Oh, a demon is coming
One day, at our office one of my colleague who was glued to his mobile screen suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, a deadly virus is coming from our neighboring country!” I didn’t pay much attention to his words; because, firstly, most of the time he watches some unreliable YouTube channels which you can’t trust and, secondly, these days such hoaxes are too common. But, few days later, everyone slowly started to gossip about that virus only citing how deadly it was.
One day someone told— if someone is infected with this virus, he would just trudge for a few moments and fall dead right in that spot! In plain words, it was not a virus, rather it was the death personified. So, we all were panicked; who wouldn’t? Our only solace was that it was still far away from our cosy little habitat. But, in this day and age, when we are overfed with news and information, how can you keep yourself away from the fear of even an unseen demon? Slowly through our television and mobile screens, the virus had intruded into our minds, before it could actually come close to us. However, when it actually had out broken near our habitat, it encroached all aspects of our lives. In next few months we have seen that the direct and indirect impacts of Corona have made our world upside down.
The first strike: lock-down, boredom, creativity and the forced realization
As Novel Corona virus or COVID-19 as we know it now, was rapidly spreading all over the world, at first we could not just figure it out what to do. We were yet to experience it first hand, but, the fear of the virus had already crept into us. We were told that it is fatal, has no vaccine, and human body is the main carrier of it. In this day and age when we proudly talk about advancement of Science and Technology, when an organization like WHO declares such facts, what a common man like me would do? We just lose hope and get extremely fearful. Fearful of the fact that death is now lurking nearby.
Lockdown
One day, someone said to me in a hushed voice, — buy and store grocery items or rations as much as you can, otherwise you are going to suffer. Why? Because, government may declare a lockdown to break the virus chain. At first, I thought these were mere speculations of too smart people. In our place, no case of COVID-19 was detected till that day and we were hale and hearty as a community. So, I thought– that speculation is too early to be true, at least for our place. But, we all knew– situation was really gloomy in various countries and corners of the world.
As all other countries had to impose lockdown in their respective jurisdictions, our hugely populous country too could not find another solution to stop the carnage of the deadly virus. So, lockdown was eventually imposed in the month of March, 2020. Something unprecedented happened for most of us. Till that moment, we, the unaffected ones were only the spectators, but from then onwards, we also directly felt the heat of the coming dangers. Now, our government handed us a great responsibility— responsibility of locking yourself inside your house! Apparently it was so simple, but, now, we realize–that was not the case. This situation has really shaken us inside out— individually, and collectively in many ways.
Fear
Anticipating something unpleasant to happen is sometimes more disturbing than actually experiencing the same; at least in psychological point of view. In my place for many of us that exactly happened in the first few days of lockdown. Lockdown provided us one thing ( if we call it a thing) abundantly; which we always complain for not having enough in our so-called busy lives. Yes, it was time.
Apparently being workless, all we had was just free time. Not knowing what to do with this, we just started worrying about anything. Sitting in our couches, watching how many people had been affected, and what was the latest death toll in television or mobile, we started to lose peace of our minds. A constant anxiety, and an unknown fear had infected us before the virus could do so. When we got the news of first Corona positive person in our city, it was like breaking the nest of a bird. Facebook, whatsapp groups were flooded with alarming messages; we were literally fear struck of the fact that inevitable death was now in our doorsteps. However, things were not that gloomy or dark for all. There was a bright side of this situation too.
Creativity
Although the virus was spreading at an alarming rate, most of us were still quite isolated from its effect. In that situation, when we were forced to stay indoor, the first thing came to our minds was— how would we spend our ample free times now? Would boredom or unrelenting anxiety shake us to our cores? Fortunately, we found a way out. Perhaps this is the most fascinating aspects of human race that we never allow ourselves to get defeated in any situation. So, how we coped with this situation?
Some of us reignited our childhood hobbies; others tried to revive their forgotten passions or talents; and some others just did their household chores making it an act of fun and merry. But, one kind of people really rejoiced this challenging time. For them it was the most productive period. Who are they? They are the people who are intrinsically creative. As the hustle and bustle of life subsided, it was the perfect opportunity for their creativity. For a creative person solitude is nothing but a bliss. A popular artist of India commented on a Instagram post that how he had become more productive on those days. So, in lockdown everyone realized that any kind of creative activity can be an antidote of boredom, and anxiety. However, this was not the only realization dawned on us during the lockdown; there were many to come.
The forced realization
Sometimes I feel— the modern man enslaves himself in his own prison. He is chained by his own insatiable expectations. A kind of dogmatic pragmatism in pursuit of materialistic well being and an inexplicable restlessness arising out of that are constant companions of a modern man. He will keep running not knowing where he is heading. So, when an unprecedented situation created by the lockdown forced us to reboot our lives, at least for a moment, we had a kind of realization. A realization which made us rethink about our priorities of our lives.
