Where is the world now

It was just an ordinary day in history until the first case of this seemingly yet unknown virus, which has captured the world, was discovered. If 2019 wasn’t writing any notes down into the history book of 2040 then 2020 certainly added quite the required pages. Now, I’m not gonna write about what COVID-19 or corona virus or whatever other name this virus has taken, does.

 What’s given importance at the nation front is the dreaded word ‘Lockdown’ and ‘Stay Home Stay Safe’ slogans. But this virus, what people may call misfortune has taught us so many lessons that were long forgotten and dismissed.

 For instance, just the basic concept of washing one’s hands after a visit outside was being taken for granted no matter how many advertisements of soaps and hand washes pointed out the number of germs lurking on our hands. And now, we’re forced to wash our hands not just after a visit to the outside our home ecosystem (which is at our own risk) but even before going from our car to the store then from the car to home which would turn out to be at least a minimum of 5-6 times of washing our hands, which, come to think of it has been mentioned by almost every mother to her child back in the day.

 Now, that was a very small thing but one of the major things is, I feel, the physical presence of people. It’s ironical that earlier one used to cancel their plans with their friends because of some job completion .And if it is a student, too much studies, which made us to end up locked in the house until that was done. But now, all we long for is that going out, making plans and having fun moments with friends and family. 

 Think about it, how many times have we appreciated just the presence of our school bench partner, class mates and even the scolding's of our teacher or at our workplaces, our colleagues, team mates and the person sitting right across us. All that mattered at school was how much marks did he score or she score and at the office how good of a job one does and what position in the job hierarchy does one occupy…life had become nothing less than a constant competition and somewhere down the line we lost the simple feeling of acknowledging the physical presence of people.

 Since the world’s been quarantined, online classes have started and education has found a way to still continue even though the teachers and students are kilometers apart, work is continuing from home, by WFH policy. Life is still going on, and it doesn’t really matter anymore how far apart we are, we’re still connected but truth be told it does matter. Let’s rewind our lives a little bit.

 Our lives revolved around an Eight hour job which many a times extended till twelve hours based on the amount of travel and city traffic, for school goers six hours schooling and extended three hours of tuition and other extra hours of travelling, the time spent at home for an average person is hardly eight to twelve hours and even the sleep schedule was quite wonky for adults working round the clock. There was hardly any time to even take a breath and appreciate the beauty of the sunrise, sunset or even look at the rainbow after a shower of blissful or dreadful rain let alone people.

 Speaking of which, we human beings have been utilizing nature’s free gifts without any concern. Take for example mining; as long as the underground resource is being drawn out and serving well for the business, no questions are asked and all is merry and blissful, but when the resources run dry questions arise as to where did all of it vanish. If one didn’t know any better ask those unreasonable extractions of resources day and night without even giving nature the time to replenish these resources. The fact that even after opting for sustainable development not much has changed tells it all.

 Nature was being taken for granted, mother earth was and still is crying out in pain from all the abuse mankind has put it through. Like, there are so many statistics showing the decrease in pollution levels during this lockdown. Here’s a picture posted by renenergy.co.uk where the blue column shows the pollution level during 2018-2019 and the red column depicts pollution levels in the year 2020.

 My main point being that lockdown isn’t all bad news, just like the saying that goes, not all things that look bad are actually bad and not all things that seem pleasing to the eyes are good. Post lockdown life has given us the chance to respect and appreciate the small things which we couldn’t care less about before. Granted yes, life cannot continue like this but COVID-19 has taught us a lesson on the importance of maintaining our own personal hygiene, attending to nature’s needs and appreciating the light cool breeze under the blazing sun, the little sun during the rain and the rainbow that comes after, the little chirping birds outside our window chatting with each other in languages unknown, the sunrise on a cold winter morning.

 And most importantly the physical presence of the people around us, our friends, family, acquaintances, enemies and fellow workers, helpers, mates and even the strangers and passers by, the stray dogs wandering and sniffing us all over. And simple gestures, like the smile of a stranger when we help them, talking to a friend face to face at school or workplace rather than texting them sitting at home, copying a friends homework, getting appreciated and scolded by our authorities are often overlooked as something that doesn’t really matter but if I personally have learnt something during the lockdown is to cherish these moments the most because such moments are what completes one’s day and makes it feel like a happening day and not just a boring locked up inside home day.