Life Before and After Coronavirus (Covid-19) - The impact and how can you use your time in the best manner during lockdown

Coronavirus :

We all are suffering from this devastating pandemic. We have never faced such a situation in our entire life. It seems as if life has come to a standstill. 

Life Before Coronavirus:

I live in Mumbai and life here is very hectic. Everyone is busy from a businessman to a watchman. They all have multiple things to do. In Mumbai, the hectic schedule of city life which starts by planning our day from day to dawn. The entire day was so busy that if we miss our morning train or bus. The entire day's plan would go for a toss.

We used to live our life to the fullest. There were so many things happening around us. Our professional life was filled with achieving our target, meetings, reports, travelling and many more. Whereas, on the personal front, we used to go out for dinner with our family, picnics, weekend parties, meeting our friends and family. 

Life after Coronavirus:

Although the Covid-19 virus started spreading in Wuhan province, China from December 2019. That is why it has been named as Covid-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019). 23rd March 2020, everyone in entire India will remember this date for their lifetime. The day when lockdown started. Everything in our life came to a standstill. We were locked in our homes. Every city, every village was locked. People stopped meeting anyone. There are no parties, no get together or any family outing happening nowadays.

All the offices are shutdown. All shops shutdown. Every restaurant shut down. We are not allowed to move out of our house. 

The impact of lockdown:

1. All days are alike: 

We get up in the morning and every day looks like the same.

2. No Enthusiasm: 

There is no excitement of planning your day for official or personal plans. Nether for the office nor for any family dinner to picnic.

3. Suspicious thoughts: 

Every person around you is a suspect. No one meets/greets each other. We look at each and every person with suspicion.

4. Mask is the new normal:

Wearing a mask is the new normal. If you are not wearing a mask, you will not be allowed to even enter a shop.

5. Domestic violence:

There has been a rise in cases of domestic violence.

6. Household work: 

No maidservants are allowed in any society which has had a negative impact. All the household work, right from washing clothes, cooking, cleaning the house, etc is to be done by you. Basically, you are on DIY mode.

7. No Junk food: 

Everyone is craving to go to their favourite food joint/ restaurant for popular dishes. In Mumbai, people are missing the Mumbai famous 'VADA PAV' (basically it is Mumbai's burger). People also crave for Panipuri, Bhelpuri, Pav Bhaji and many other things to eat.

Although, they make all these fast food at home by checking the recipe online. They miss going out to their favourite hang out place.

8. No Gym: 

Since you cannot move out. No one is allowed to go to the Gym or even allowed to jog on the road.

9. No Pet walk: 

You cannot even take your pets for a walk outside your home. Not even on the road, you see from your balcony. Just want to add one more important point here. All the stray dogs and cats who were dependent on the commuters and restaurants are now left all alone.

10.  Food Inflation: 

The prices of commodities have risen exorbitantly.

11. Loss of business:

All businesses are impacted: From small vendors to big corporates, everyone has been hit badly by the pandemic. Some businesses have shut down, others have opted to cut down on the cost.

12. Salary is not credited: 

There has a salary cut to 50% in some companies even less and a few where they have paid a full salary on time. But the latter is very rare. Since all the offices are closed, companies have not been able to generate revenue nor have they paid a salary to their employees.

13. Job Losses: 

People have also lost their jobs due to Coronavirus (Covid-19).  Some have even returned back to their native places as they couldn't even pay their rents.

14. Depression: 

People who were workaholic and some people who never had a habit of sitting at home are going through depression. We all need to talk to our friends and family members. We all have friends on social media but not in real life. Please don't hurt someone. You don't know what pain he is hiding behind his smile.

There are many more issues that people are facing. It is an endless list.

How can you use this time in a better way? 

Since we all are sitting at home. It is also very important how we utilise this time. It all depends on how we look at it. You can use this time to watch movies online or on television, waste your time playing online games, watch a movie series, talk over the phone or chatting with your friends and family. This way you can definitely spend your time. 

