Graham Reid calls it the Groundhog Day syndrome.

In the 1993 fantasy-comedy, Bill Murray wakes up every morning and realises he is reliving the same day over and over again. Reid has experienced something similar in the last several weeks.

In June, the Indian hockey players and coaches at the Sports Authority of India campus in Bengaluru went home for a break that stretched nearly two months. Reid, the Australian coach of the men’s team, and his wife Julia chose not to travel in the middle of the pandemic and stayed back.

As the number of Covid-19 cases in the rest of Bengaluru surged, the SAI facility felt like a safe zone. The campus chef also ensured they didn’t miss a meal. What they did miss, though, was human contact.

For close to 50 days, the couple was by themselves inside the centre – a sprawling, 100-acre campus; slightly uphill, in the outskirts of the city and in the middle of what resembles a forest. Occasionally, a snake or two would slither past Reid as he went on a stroll.

But their constant companions were the stray dogs inside the campus, with whom the two developed a bond. “Because there was no one, the dogs were struggling with their food. Julia loves animals… she talks to the dogs a little bit,” Reid says. “One day, I told her, ‘Julia, I don’t mind you talking to the dogs…’ but she was talking to the washing machine!” the Reids laugh.

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