Lockdown 1.0: The less focused scenes

Bishaldeep Kakati

The pandemic outbreak of CoVid-19 has meant that most of the busy cities of India have come to a standstill. The empty roads, the deserted footpaths etc have all symbolized the fact that the usually occupied citizens of the nation are forced to remain isolated at one’s place with limited or rare chances of locomotion. However, the sad fact is that even after the first phase of lockdown which constituted for 21 days, the government has been forced to constitute the second phase of lockdown which would last till 3rd of May, only to cope up with the menace of this outbreak. While a lot of focus has been grabbed by this infectious disease during this period, there are certain positives related to this lockdown as well that have actually blessed the mass at large.

The conspicuous fact is that in order to understand the positives brought about by this quarantine period, we need to especially analyze two scenarios: the pre lockdown scenario and the post lockdown scenario. Speaking of the pre lockdown scenario, the citizens were leading a normal life which was an amalgamation of both luxuries as well as dilemmas of different kind. No doubt that the citizens were allowed to move and work freely according to their own wish before the lockdown, but certain issues like less of quality time for oneself or for the closed ones, issues related to health and the environment etc all kept bothering them and the core reason behind these issues, was the predicament of ‘less of time for an analysis at the individual level’. Hence, it won’t be wrong to say that the ‘lockdown’ factor has somewhere down the line given just the right amount of time to the people to rethink and create the much required balance.

The fact that is evident to one and all is that the initial part of the 21 days of lockdown was obviously a bit difficult for the crowd to handle since it was very new to them. But with the passing of time, people were seen adjusting to the same, and when people had no other option than to just stay at their respective places, they also tried to reform themselves by taking various necessary measures.

In today’s scenario, activities done by the mass can be broadly classified into two categories- those that are done by the youths and those that are done by the elderly. Among the various activities done by the youths, the use of social media or getting involved in one or the gadgets top the list of activities performed by most of the youths. And the palpable fact is that the youths have been more often than not blamed for wasting most of the time over social media or gadgets. But the good news is that the lockdown period has just come as a blessing in disguise for most of the youths as well. The youths in this quarantine period have been found to invest all the time not only over social media but also for reading books, novels, watching series and also in helping the government directly or indirectly to tackle the adverse situations created by this pandemic by either delivering essentials to the people or by sanitizing different places. The elderly people however, who are less interested about social media or gadgets have surprisingly shown their interest in knowing about social media or its technicalities in order to connect with different people around the globe. So, to be precise, the lockdown period has just brought the right balance in terms of this particular aspect for both the youths and the elderly.

In fact, the denizens over the years have also been complaining of various health issues that have kept bothering them again and again. And the busy time schedule of the people which has led to improper eating habits has directly contributed to the health issues that people have been suffering from. Furthermore, the tendency to eat more and more of fast food or junk food either for time issues or more so as a kind attraction has altogether made the people to suffer from various ailments like gastrointestinal problems, obesity, liver problems etc. And along with this, lack of proper exercise or yoga has meant that the people at large have simply kept on degrading their health with each passing day. But even in this regard as well, the lockdown has just come as a blessing at the right time. The lockdown has forced people to stay back at their respective homes and with no restaurants or food stalls; people have been compelled in one or the other way to stay away from junk food. In fact, many people have been also found cooking healthy items at their homes and that has not only ensured consumption of healthy items by the burgess but also many of the citizens have slowly started developing interest in baking or cooking different items. Moreover, people quarantined at their homes, have also taken out time to exercise or do yoga regularly, and the combination of healthy food and proper exercise have just ensured that the citizens restore their health back at least to some extent amidst the lockdown.

However, the biggest advantage of this lockdown has been the positive impact of it upon the environment. The less of vehicular or industrial emissions, reduction in harmful flow of sewage, minimal or no running of motorboats or ships, airways etc have all resulted in reduction of pollution level significantly from the earth’s surface. And this is evident from various news items circulating, like reduction of pollution level in New Delhi, clear view of mountain ranges from specific spots, appearance of rare variety of birds and animals etc. Therefore, in short, we can conclude that the lockdown has also ensured that nature gets the much required time to reconstruct the ecological balance.

Thus the entire deliberation definitely throws a light to the fact that the lockdown has to an extent designed the lives of human beings in an organized manner except for the restrictions of moving or working freely. However, it would be now an interesting thing to observe in the upcoming days, the behavior of the human beings as soon as this lockdown is lifted.

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Apr 21, 2020