Batman reads a pamphlet titled “Symptoms of COVID-19”. Superman is flying up ahead. And the Hulk, who’s sitting a little further away, finds himself caught unawares when someone sneezes near him, forgetting to cover their nose and mouth.
The above scene is not an imaginary one. Well, not technically, at least. A Chennai-based family created this set with Lego, photographed it, and uploaded it on Instagram a week ago. The message: “Even Superheroes can get affected. So - let's protect them by staying home!”
Zippora Madhukar, a photographer, has been spending her evenings in lockdown with her husband and two sons – 10-year-old Matthias, and five-year-old Lucas – using Matthias’s Lego collection to recreate stories around COVID-19.
“It wasn’t meant to be for awareness. It was just for us to spend some time together, to keep the kids busy,” Zippora tells TNM. Indeed, the first two posts were simply photos of Lego superheroes getting some outside time. The third set was about superheroes also being vulnerable to COVID-19.
And since then, Zippora puts up an Instagram post every day featuring the day’s Lego creation. “As I started putting these up, people started commenting words of encouragement, that this was a great way to spread awareness, and that they looked forward to these posts,” Zippora says.
This has also been a good way for the parents to speak with Matthias and Lucas about the pandemic. “We don’t generally let them watch the news unsupervised. My husband and I will generally do that, and then see what we want to speak to the kids about. We try to keep it positive, but we also have to talk to them about the more difficult aspects of the pandemic. Recreating these issues with Lego has been helpful because it’s a safe space for the kids. For example, they have become more careful about washing hands and covering their mouth and nose while coughing or sneezing, without us having to enforce it. It’s like we are speaking to them in their language,” Zippora explains.
Indeed, some of the scenes the family has recreated with Lego have been quite poignant. This one below depicts the thousands of migrant workers who have been forced to walk home as they have nowhere else to go.
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And this one features a doctor, who is unable to be with her child at home because she has to maintain social distance at home too. The inspiration, Zippora says in the caption was an article they read on ‘Lockdown Heroes’. “On doctors and how the fear of infection is very real and still they go to work, come home, stay separated from their family and children (so that they don't pass the infection) and have recently been ostracised by society - at least here in India, because of what they do as a profession,” the caption reads.
In an emotional moment, a woman doctor reached out to Zippora to say that she too, hadn’t seen her child in a few weeks, and so, the post was quite moving for her.
“It’s also been revelatory to see how the kids think, and the ideas they come up with – some things I could never have thought of. They have a much more vivid imagination. Sometimes, I’ve had to shoot down their ideas because I am not there yet with my toy photography skills to capture it. They’ve been quite disappointed about that,” Zippora laughs. “But it has taught us to listen to the kids more, give them more credibility. And also work together better as a team.”
For instance, it was Lucas’s idea to add a pot of custard in front of the TV for the mama doc who can’t be with her child at home. And it was Matthias who said to add a fan – something Zippora says she would never have thought of.
One idea that stands out depicts Batman, sitting in his apartment, controlling a drone that is delivering grocery items to people in need. “Please note the video screen in front of Batman – apparently this is how a drone works... I have no idea, but my 10-year-old seems to know,” Zippora writes in the caption.
Their most challenging project, Zippora says, was one where they depicted Indian railway coaches that could be used to isolate COVID-19 patients. “It took us two hours to set it up. The Lego people we wanted to seat in the train would keep falling over. So ultimately, we ended up using flour dough to keep them stuck to their seats,” Zippora shares with a chortle.
Their latest post features a recreation of Chennai policemen wearing the novel coronavirus-shaped helmets to raise awareness about the disease. “Today's is a simple post admiring heroes of another kind,” the caption says.
Zippora says that the family plans to continue their evening ritual of creating Lego scenes and photographing them during the lockdown, and may consider continuing the series, but with less frequency once things start going back to normal as well.
“I would encourage other parents to also get their children involved at this time. You will be surprised by their ideas, the things they say and do. Make sure they are okay, and dealing with the pandemic well,” she signs off.