You are not alone

It is day 14th of lockdown of India called amidst the outbreak of coronavirus. Each of us are observers of our plans that are marked by a comma today. It may be nerve wrecking for many as we are not trained to live a life within boundaries of our residence and uncertainty. This can be the time for many to get overwhelmed by their situation. Plans not liquidating because of lack of efforts can still be understood. But plans held at a standstill because of a virus busy playing Russian Rollers with humans, where you don’t know what may come next, is a situation difficult to comprehend. And because humans take things personally, one may think, ‘why did this happen to me?’, ‘why or when will my plans work’ etc. So if you are one of those, let me share with you how the lockdown has affected the lives of some people I know. Maybe then you may realise that we all are in this together:

1. Birth of a child: A lady in my neighborhood had been pregnant with her third child since last 8 months. Her husband is in the Indian army and is posted at the border. It was in the second week of lockdown that she went into labor. Her two daughters, the elder one of whom studies in standard VIII, took their mother to the hospital where she delivered her baby. Due to lockdown, neither could her husband come over and because of an early delivery nor could her in-laws come. Now the lady herself is responsible in taking care of the children as well as herself. It is she who does the young one’s massage, feeds all the kids, cooks etc, all after the first week of giving birth. Yesterday was the name-giving ceremony of the child which again was conducted by this strong lady alone together with a priest.

2. Dr. Aditya Gupta: Yesterday I came across the story of Dr. Gupta from AIIMS Delhi who is a single child of his parents. His father is suffering from lukaemia and is being treated at the Army hospital in Delhi. Since the day, lockdown was called upon, he has not been able to meet his father who is now going through his second chemotherapy treatment. This is because Dr. Gupta is now in the team of doctors who are doing screening of patients with COVID-19 symptoms. He hence is not allowed to meet his father as he may act as a transmitter too. So here we have a doctor, dealing with patients of a pandemic on a daily basis while his father stays in another hospital undergoing treatment of cancer. I am all in awe of him. There may be many more doctors,nurses,staff,police officers going through the same ordeal. You can read Dr. Gupta’s full answer on this link: https://www.quora.com/How-has-the-coronavirus-affected-you/answer/Aditya-Gupta-120?ch=3&share=5bfaf330&srid=oADW

3. Research Scholars: Back in our school days when a rainy day would be declared and the school would shut out of nowhere just for a day, the happiness it used to bring was unmeasurable. Getting a break from studies has always been welcomed by students with open arms. But when it comes to research scholars, this lockdown is something which cannot be very easily greeted. Students working on time dependent experiments have been hit hard, students working on field surveys have been taken by a surprise and after an exhaustive level of dedication, hardwork and patience, students who were to submit their thesis, journal papers, reports, research proposals etc all have been taught another bitter lesson of uncertainty in their already uncertain results.

Likewise there are many more examples. Infact each one of us is an example. So if you are going through a depressive phase about the lockdown, it’s life and it’s consequences, then don’t be. Meditate over your journey so far and quite the turbulence. We are all in this together and together we will win. Like the great poetess Mahadevi Verma wrote:

बाँध लेंगे क्या तुझे ये मोम के बंधन सजीले, पंथ की बाधा बनेंगे ये तितलियों के रंगीन पंखे!