The Lockdown

It was like any other evening-except for the dark clouds and the seasonal rains, that is. But I didn’t feel like it was any other evening- it reeked of melancholy. It was perhaps the weather, or may be the effect of having stayed locked down for more than four months. So, I thought,” Why not just get back to what was once my favorite getaway? Why not just give vent to my thoughts?”

So, there I was, sitting in front of my laptop, wondering what I should be blogging about. Considering that so much has happened this year, there was no dearth of ideas. Quite a few things crossed my mind-should I write about MS Dhoni who just retired from the shorter formats of international cricket? Should I write about the Sushant-Rhea saga? Should I review the latest book I have just finished reading? Or should I try my hand at concocting a short story-something I have never done before? None of these ideas seemed to convince me though.

I kept my laptop aside, took a deep breath, and started regathering my thoughts, “What is it that I have felt so strongly about in these last few months?” It’s COVID-19, of course, one would say. Well, COVID-19, yes, not the virus or the so-called pandemic per se, but the lockdown. It’s the lockdown that has impacted the lives of so many of us. So, I thought why not just pen down my thoughts on this lockdown.   

It all started in China somewhere around December last year. I remember reading about the first few cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan, located thousands of nautical miles away from the maximum city, Mumbai. No one-not even in their wildest dreams-might have thought then that we, here in Mumbai would, exactly three months later, bear the brunt of it. But, it happened! On 24^th March, as soon as the media started reporting the rise in COVID-19 cases here in India, the first phase of the lockdown was announced by the central Government, which was again followed by multiple phases of lockdowns backed by either the Central or State Government or both. The result-we were all confined to our homes-some by choice, some by force. We also got sucked into the routine of not only getting ourselves sanitized, but also sanitizing anything and everything that came from outside.

We millennials have never been through something like this before. So, it was dreadful to see Mumbai the way it had been in the last few months. There was daylight, but the streets were deserted, shops and malls had their shutters down, cinema halls were closed, there were hardly any vendors selling fruits or vegetables, and there were no hawkers selling your favourite wada pav or Bhel. Many people also ended up losing their jobs, migrants had nowhere to go, smaller businesses were deeply affected, and many of them had to shut shop permanently. Kids got bored at homes, as they were not allowed to go out and play. If you have not been living under the rock, you would know by now that a lot of people also fell prey to depression during this lockdown.     

We have all probably gone through the worse during the lockdown. But then, as we slowly emerge on the other side of it, do we have any positives to talk about? Of course! So, let me list down the positives as well. I’m sure most of us will agree that the lockdown allowed us to share some really good moments with our closed ones, especially with the kids-more so if you have toddlers at home. Besides, we all know how tiring and time-consuming travelling in Mumbai can be. Lockdown has helped us all save the trouble of travelling long distances to our workplaces. Many of us who preferred buying daily necessities from reliable vendors across the street, were forced to order online. So, basically, anything we needed, was made available at our doorsteps!

Also, for a lot of us, we were so busy with our everyday lives that, unless the lockdown had happened, we would never have stepped back and thought, “Is there something more fruitful I can do with my life? Can I do something that I have always wanted to, but the monotony of everyday life didn’t permit me to?”  The fact that I could write this piece after a long time has been one of my positives during this lockdown. Hope you have had your share of positives as well!