My Lockdown Ramblings

It’s been four months now, since the lockdown began. It started a few days after my birthday. We have been hearing about a new virus spreading from China to the rest of the world. However, most of us were hoping that through some miracle or divine intervention, the virus would not spread to India.

There were many theories, the most popular one being “It cannot survive in our sweltering hot weather.” Another one was, “We have seen many such viruses. We co-exist with malaria, dengue and the likes. Corona is no match for our immunity.”

Well, neither weather nor our immunity could save us or even prepare us for what followed.

I am not going to write down any statistics of how COVID-19 struck India, how many were infected initially and how the flat curve during the initial lockdowns became hyperbolic soon after the unlock phases began. Anyone can get the details from Google.  

What I want to capture here (so that the memory of this period does not die with me and stays stored in a cloud space somewhere) is how life changed for me and people around me. How the pandemic impacted ordinary people in a country with a billion plus population. I suspect people across the world had similar experiences. And, I know there might be many more like me who have written or are writing their stories of the last four months.

The first thing I remember is the deluge of information across all media, print, digital, all. The next thing is the rush to buy masks and sanitizers. Our office had already started sanitizing spaces and keeping sanitizers at baggage screening counters a month back. They had also on-boarded us on a virtual collaboration app – MS Teams. However, suddenly the lockdown began and our office moved us to WFH. I usually explain acronyms when they appear for the first time. But, I really don’t think WFH needs an explanation. Hate or love it, you cannot ignore it in the “new normal”.  (More on this later)

The lockdown started with a short notice and inconvenienced many people. However, when I remember the mad frenzy of people rushing to markets to hoard food, drinks and other items, I wonder what would have happened if the notice was longer.

To be continued....


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