Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown on 24 March “to protect the country, and each of its citizens…” in his “decisive fight against the Corona pandemic”. All activities, except certain essential services, were halted to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Exactly six months after India’s national lockdown started, and despite the gradual elimination of the measures, life has still not returned to what it was during the pre-lockdown period amid many curbs and new precautionary rules which are still in place.
The latest guidelines issued by the federal Home Ministry on 29 August mandate that schools and colleges remain closed until 30 September: Indians still lack access to international commercial flights, cinemas, swimming pools, entertainment parks and other places.
Sputnik talked to people from various walks of life to gauge how the lockdown and pandemic have changed their lives and how they were able to survive without social engagements.
A man sits alone at the window of a Chawl during a lockdown to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus at Lower Parel area in Mumbai, India, Sunday, April 5, 2020.
Ashwini Bhatnagar, the author of several best sellers, said that when the lockdown was announced, he was a bit panicky.
Bhatnagar, who lives in NOIDA, a satellite city in the national capital region, said the anxiety about the deadly potential of the virus disturbed even his eating and sleep cycle. He could not concentrate on writing as his mind was always elsewhere.
“I was living in constant dread of a ferocious invisible predator. The dread killed my enthusiasm to create anything new. Tomorrow, suddenly, seemed so distant. The light, it seemed, had gone out and I was groping fearfully in the thick corona haze desperate to anchor myself in a fluid situation,” reminisced the author.
Quality Time With Family
Unlike Bhatnagar, freelance journalist Aswini Boruah from the city of Guwahati in the north-east of India was happy that he could spend more time with his seven-month-old grandson.
He said that although the announcement of the lockdown affected his spirit, he faced it boldly.
“He [the grandson] made me a child and we enjoyed the lockdown period, despite worrying mostly about the three-member family of our elder son, living in another state,” Boruah told Sputnik.
Film and Television actor Meghana Kaushik also admitted that due to the national lockdown, she has been able to spend a lot of time at home with her parents, something which she had been unable to afford for several years.
A woman sits with her child inside a quarantine centre for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients amidst the spread of the disease at an indoor sports complex in New Delhi, India, September 22, 2020
Looking back at the six months at home without work, Meghana suggested adopting a middle ground to resume life.
“It’s basic nature for humans to fight our problems and then move on with learning and experiences. Although I doubt that we will be able to change everything we have been doing for so long,” she said philosophically.
Rakhi Dubey, a Supreme Court of India lawyer, said the lockdown was really stressful and full of panic.
Professionally it was painful, said Dubey, who used to run between the chambers of judges to attend to cases.
“Judges have been really co-operative and accommodating. However, filing fresh matters has been really painful. Some court staff cooperated and understood the difficulty and the Covid situation. However, some just raised objections, one by one, making it really difficult to get relief for clients,” said the lawyer.
‘COVID Taught Us Many Things’
Lockdown has really changed the life of every individual and all had to switch to the virtual world, she added.
But for Mangal Dhobi, who pedals almost 35-km every day from an outlying semi-urban settlement with his wife on his back, to a residential colony for government employees in the centre of the national capital to work as an ironer, lockdown was the most difficult period in his life.
For Ashwini Bhatnagar, the lockdown and social distancing in a way was good, allowing him to pursue his writings.
His latest, yet to be published book named ‘Dread’ has the Coronavirus and the dreadfulness it created among humans as the central theme, as described in the first chapter of the book.
Modi Announces National Lockdown
In late March, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown, putting the entire country into a standstill in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The lockdown has subsequently been extended several times.
India has now confirmed more than 5.8 million cases, the second-highest rate in the world after the United States. 92,290 people have succumbed to the disease.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
0.00 (0%) 0 votes
