‘No man is an island’, they had taught us. Welcome to 2020 and do we have news for you! We are living the island life… only, it’s being called ‘social isolation’ these days! Surely not the island life where the shade is palm and the mango's ripe! The internet is flush with images of animals queuing up, looking through glass panes at self-quarantined homosapiens. I unknowingly escaped Bombay city a few days prior to lockdown; nevermind the indefinite postponement of a show, Table Manners, I was co-curating! Fortunately I live and work in Auroville, an international community in the tropical forests of south India. It’s been over two months and we haven’t had a single Covid case reported here. But the lockdown was national so we all had to stay put, at home. I converted my dining room into my work space; repainted over an old canvas with clay powders, sand & acrylics I had lying around, resulting in “A SLIGHT SHIFT”.... reflecting our times, our masks, our politicos, our state! Clay soon beckoned; I made a dash to my studio and brought home clay, slip and moulds, and so arrived the ‘La Corona Familia’ also featuring a work titled ‘Corona Pyar Hai’, paying homage to the iconic Bollywood movie of the 80’s. Between cooking, cleaning, swiping, zooming, I also managed to frame prints of works I had earlier clicked in Bombay. Is this going to become our new normal? Naah! We are social creatures, we need our interaction, our beers, and our soda-firings. ‘La Corona Familia’ is soon approaching cone 10!