But this way we can only help you pass our time. Think about how you can utilise it in the best possible way, Think about that one thing that you always wanted to do. Your passion or maybe a skill you wanted to learn. I will suggest a few ways you can utilise this time in the best possible manner.

1. Follow your passion: Maybe you wanted to learn a skill. It can be anything from painting, calligraphy. writing, etc. This is the right time to do it.

2. A new Course in your field: Learn a new course in your field and get yourself certified. This will be an addon on your resume.

3. Family time: You have all the time to spend with your family. Spend quality time with your family. You can help them in the household work as the maids are not allowed in society. Cook something (especially males) for your family.  

4. Read a book: Books are said to be the best friend of human beings. They will teach you something and that knowledge will remain with you forever. Nowadays, Ebooks are also available which makes it much easier as you can have the book right on your mobile/ tablet.

5. Meditate: Due to this extended lockdown, our thoughts are going haywire. We all know that mind will not be at peace. We all should do meditate as this will help us find happiness and peace in our life.

Lastly, everything has an expiry date. Even this pandemic will not last for a long time. It will end someday,  the only problem is we don't know the end date. Keep you believe in the almighty, we will all come out winning.

Stay safe!!! Take care of yourself first and then of your family!!!

Hope you like this article. If you have any views to share, please do write in the comments section.

You may also check my blog about my solo trip to Himalayas and Punjab by clicking on the below link:

Solo trip to Himalayas and Punjab

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Is extending the Lockdown in India enough to cure people from the pandemic Corona Virus (Covid-19)?

The entire world right now is going through the worst phase in the last 100 years. The pandemic Coronavirus (Covid-19) has changed the approach towards living drastically. Our government has taken bold decisions. One of them is the complete lockdown of the country. This also has a huge impact on the economy of the country which was already bleeding.

How has the lockdown helped us in coping with the virus?

The day we found the first Covid-19 patient in India was on 30 January 2020. We imposed a lockdown on 24 March 2020. The world appreciated that we were proactive in imposing a lockdown. Here a question arises that if the first case was on 30 January why didn't we impose lockdown or stopped all the travellers from infected countries to be quarantined from the airport itself. Why were they just informed to stay at home for 14 days? People did not take it seriously and we all are suffering now.

Secondly, we could have imposed a lockdown much earlier but we didn't. The doctors and medical practitioners were of the opinion to impose lockdown when cases of Covid-19 patients started increasing in the 1st week of March 2020. We didn't. The government did not take any opinion of the medical initially I guess. You may check this link: The Hindu report 

The day the lockdown was implemented, there has only been a hike in the number of cases in India. Then how has the lockdown helped? People expected the lockdown will end by 14 April 2020. But it only got extended further for the next one and half months. Till now people have questions about the pandemic, will the Coronavirus end? Is there a solution to this pandemic Coronavirus? 

The government has lifted the lockdown in a phased manner. But if you see the number of cases after lockdown has only increased gradually. From having 5 cases on 2 March 2020 to reaching 50 thousand cases by 5 May 2020 and gradually increasing to 1 lakh cases by 18th May 2020. When the lockdown was lifted on 8 June 2020, the total number of cases rose to 2.65 lakhs. 

This goes to show that we have not utilized the lockdown in the best possible manner. We have failed in our approach. We should have tested as many people as possible and identified corona patients. Lockdown is only a temporary solution to the Pandemic. Unless and until this time was utilized to stop the virus. The planning has failed. This has had terrible consequences on the economy as there is a huge population who are daily labourers. They have suffered the most. People have walked back to their homes without food or water. Their stories are painful. We have failed them. 

Even today, there is no roadmap on how will we reduce the number of cases. Social distancing and Hygiene is good. But is it enough? As in most of the cases, there are no symptoms of the Coronavirus. The government of India is not ready to accept the fact that we have entered community transmission (Stage 3). In the capital state Delhi, as per the last statement made by the Health minister there is no community transmission bur there are 50% of the case which are asymptomatic (means the source of infection is not known). Please see this link: The Free Journal

When we don't know the source of infections that is enough to indicate that we have entered stage 3. But our government is not willing to accept this fact. There are huge implications for not accepting the truth. We will not be able to take decisions in the right direction if we don't accept the fact. 

