Romance In The Time Of Zoom Calls And GDP

Wife tries kissing husband busy discussing GDP on zoom call, video goes viral: A recent viral video of a wife trying to kiss her husband, right in the middle of his zoom call is the reality of many married couples during the pandemic. When you are living with your family 24 by seven, juggling online classes for children, cooking three meals a day, and domestic and work-related chores, where is the time for romance? With everyone always at home, where do you go to sneak in a kiss?

In the

When your GDP gets a stimulus package at the wrong time pic.twitter.com/cokai2r5Fp

— Sagar (@sagarcasm) February 10, 2021 viral video, we can see an unsuspecting wife (assuming) try to plant a kiss on her husband (no clue what she was aiming for) only to be rebuffed, naturally, as the recipient was in a neck-deep discussion on economy and GDP. While the man remains calm, you can sense the horror in his demeanour, and lord knows how he went on to continue speaking about economics, knowing that all those attending the zoom call may have witnessed his wife's actions.

When your GDP gets a stimulus package at the wrong time pic.twitter.com/cokai2r5Fp

— Sagar (@sagarcasm) February 10, 2021

To me, this sneak attack is just cute, and if anything, kudos to the missus for wanting to kiss the husband of many years (presumably). Most people just nurse the desire to grab their partner by the collar and shake them vigorously and madly scream "what the hell was I thinking?" some years down that road, pandemic or not. If anything, people watching the call should aspire to be as loving as this zoom wife. What even is love, if it doesn't drive you to kiss your partner spontaneously?

However, the couple's ordeal is a living example of how most couples have neither space nor time to get cosy in any way, even when they have the desire to do so. You have to find moments like picking up empty teacups from the work desk, or delivering a plate of snacks or passing on a fresh change of clothes to squeeze in half a hug or a smile, to keep your dreary love life from flatlining. Who has the time for kisses and cuddles? Where is the space for dinner dates and movie nights over wine and pasta? How do you not hold hands before checking the whereabouts of all those present under the same roof?

This pandemic has robbed us of many things, and one of them is an odd chance at awkward love that married Indian couples are well versed in. Desi married couples are not the dinner and date type anyway. For them, romance is in little things, and not big gestures. It is hidden in plain sight, in the form of sneak glances and kisses and unmade proclamations of love and affection. COVID-19 stole from them even that marginal space that they had reserved for themselves. To ensure that love found a way to exist, what can couples do, except hoping that the new normal will go away quickly? And that desi husbands and wives do not have to sneak in affection in a relationship that is visible to all. 

We hope the missus got a kiss and a chuckle in return of her loving gesture, and not a scold that would discourage her from expressing love in future.

The views expressed are the author's own.