Now we knew what we had missed all these days— few cosy family-moments, pursuing your hobbies, reviving your rusty talents; above all a life which you always wanted to live. Most importantly, it gave us the much needed stoppage in our game of life, so that we could reconnect all the things which were fallen apart— a reassessment on the relationship between our true longings and our current actions.
A new normal:
Apparently, Corona virus has become a household word these days. No days of ours have been passed without uttering this word for last few months. We were told that there is no vaccine or medical solution for this virus, and human body is the main carrier of it. So, only safeguards against the virus are social distancing, hygiene, and boosting one’s immune system. Like school kids, we have been constantly reminded to wash and sanitize our hands frequently. Not getting the required solution in modern medicine, people from various corners poured their knowledge of immunity boosting methods in social media. These are actually nothing but our grandmothers’ age old, but generally ignored traditional home remedies. Anyways, thanks to Corona, we tried to recall those forgotten knowledge. In terms of social distancing, people found out that Indian greetings custom like folding your hands in ‘Namaste’ is more suitable in this situation.
Lockdown, and social distancing led to a new makeover of everything relating to human society. All kinds of businesses have been severely hit. The most affected one is travel and hospitality sector. Entertainment industry, particularly cinema is now run completely on digital platforms. Small scale businesses have been struggling to survive this disaster. However, only those who can adapt quickly have a chance to sail through this hard time.
As this pandemic and its aftermath are not easily going away, everyone now anticipates that we have to readjust our lifestyles accoringly. What changes this pandemic has brought in every aspects of our lives, are probably going to be new mantras of living for coming days. It looks like everyone has now accepted that.
Extraordinary stories of ordinary people
They say— a man’s true character reveals in adverse conditions only. Ever since the lockdown was imposed, we have been getting few startling news of people who tried to defy their humanly limitations for the sake of loved ones or for own survival. These are so called ordinary people, but their indomitable spirits are something extraordinary.
After first few days of the lockdown, we read a news of a lady from Southern India who rode a scooter over 1500 km to get back her school going kid from his school crossing probably two or more different states of India. The most fascinating story we got was of one migrant worker, Jadav Gogoi of Assam, India. He literally walked the whole country from the Western most state of Gujarat to the Eastern most state of Assam. He crossed nearly twenty eight hundred kilometers on his foot in twenty eight days to reach his home in Assam. Barely having any food, walking uncertainly through unknown places alone, crossing many state borders during lockdown, he did something unbelievable, which perhaps he himself even could not think of. Perhaps, the uncertainty accompanied to this disastrous situation forced people like him to do such incredible feat. One thing we must say here— only an adverse situation can bring out such human potential, which otherwise would remain hidden in a normal conditions.
Conspiracy theories
The threat related to Corona virus is all but a story of a fantasy film; there is nothing grave as propagated by various governments and media. It is in fact a conspiracy of few unscrupulous persons of the world to fulfill their vested interest.
Amidst the fear of the pandemic, we find such kind of views too. Although it gave us an entertaining, thrilling story or point of view to ponder over; no ways it could lessen our fear.
What we have learned from the crises caused by COVID-19
The world is still fighting against COVID-19. The medical fraternity has been struggling day and night to keep the damage to a minimum. People, all over the world have been suffering directly or indirectly. People are forced to keep aside their aspirations or dream for a while, as the world has gone to a survival mode. No one knows when will the normalcy return. However, on a positive note, this short period of crisis has taught us many invaluable life lessons, individually and collectively as well. I would like to conclude my rambling citing few of those:
- We now realize, the world is not human centric. We generally tend to believe that every other creature is here for our service only. But, if this virus which is a fatal threat for human, but, not for other creatures even wipes out the human race, no harm would be caused for others.
- Human is solely responsible for degradation of nature. We already knew it, but, lockdown proved it again. As the human society came to a standstill during lockdown, nature has at last got an opportunity to heal herself.
- The world is divided in the name of race, politics, creed and what not, but human suffering is same everywhere.
- Although, science and technology has reached a great height, we are still very limited in terms of knowledge of this universe in every aspects and a long way to go.
- Most of the time, we used to forget our actual priorities of life. Until and unless we get a jolt from the outside, we would just be like that for eternity.
- Economically weaker section of the society is affected more by the lockdown than the disease itself.
- Although short lived, we have seen— a sense of kindness for fellow human beings was ignited among people by the first wave of pandemic. If only it continues, then the world would be wonderful place to live.
No doubt, what the world is going through in this time of pandemic is unbearable, but, we know from our history that man would definitely find a way out from this. Invention of a proper vaccine for the virus is perhaps round the corner. Sooner or later, we will definitely have the solutions for its allied problems too. However, I believe— we can even utilize this situation to elevate ourselves to one rung higher than earlier; because, human society always evolves whenever it goes through difficult moments.
From jee-von.com