The lockdown has been lifted. We need to pay attention to a few things here:

1. When there was lockdown the number of cases only kept increasing exponentially from merely 6 on 2 March 2020 to 2.65 lakhs on 8 June 2020. Check this link for the live count: covid19india.org
2. It is estimated to reach 5 lakhs by the end of June 2020 and 10 lakhs by the end of July 2020. 

3. How are we going to stop the virus when the lockdown is lifted. It will spread more rapidly than before if we don't have control. Imagine the number of cases by end of July 2020 in case of the lockdown being lifted. (You may check the worldwide count of Covid-19 cases at Worldometer website
4. Do we have enough beds for patients and to quarantine people in separate rooms?

Take the example of a bus where there are only 30% of people sitting in the bus. What is any one of them has Corona, if he touches any part of the seat of the hand-holders? The other passengers who would touch the hand holder are susceptible to the virus. I would request all you beings to:

1. Avoid travelling unless it is really important. Please make use of the technological benefits we have.

2. Try and travel in your vehicle (if possible).  

3. Try and avoid sitting in any public place or touching anything

4. Push the door of your office with your shoulder.

5. Work from home

Till the time there is no medicine available. Please take these necessary precautions. 

How long will it take to make the Coronavirus (COVID 19) medicine:

There have been speculations that some countries have found medicine. But when they test it on the human body nothing is working right now. Some labs are preparing the vaccine and have declared that they would be ready by this year-end or next year with the vaccine.

All you beings who have read this. Please stay safe and take care of your family. We will all fight and win against this pandemic Coronavirus. Hope we the medicine as soon as possible.

Stay Safe. Stay Home. Stay Healthy.

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Lockdown of 21 days, Good or Bad???

The Prime Minister of India announced  that India will be totally shut down for not 21 days. This was a very important decision taken by our Prime minister. As corona virus is spreading very rapidly across India. Currently, we have almost reached 649 cases and 13 deaths. Developed countries like USA, Italy, Germany and Spain are not able to control it. Even though they have the best doctors and infrastructure. We don't even have those facilities. Please understand if the virus spreads in India we will not be able to stop it. It will be disastrous. If we do not lock ourselves this will effect millions of people. And we do not have an infrastructure to cope with millions of patient currently. Remember, there will be other difficulties that we will face like shortage of grocery. Please try to survive on minimum grocery as this shutdown might get extended.

What can we do in these 21 days of lockdown. Netflix and other OTTs are definitely available. There are a few other options as well like:

1. Workout: The gyms at closed down so we cannot go there. The parks are also locked so we cannot got for a walk or jog. We can do some exercises at home. May be Yoga is also a good option.

2. Follow hobbies: follow your heart what ever you like. May be reading, writing, painting, cooking or may be something else. 

Reading is the best source of knowledge one can get. Books are said to be the best friend of humans. You cannot find a better company than these.

3. Engage with friends and families: all the mellenials will feel nostalgic. We will have our entire family at home. Talk to them. Help your Mom and Wife in house hold work. Connect with your relatives and friends whom you have not spoken for a very long time now as both of you would be available.

We at times forget that we live in a society where there are people who survive on daily wages. It will be difficult for them to survive. Help them in whichever way you can.

There will be time when we will get frustrated because of sitting idol. Try and divert your attention to positive aspects of life rather than negative. Remember, negativity will come to you easily, you need to work towards positive behavior. It does come without hard work. Work towards keeping your self positive.

21 days of lockdown is good or bad? It all depends upon your perception. If you work towards it in abette way, it's good. If not then it might turn bad. 

Respect your body with workout. Respect your soul with hobbies and Respect humans with humble gestures. Utilize these 21 days by being a good human being. Utilize these 21 days in the best possible way.

Stay safe.

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