Today marks the day on which the lockdown began in India exactly a year ago. It was declared on the presiding evening of 23rdMarch and as clock struck the midnight hour, the lockdown was officially started across India. What began on barely four hours of notice then lasted for almost two months with easing off the restrictions in various phases from June 2020 onwards. But a year down the line, with easing off more or less all the restrictions, still the regular life feels far from normalcy (in a pre-pandemic sense).
Although the lockdown came as a surprise to so many people across India, the Covid-19 Pandemic itself was not so much of an unheard of phenomenon. We previously had various such public health emergencies either experienced in our lifetime like SARS or heard as childhood stories from our grandparents like the Spanish Flu. So, at least for the people following international news reports, there was certainly sense of a looming emergency knocking on our doors. By the time, everyone across the nation became aware of it; this turned into a situation of panic and fear.
I was one of those people following the global happenings and specially news coming out of our neighbouring country of a strict lockdown. This was way back in January of 2020 and since then I spent the next two months with a mixed feeing of anxiety and hope that maybe everything will be all right in few days or weeks. But how futile was that hope which I only realised by the beginning of March when Covid-19 was officially declared as a Pandemic and that seemed like a point of no return.
So, it has been a year since my mother & me has stepped outside our home, mainly because of her underlying health issues and therefore, we have chosen for staying put at our home till the situation inches to a normalcy. It was indeed a difficult decision to be indoors all days, every day with just two of us giving company to each other, but it was certainly not impossible to implement. As we focused more on ourselves, our home, and our lives together as a mother & daughter, all the unnecessary noises surrounding us hushed down automatically and first time in years, we began to look forward to a life held at one fixed place.
Like so many people across the globe, our priority was to have enough stocks of food and essential medicines. I still remember how it was easier said than done for getting all the essentials at one go. In our residential neighbourhood we searched and tried few of the online suppliers for getting fresh fruits and vegetables. In the beginning, this sense of community was on a peak and you could easily rely on your neighbours to take care of doorstep delivery of your supplies.
At home, we were busy in an endless cycle of order, clean, store, cook, consume, complete household chores and manage office work simultaneously. Those days went in like a blur. We decided to read more books, watch more TV but just couldn’t gather enough willpower to do that. The news coming out of lockdown were all depressing with people walking miles across the breadth of country to reach to their homes, Covid-19 numbers rising daily and the sense of restlessness with a tinge of fear. Added to that were those visuals of empty roads of Mumbai, shutting off Mumbai locals and seeing all the familiar places bereft of any human activity.
Gradual opening of the country gave some hope; it was quite exhilarating to see people emerging out of their secured cocoons to experience the world again. During those initial days, there was excitement mixed with trepidation but still the human nature prevailed, and we saw more easing off various restrictions. We heard and saw people leaving the allures of big cities and moving to remote locations like mountains or tiny villages, we heard stories of people finding an escape route to move to another country or city altogether which were relatively unscathed from the ongoing pandemic and there were those who planned for pandemic vacations taking advantage of all time low costs.
Sitting at our home, through our real window and Zoom/ Google Meet/ Skype/ FaceTime windows, we saw or heard these stories of people trying to make most of such challenging times. We also witnessed few weddings and funerals being perched on our watchtowers. Way back in November, there was heated discussion between me and my mother about venturing out for family gatherings but then we got a major setback when that invisible virus came too close for comfort. That stopped us in our tracks and my mother lost all her enthusiasm for going out to see the world.
More months passed and then came the next year- 2021, we are still here, quarantined at home. Now, it has an added sense of urgency and increased risk of being exposed to new variants. With the advent of new year, the careless attitude and forgetfulness of people towards the pandemic has only but increased. The only hope now is of the vaccines that have been rolled out across the world and as a part of that, a massive vaccination drive is currently underway at various places in Mumbai.
Overall, this has been a year of learning the value of time and people, appreciating the finer things in life, and certainly looking at the silver linings such as empathy towards nature and resilience of human spirit. On my part, I am feeling more than refreshed and calmer to step outside in the chaotic world once again. This is something like emerging into the world after a period of meditation and hopefully this experience has taught me some essentials lessons of lifelong wisdom.
