The word ‘lockdown’ seems to imply you’re somewhere within your familiar horizons, except with shutters down. Most likely, it’s your home. Hence, the phrase ‘Stay at Home’...and all the irritation associated with that idea among the privileged and hoity-toity.
But what about those stuck far away from home? No, not those lakhs of poor Indians who were caught on the wrong foot. But famous people, celebrities, global Indians. Yes, that also happened.
For, ‘lockdown’ was also a magic curse, a bit like saying ‘Statue!’ in that childhood game. You had to freeze into immobility WHEREVER you were. Here’s a list of celebs—stars, planets and a few comets—who were stuck in space, an odd place away from home, when the firman came:
Viswanathan Anand, Grandmaster
Bad Soden, Germany
An eerie sense of déjà vu here. “It’s ten years!! And we are still stuck with no flights taking off from the exact same place!!” the champion tweeted on April 18.
Embedded there was another tweet, by an anonymous chess handle, saying: “Exactly 10 years ago, on 18.04.2010, we started a crazy road trip to Sofia” and tagged Vishy, among others.
Soon, Vishy’s fans were digging out the portion from his book Mind Master where he recounted this road trip from the small town of Bad Soden to Sofia, Bulgaria, on a taxi that came from Amstelveen, Netherlands. That time, there was a “volcanic eruption in Iceland” and “the resultant ash cloud caused travel chaos all over Europe”. They somehow made to the world championship that was waiting at the end of it.
In 2020, it’s something much smaller than a volcano—but starting with a ‘v’—that forced the grandmaster to castle. He was in Germany to play the Chess Bundesliga when Frankfurt airport zipped up the skies. Stalemate.
Sonu Nigam, Singer
Dubai
Not quite the Nevadan deserts of Yeh Dil, Deewana… with the blinking lights of Las Vegas awaiting SRK in Pardes. But Dubai isn’t too bad an approximation—and this frequent stomping grounds for Bollywood stars crops up quite frequently in our list. “I would have put my family in danger if I returned from Dubai,” he told media. Fair enough.
Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner
US
The next big election, Bihar, is a comfortable few months away. So Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had found time and space to be away. We don’t grudge him that. But come COVID-19, and he finds himself stuck in the US. Maybe he could help oversee the American elections—or ask why they don’t use EVMs!
Prithviraj, superstar
Jordan
The handsome Malayalam actor, sometimes called ‘English Mon’ for his swish, anglicized ways, is neither in his native Malabar nor in the Midlands, but midway—yes, in the Middle East. In Jordan, of all places. Stuck out in the desert. Why? Because he is shooting for a film based on the famous Benyamin novel Goat Days. Which is about…er…being stuck out in a desert. Sort of. Indeed, the whole film crew is stuck there, including director Blessy. (The whole thing sounds like it has the seeds of another film!)
Raveendran, Actor
Dubai
His serious cinema leanings now (and his portly frame, as seen in the stoner film Idukki Gold) belie the fact that the man was almost spoken of in the same breath as Kamal and Rajni in Tamil cinema back in the ’80s—as ‘Disco Raveendran’, the Mithun of the South. But it’s an apartment in Dubai, not a sacred grove in Idukki, that he contemplates now. What’s worse, his daughter, who had come down from Scotland, actually tested positive for COVID-19 and so he had to spend time in quarantine!
Mouni Roy, Actress
Dubai
TV and film actress Mouni Roy was last seen in Made in China—yes, shooting was on location last year, but wrapped up in summer, well before Wuhan! But now she’s stuck in Dubai too, spending time gardening and painting at her sister’s place, and fussing over not being able to see her mom who’s had a fall in the bathroom.
Sana Saeed, TV personality
US
The child actress of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, now a familiar face on TV, Sana had to go through quite a tragic phase as COVID-19 spread across the globe. She was in LA for an event on the day of the Janata Curfew, when her father passed away in India. She even had to miss the funeral—attending it only via video. “I have made peace with the situation,” she later said. We wish her all the best.
Soundarya Sharma, Actress
US
The NSD-trained actress who won a best female debutant award for Ranchi Diaries happened to half a planet away, in Los Angeles, when the planet stopped spinning. She was attending an acting course at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, and initially hoped for an evacuation.
Manyata Dutt, Sanjay’s wife
Dubai
Sanjay Dutt is distraught. His wife Manyata and two children are among those stuck. The man says the enforced separation reminds him of his prison term all over again.\
Sjoerd Marijne, chief coach, Indian women’s hockey
Bangalore
Now here’s a Dutchman who can’t fly—but he’s not complaining. The girls he coached had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, but that’s now delayed by a year. The bootcamp at Bangalore, meanwhile, continues to chak de—with a part-humanitarian focus. Marijne was already ensuring they never strayed from their fitness goals. And now the team members have started an 18-day Fitness Challenge—doing “burpees, lunges, squats, spiderman pushups, pogo hops” on video—to raise funds for poor migrant families stranded in the lockdown.
Rich sports people doing charity? Nope, many of them are from tough backgrounds, and know poverty directly. Captain Rani Rampal’s father was a dailywager who pushed carts in Haryana. Coach Marijne, as we said, isn’t complaining and will gladly take all that steely motivation.
