Coronavirus or Covid-19 has upended work, life at home and travel. The entirety of the world has united in grappling with this invisible enemy. It’s unfortunate that such adverse situations are required for the humankind to realize the toll of their actions on nature after being stuck at home. It’s ironic, isn’t it? Something so deadly and sinister for us humans is in actuality aiding nature. Call it nature’s fury or retribution for our sins, it is not only ensuring the plunge in greenhouse gases, cleansing of river waters and minimising our carbon footprint but is also giving us the opportunity to spend this time with our loved ones at home and working on ourselves. It is probably a bit too soon to try to look at the silver lining the pandemic brings along with it, albeit short-lived.
With thoughts like these constantly coming in and out of my stupefied brain, I try to keep myself busy and those around me safe. It seems fictitious to me still, even though I’m well aware about the multitude of people who are endangered by this in the truest sense and can only begin to imagine the pain of those tested positive. As the statistics kept on increasing, I decided that I will not look at the news to know how many people have been affected or how many lost their lives way before their time, and I was resolute. I didn’t do this because I’m ignorant or lack interest in what happens in the world around me, but because I know that whatever little help someone like me can provide does not require knowing the sad truth about the world around me. For a feeling of momentary relief for myself and all those around me, I wanted to not look at the alarmingly growing rates of death around the world. The morbidity of it all makes me want to think about anything but the “You-know-what”.
My reason for still possessing my sanity is an article I read on ‘The Guardian’ about how the pressure to be productive during the quarantine should be ignored. I hadn’t even read the article yet and I decided to be motivated by the title of the article and was ready to tell my parents to stop chiding me to do something productive instead of lying on my bed and binging my nth Netflix series. Then it dawned on me and I realized that there was no pressure to be productive but it would be extremely foolish of me not to attempt to do something which would enhance my skill-set and so I took to baking and sewing clothes and registering myself for online courses and cutting my own hair and reading that Russian novel I had been wanting to read for years and I forgot how time went by.
I hope 20 years down the line, all of us are safe and happy and the virus is long gone. I know life will never be the same, but I’ll take solace in the fact that we got through the menace.
This post was by Srishti Jha, IInd year.
