M Kayina
Lerie Colony, Kohima
The news of Nationwide Lockdown following outbreak of Covid-19 came unawares. Naturally, our first reaction was on how to cope with this kind of situation.
Depending on one’s lifestyle, profession, health condition and life’s situation, responses on experience with lockdown will naturally be varied and each of their perspective needs to be respected as well.
While empathising with our brethren who may have lost job, run into financial losses, separated from near and dear ones, suffered from health issues and various other untold agonies, I as a layman would like to pen my thoughts on some of the unexpected positive changes lockdown has brought about.
1. Environment: With the reduced level of pollutants, it is a welcome sight to see a clean and clear sky with brighter stars, moon and a better view of our surroundings. It led me to better appreciate the presence of surrounding hamlets and villages which did not grab my attention earlier. It has also made “Walking in the moonlight” a pleasurable experience. Surroundings which were dumping area earlier and where ‘Swachh Bharat’ made no sense have now become clean and turned into vegetable gardens overnight.
2. Health: I thank God and would like to compliment the populace in Nagaland for investing the free time in healthy and productive lifestyle. Instead of giving in to self pity and destructive habits, people have increasingly turned to healthy habits such as Jogging, walking and other forms of exercises and games. Even the colony aunties who never knew ‘leisure’ or ‘idle’ have now started going on morning and evening walk. With the limited availability of meat and fish in the market, we have learnt to depend on vegetarian food out of compulsion. I am happy that I am being saved from gluttony (which remained undiagnosed till then) which would have overwhelmed me one day if not for this lockdown.
3. Boost to Hobby: Hobbies and interests which were once left to be fossilized due to lack of time in this fast paced world came back to life again. This has helped add more colours to our life and rediscover our inner self. I recall an instance in a Hardware shop where among the many customers were hordes of female customers rushing to buy things such as binding wires, dendrite, M-Seal etc obviously to develop and brush up their skills and hobbies. It was a welcome sight to see that at least there are some people who are not glued to whatsapp, facebook and other social media. On the cooking front, now, with almost every family member wanting to try out new recipes, we are being served with variety of vegetarian foods at home.
4. Improvement of Skill and personal development: With the imposition of lockdown, many, especially the men-folk have turned into self styled Mason, painter, Carpenter, Landscaper, Gardener, Sportsmen dressed like a potbellied pro, a Mechanic and so on. Though it may have started as so called “time pass”, it has brought about significant changes unawares. Kitchens have become a better place to cook, Vegetable and flower Gardens are better organised, living rooms are now brighter and more custom made shelves and racks installed, Garages are renovated, roof are being painted. Sounds of machineries and repair works coming from almost every household are not uncommon these days. One positive outcome of this, I believe, is that it has made us to appreciate each profession in a more positive way and have made us understand through experience what ‘Dignity of labour’ really is.
5. Cosmopolitan outlook: One observation which is of particular interest is that in this period, I have come across many unfamiliar faces in the streets, buying essential items on days opened for marketing. This in a way, have also added a dash of cosmopolitan outlook to Kohima city. Most of these folks, I believe, must be from those sections of society who are too busy to go out shopping themselves or may be their status and level of wealth did not permit them to, during normal days.
Who knows, it may be a divine intervention in helping better understand and appreciate common Mans life.
6. Better appreciation of Value: Most of us are guilty of treating basic necessities of life for granted. For instance, we treated as though meat and fish as the only ones that mattered and essential food items like rice, wheat, pulses, salt etc which even though we consume on daily basis were never given its due place of importance. We have even sinned with our sub-conscious thought that saying family grace together should be over a meal of meat or fish and not over a meal of Dal and vegetable curry. However, we are proved wrong; as from the very mention of lockdown, we ourselves started hoarding on essential items for sustenance.
In sharing my thoughts, my only wish is that the positive outcome of lockdown be carried forward and be made a part of our life and not wait for another lockdown to remind us of our fault.
