COVID-19: Is it disconnecting us or reconnecting us?

COVID-19 also known as 2019-nCov or 2019 Novel Coronavirus, is a virus, which is now known to the whole of the globe. This highly infectious disease can spread through droplets, which cause respiratory illnesses, having symptoms such as cough, fever and difficulty in breathing. No concrete medication has been developed in order to destroy the virus, yet. The spread of this virus takes place when a healthy person comes in contact with an infected individual. It spreads due to coughing, sneezing, by coming in contact with an infected person, touching them or by touching infected surfaces. Touching your eyes, nose or mouth are the most prominent ways through which the virus can enter inside a healthy person’s body. Maintenance of social distancing, following government guidelines and taking all other necessary precautions such as consumption of hot water have been recommended.  

As important as the above lines may be, they have been continuously hammering our minds from day one of the lock-down, through television, social media, caller tunes and through the word of mouth also. The lockdown was initially implemented for one week, later followed to one month and continued even after the month.

These unforeseen times are indeed very scary and require us to spread awareness regarding social distancing and maintaining good hygiene as these are the only ways we can avoid the spread of Covid-19. 

The problem of unemployment and hike in the prices of the day to day goods have become challenging for the common man. The number of cases are rapidly increasing. Despite the increasing pressure on police, medical personnel, government officers and all front line workers the tireless services that they are providing are commendable.

Staying happy in these times has become a challenge, it won’t be wrong to say that almost everywhere in the country people are more sad than happy. Inspite, of this bitter truth why don’t we go ahead and look at this phase from a different perspective. As someone rightly said, everything that happens, good or bad, always teaches us something. So, in this challenging phase, we have to make a choice to control our thoughts, to think positively and accept the situation the way it is.

This phase of lockdown demands social distancing. Individuals are separated from their regular lives, working professionals from their colleagues and offices, children from their schools and playgrounds, old people from their daily routine walks or temple visits,  the list is endless and all things are an example of how COVID – 19 has disconnected everything.

However, life doesn’t end here, as bollywood tells us PICTURE ABHI BAKI HAI MERE DOST.

In this disconsolate time, due to all the negative emotions we are somewhere missing out the positive influence it has had over us in the last couple of months. Try giving it a thought, Coronavirus has no doubt disconnected everyone from everything but were all of those things healthy? It is only now we have learnt to value the gift of good health, now we understand that we don’t need junk food as much as we thought we did, staying hygienic is must for most of us now, in these last few months we have not only connected with our families but with ourselves too. 

Meditation, exercising and developing hobbies such as baking, sketching, dancing, writing, etc, can we not consider these the boons of having a lockdown? At the fast pace that are lives, as residents of a metropolitan city, run, maybe this is our chance to take a break.

Not only us, but the impact of staying indoors has positively affected our mother earth too, the rate of pollution has drastically gone down. According to an article in The Hindu, ‘The global CO2 emissions in 2020 have dropped to levels last seen in 2006. Particulate matter population levels in select Indian cities exhibit a similar decline. The drop coincides with decreased public mobility in India following the lockdown.’

We have to understand that we might also find peace when we disconnect. Disconnecting from all those things that don’t light a fire in your soul. Let’s keep aside our phones, shut off our computers, tuck away our planners and let’s reconnect with ourselves. We can spend time with nature to reacquaint ourselves with the towering trees, the soft grass and the mirroring lakes. This despairing phase has no doubt been very hard for many of us, it has disconnected us from a lot of people and things, but let us not forget it has given us an opportunity to reconnect with our soul.

We would like to sign off by quoting Thich Nhat Hanh, “Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”