Lockdown renewed our love for life
It will soon be a year since the first lockdown was imposed to fight the novel coronavirus. An unseen, unknown and unheard-of virus wreaked havoc on our lives, the effects of which still persist. With the number of Covid cases rising again, it feels like we have gone back in time, and I am struck by a strong sense of déjà vu.
It was exactly a year ago that I was to fly back to Chandigarh from Mumbai, and with my new N95 mask that I had bought for a princely amount, I hopped on to a flight that was coming straight from Spain — a Covid hotspot back then! And what in hindsight was extremely unwise of me, I removed my expensive mask because it suffocated me and fogged my spectacles during the flight.
Landing at the Delhi airport for my connecting flight, I realised how grave things were — the airport looked like a war-torn refugee camp, and every passenger was being screened. There was palpable tension and fear throughout, and I tried to hide my perpetual cough that Mumbai had gifted. With great trepidation, I made it home to Chandigarh, but no sooner had I arrived than the first lockdown was announced.
Years ago, when I was a high school student in Chandigarh, our art teacher’s favourite topic for the annual art exam would be ‘India in 2020’. It felt a million years away back then, and every boy in the class explored his creativity by drawing a future that would have made the likes of Sir Arthur C. Clarke proud — flying cars adorned the drawing sheets, spaceships seemed to fly around everywhere, and some even drew angry Martians zapping off helpless earthlings. The 2020 that we got instead found us locked up in our homes, trying on masks and fighting an unknown virus.
Over the past year, we have discovered new ways of living — we understood the value of human connections, and discovered how much happiness the simpler pleasures of life could bring us. We found new ways of laughing and making up with friends. And with the air much cleaner, I forged a new relationship with nature.
Covid-19 altered our lives. None of us ever wanted it, but it is what it is — c’est la vie. We have survived the loss of our loved ones, and managed to stay afloat for so long — and that is more than enough. We must not let our guard down, but to mark a year of the first lockdown, we must take some time to appreciate how much stronger and resilient we all have emerged, with a renewed appreciation for life.
