course, my experience is in no way comparable to that of Tom Hank’s character in Cast Away.  I had a television, laptop, my phone and even free Wi-Fi.  I took few online classes sitting in that room and attended some webinars.  But I lived for fourteen days without seeing a human being face to face.  I definitely didn’t find it tough, instead, I got lot of time to contemplate on many things.  On one side I could imagine the lives of monks who perform ‘tapas’ in isolation; and on the other side, glimpses of lives of those prisoners who are not allowed to interact with anybody. 

‘Loneliness’ and ‘Solitude’ are two sides of the same coin!