- Being in lockdown is not all bad
COVID-19 started as an influenza infection in the wet market of Wuhan, China and turned into be a pandemic which is gradually changing over into one of the biggest humanitarian crises. It has changed the world in so many ways. Life has halted. Schools are empty. Offices are closed. The Internet is breaking. Markets are shut. Malls are deserted. Business is kicking the bucket. Weddings are postponed. Honeymoons are cancelled. Hospitals are full. People are dying. Clothing brands are making hospital suits. The social media are full of memes. News channels are asking viewers to share their videos because they are running out of the news. Old opportunities are ending but the new ones are in the making. Furthermore, the human being steps back while nature is free after centuries.
We all are aware that our best contribution can only be to sit home and do nothing. It is undeniably a house-arrest situation for everyone: a challenge for working-class people, especially for the daily wagers, already bad news for those who are living in abusive relationships, and the families of health care workers are at stake by now. But this is the only way to end the tempest. Besides, this ballgame is also resulting in a change in lifestyle from “taking your own responsibility” to “it’s the administration’s obligation”. Well played Corona! You have subverted the realities so quickly. The world has become a drama, wher, we the actors have become spectators and the spectators are going to act (since it is our governments’ job to facilitate the masses). Also, you made Boris Johnson locate the money-tree Theresa May talked about.
It’s a panicking situation for all but it has a brighter side: Lockdown has become a phase in our lives when we can remain at home, invest energy with family, follow an old hobby or make a new one, and learn new things. We do not have to go out and follow the day-by-day schedule we generally bunk about. It is the well- needed break of our lifetimes that we always longed for but never imagined being able to procure. Oh! Quarantine, what have you done to us? You carried us to an imaginary world, we are not prepared for. You request us to remain at home, while we are edgy to go out. You need us not to socialize: that we never cherished, yet we are desperate for it. You are allowing us to pull back and we want to push ahead, as we are an addict for the hustle-bustle, not for tranquillity.
This summer, we should randomly admire the uncountable blessings of God. We should express the deepest gratitude toward Him for keeping us and our beloved ones protected from infection, for providing us bread and shelter, to choose us to help others, for giving us the power to make opinions, for giving us a chance to build a better society, to allow us an opportunity to advocate peace at another level
The other side of the coin is lit. The sky is becoming blue again and the air quality is increasing. A significant drop in NO2, an industrial pollutant, around the world has been noticed as chimineas are not puking fumes now. CO2 emission is estimated reduced by 35-50 percent due to lesser traffic on roads. This can further lead to a noticeable drop in CO2 in the coming weeks. These figures are solely based on the nature of lockdown in a certain area. No doubt, depending on how the pandemic ends, these figures may also follow Newton’s third law of motion. Moreover, the water is becoming clear due to less human activity. Swans are (famously) returning to the Venice water channel. I hope, we may see improvement in the declining coral reefs of oceans. The coronavirus is doing what Greta Thunberg has been aiming at for two years now (or maybe trying to aim at). It can be assumed that quarantine is more suited to nature than human beings. Nature is enjoying its very freedom while man is caged inside. Not only human beings, this virus has eventually brought Mother Earth to an interval.
The human being is a freaky creature. It cuts a whole jungle, makes a new town and creates a central park to proclaim its love for nature. It puts the animals on display behind the bars and calls them his property. Political holding and the diplomatic exchange of animals are still subject to question. Just as China is known to retain all the pandas in the world and the Queen’s ownership of all the mute swans is not new knowledge to us. The Novel coronavirus has shown us a rare scene: while the Chinese are under self-observation, the pandas pandiculate, swans roam Italian waterways, turtles make their way back to beaches, trees grow their branches as they like. It feels like civilization winces when beauty comes in. Let the wind blow and the herb grow! Let the rhino sleep carelessly! Let the birds sing their songs! Let the swans make love, till grandma leaves her castle.
It is bitter of anybody to idealize this catastrophe and to not consider around 250,000 dead individuals and around 3.7 million affected individuals around the world, or to not stress over his nation’s shaking economy. Still, as hope, we should experience this time differently. We can be more liberated while being caged. We see rain day by day, smell the fresh-cut grass in my mowed lawn, feel the spring sneaking into the summer, and hear the children playing cricket on the road consistently, On top of all, we see families spending time together. This moment can be the bout to clear our bucket-list, to hold a brush and paint our heart out, to observe things and write about them, to think about old times, regretting past choices and taking the responsibility of their consequences, to blacken all the diaries we ever bought, to read all the books we never opened, to not dress up and go to the workplace as a daily routine, to not worry about upgrading the wardrobe with a new summer lawn collection, because this season, we barely will get the chance to show off. This summer, we should randomly admire the uncountable blessings of God. We should express the deepest gratitude toward Him for keeping us and our beloved ones protected from infection, for providing us bread and shelter, to choose us to help others, for giving us the power to make opinions, for giving us a chance to build a better society, to allow us an opportunity to advocate peace at another level. This year, the summer is going to be a whole new experience, because we will find the silver lining of the cloud.