The coronavirus ate my routine and I want it back!

This is how it starts these days:

Damini: Okay, today I have Mitti cafe (all zest for life)
Me: No baby (embellished with much regret), Mitti cafe is closed.
Damini: NOOOOO!
Me: There is a big fever going around (I really don’t know how to explain virus to her).
Damini: No fever!
Me: No baby.... you can get it if you go to work, so it’s all closed.
Damini: Okay.... guitar class.
Me: (sigh!) No baby, no guitar class either..
Damini: There is guitar class (emphatically bordering on vehement)
Me: (here we go again...) No Min, there is a fever and everyone will fall sick. So guitar class is cancelled (still haven’t come up with a way of explaining a virus to her).
Damini (really upset): NOOOOOO!


After a few minutes of upset...

Damini: Okay tomorrow there is work.
Me (already tired and taking the easy way out): We’ll see...

After breakfast (turning out to be one of the few moments of amicable co-existence):

Peddling an alternate routine. It’s grandly called "working from home".

Me: Okay Damini, you got to do some work now.
Damini: NOOOOO!
Me (with gusto bordering on overdone): Of course you have to. It will be fun and everyone is working from home. Papa, me...
Damini: I’m not doing work.
Boss (me): Stop saying NO. You have to do work. Let’s start with stitching and then you bring your math book. Then we’ll do a puzzle and then a sketch.
Damini: No stitching, no math, no puzzle... I am cycling.
Me: It’s too hot to cycle! Now just get your stitching...(the patient and genial facade slipping).
Damini: NO!
Me (pulling out the guilt card): Now I am getting upset. Say NO one more time and I’m not talking to you.
Damini: NOOOOO!
Me (piling it on): See! NO again! That’s it!

And a dramatic exit.
Ten minutes later, Damini slinks in with the stitching and the math book.

Damini: Shall I stop saying no?
Me (making a big production out of conceding): Okay, but you really have to stop saying NO.
Damini: Are you smiling? Are you happy?
Me: YESSSS!

Exchanges through the day...

Me: Have you finished the puzzle yet?
Damini: I finished it.
Me: Where is it, show it to me...
Damini: I put it away.
Me (certain that she never finished it): You were supposed to show it to me..
Damini (after a pause): Amma...what’s for lunch?

Me: It’s too hot to cycle.
Damini: I want to cycle (vehemently)
Me: You’ll get sick
Damini: No sick!
Me: Yes sick! (I cant help it anymore)


Damini: I think we will order today (sometimes as a treat we order-in from the restaurant next door)
Me: No can do babe...the restaurant is closed.
Damini: Nooooo! It’s open (no small amount of frustration)
Me: Remember I told you about the fever. The restaurant is closed so one one gets the fever
(still haven’t found a way of explaining ‘virus’)
Damini: ... (you guessed it!)


Me: Make a nice painting for me (laying out a choice of mediums)

Two minutes later, Damini comes into my room painting in hand.

Damini: I did it!
Me (all encouragement): Wow! Show me!

She dramatically holds up a line figure made with a sketch pen..

Damini: “ALIA BHATT with computer and phone and moustache" (haven’t figured this one out yet)

That just happened to be the hundred and fifty-sixth rendition of Alia Bhatt with a moustache.

Now this is the most upsetting and frustrating of them all..

Me: Damini no hugging.
Damini (visibly upset): I want to hug.
Me: No baby, you can’t go around hugging people for a while. There is a fever going around, you could get it.
Damini: NO FEVER! I want to hug (completely frustrated)
Me: No hugging and kissing and shaking hands for some days Damini, until the fever goes away (equally frustrated)
Damini (pulling out her ultimate threat when things get too much for her): SLEEPOVER... I’m going

And here we go again....(sigh!)

Me: No sleep over baby, no going anywhere until the fever goes away.
Damini: Nooooo! No fever!

And on and on and on...

The grand new routine "working from home" is barely popular. Me as the ‘Boss’ is even less so. She is no closer to grasping the idea of a fever, that she does not have, ripping through the world, stalling her life.

And I am no closer to finding a way to explain  to her the concept of a "virus" that is taking over the "world" making everyone sick with fever.

To a person like Damini, whose learning depends on concrete experience, an invisible thing that can enter your body in incomprehensible and "The World" is just a jigsaw puzzle she hates doing.

Meanwhile at night...

Damini: Okay... tomorrow I have office (full of hope)
Me: NOOOOOO!