Locked, But Not Down
@craft_ear, unsplash
Almost forty days into the lockdown and another fortnight to go! But is it going to be the last leg — one no longer knows!
The medical fraternity is fighting a draconian battle against CoViD-19, still fresh numbers both infected and dead stream out in thousands, every day. Medical experts advise us to stay home in order to stay safe. Economists propose ending lockdowns by releasing young first. Between this precarious balance of saving lives and livelihoods, people are trying hard to maintain a positive mindset. But indefinite quarantine, businesses at a standstill, panic over scarce resources, capsized travel plans, all are piling on our unchecked anxiety. This senseless pandemic, lacking all design, is driving the world crazy.
Perspectives are changing. Interestingly enough, these changed perspectives are not only circumscribing our lives but are also defining our choices, our roles, and our outlook towards life. CoViD-19 crisis has shoved work and home lives under the same roof. With more than half the planet under lockdown, people are trying to adapt to the ‘New Normal’. But at the same time, we’re all waiting. Waiting with varying degrees of patience, for things to get back to the ‘normal’ as we knew it. Looking ahead at the future, we are grasping for an uneasy word from past: normalcy. From a misnomer, normalcy has become a safe word. It’s ironic that this word gesturing towards a ‘hope-for restoration’ of the normal state of affairs, somehow no longer feels quite so NORMAL.
How much of the change that we are currently experiencing will have a lasting impact? For those who contract CoViD-19, it can be quite challenging, for some, even life-threatening; for everyone else, it’s going to be life-altering.
The lockdown in India was thrust upon us, all too suddenly. Overnight, we lost our freedom of movement. Just like demonetization, once again, the lockdown too wasn’t planned well. Am I being too blunt? Good, because I’m enraged at the lack of planning on the government’s part, rushing into the lockdown without ensuring the smooth mobility of even the basic essentials. Not giving any time to over a billion people of the country, to prepare themselves- stock the daily necessities or the medicines required for the uncertain number of weeks that lay ahead; at their incompetence at handling the epic migration of the thousands of daily wage laborers, during this tumultuous period. The lockdown has fully exposed the dark and shady reality of India’s monstrous inequalities. I cannot turn a blind eye towards any of it, but in all honesty, I have to admit, my reality is in complete contrast.
Gradually as I’m becoming more settled in my new routine, I’m actually beginning to enjoy it. I admit I can afford to enjoy this new reality, thanks to my privileged status which disconnects me in every imaginable way from the teeming millions in my country whose prime concern is whether they’ll be able to provide their family a square meal for the day or in the days to come. Please pardon me as I am so far removed from their reality and my thoughts here, stem from my reality.
I try hard, not to get flustered with lockdown being further extended, keeping my right brain engaged and left busy as time slips inexorably into an alternate reality. With no deadlines to meet or appointments to keep, the hours flow freely, rising on their own tides and times of the day. No longer confined to a set pattern, I try to indulge the artist in me, showering upon it, the rarest of rare gift… ‘gift of time!’ Today I stopped and listened to the warbling birds proclaiming their presence.
And thus dawned on me, ’n’ number of ‘blessings in disguise’ brought upon by the lockdown. Beautiful birds and animals emboldened and maybe bemused at our absence, have taken possession of rivers, seas, and even the streets. The brighter sky, clean & fresh air, clear rivers all pointing towards nature being on a self-cleansing spree. It seems like we’re all somewhere on a new spectrum, everydayness pulled out from under our feet like some worn out rug.
Much as I hope to be back to the times when we didn’t have to worry about who all might have touched our vegetables or when we wore masks just to the masquerade parties or gloves to ward off the freezing chill; I hope with equal earnestness, our amazement at seeing snow-capped mountains from dusty towns at foothills, spotting exotic marine life close to our shores, greeting beautiful birds in our backyard from morn to eve — makes us lifelong watch guards of our environment. I hope our new-found desire to have strong immunity sustains and we make conscious efforts to build it even stronger. I hope the newfound closeness in the families is there to stay. I hope we continue to offer a helping hand to our elderly, the disabled, the homeless, the needy with the same compassion.
At the moment, we may be floundering, temporarily suspended, and lost in our lives, still looking for meaning to be found beyond this simple, mindful moment. But I fervently hope that all the goodness this lockdown has helped us uncover is there to stay even after the locks are lifted and we gain back our right to move freely.
But I doubt if we as individuals or nations will be able to sustain this ‘New Normal’ for very long. Like an unapologetic offender, we too will relapse into our old ways before long. To mindless plundering of our natural resources, trashing our environment in name of technology, defecating Earth of its natural bounty, letting our health go down the drain as we smoke our lungs out and to not washing our hands with soap even after it’s been to all kind of unmentionable places!
May 3, 2020
