 |
| Photo Courtesy: World Economic Forum |
Come year 2020 and the Entire World, yes, the entire world is under the grip of Novel Coronavirus and its subsequent disease of Covid-19. As a precautionary measure to contain the spread of this human-to-human transmitted disease without a known cure, many countries including India took the harsh but necessary measure to impose a Nation-wide Lockdown.
While we are all too familiar with the on-goings that we see on prime-time news, which includes the horrific plight of the daily wage workers in India desperate to return to their homes amid an unending lockdown period, there are number of unique everyday problems that we could not have anticipated hadn't there been a lockdown of such a sort.
Here's a lowdown on some of those Real Everyday Problems amid the Covid Lockdown 2020 -
1. TODDLERS & CHILDREN
Who would have imagined that the hardest chore for a mother would be to keep her bursting-with-energy toddler occupied the whole day? A.B., a mother of a 2.5 year old, says that her daughter is so used to playing outdoors that it gets difficult to dispense her energies with home-based games.
The same experience is shared by N.J. whose daughter sorely missed her daycare centre and her daily routine. To such an extent has her schedule been disrupted, that she wakes up in the dead of the night to watch television! While she entertains herself during the wee hours, her parents are left with red eyes in the morning.
For A.S.B., it is not one of his own children, but a neighbour child who is so bored being restricted to his top floor home, that he spends hours in the afternoon and night (until 1 am) shouting out from his window to the sparse amount of auto-rickshaw drivers, passers-by and fruit & veggie vendors. Sadly, this is a problem since his shouting time usually coincides with the time when A.S.B. and his family take a nap or call it a day.
For A.S.B., it is not one of his own children, but a neighbour child who is so bored being restricted to his top floor home, that he spends hours in the afternoon and night (until 1 am) shouting out from his window to the sparse amount of auto-rickshaw drivers, passers-by and fruit & veggie vendors. Sadly, this is a problem since his shouting time usually coincides with the time when A.S.B. and his family take a nap or call it a day.
2. SPOUSES
S.S. jokes that he hadn't anticipated a time when he would be accompanied by his spouse 24X7. Added to this, he is also contributing to the household chores and being a dutiful husband to his wife R.B. :)
A.B.B., on the other hand, had not imagined that she would have space-management issues with her spouse when they both have online meetings scheduled simultaneously. This makes it hard for both of them to block out the added background noise and concentrate 100% on their respective meetings.
3. DOCTORS
Another major difficulty faced by many is scheduling in-person or telephonic appointments with their doctors. I had a routine check-up scheduled in April prior to which I had to get a test done from a private lab. But owing to the strict restrictions on movement of humans, many medical practitioners temporarily closed their practices, even though they were legally allowed to carry-on their business.
This made it impossible for me to get any lab to agree to give me an appointment for the test. Finally, my primary doctor arranged for the test to be conducted by a visiting practitioner and I was lucky to have found help in time.
R.B. too cannot find an ideal time with her doctor for a telephonic consultation. As doctors are too busy during these times, they tend to miss their scheduled telephonic appointments, as is R.B.'s recent experience.
4. EXERCISE
J.E., a mother of two young children, misses her daily exercise and states that she is home-bound with limited movement and insufficient space to engage in physical training. N.B. too misses her daily exercise classes.
For A.S., the lack of exercise has affected his sleep pattern. With no physical exhaustion, he is facing a new and unexpected challenge of insomnia during this lockdown.
5. SWEATPANTS
While we all love wear comfy Pyjamas, our love for them has grown 10 folds now that we are home all day long! While the idea of being in P-Jays and sweatpants is very endearing, there aren't enough of those due to their unanticipated increase in usage, says N.K.
6. ELECTRONIC-WOES
When the lockdown started, everyone was praying for their phones, laptops and televisions to stick it out for the entire lockdown duration, as they are the only few remaining connections to the outside world! :(
But for J.B. and her family, these were the least of their concerns, for their refrigerator conked out on Day-1 of the lockdown itself (day of the Janta Curfew in India)! Ever since, the family is managing their needs by buying and consuming the daily essentials, literally living one day at a time. Circumstantially, I presume that they are making more grocery trips now during the lockdown than they did in the absence of one!
7. SHORTAGES
Throughout the world, there have been shortages of essentials such as foods and understandably, disinfectants and sanitisers. But certain shortages having zero connection to the virus spread have taken us by surprise.
The most popular shortage which made its way to many funny jokes and videos is the shortage of toilet paper rolls in USA. People stocked as many as 200 rolls of toilet paper, leading to its major shortage in supermarkets as well as in online stores.
Other surprising shortages, again in the US, include cooking yeast, as shared by S.K., and cleaning bleach, as shared by R.B.
8. LIGHTING
The excessive need to video call both for work and pleasure made N.K. realise that there isn't sufficient lighting in her house to illuminate her surroundings. Maybe once the lockdown is eased, she can re-consider the lighting in her house if, God forbid, such a situation arises again.
9. STREET FOODS
S.B. actually faced two issues - one of slow Wi-Fi due to the increased load created by the work-from-home professionals and two of his craving for some of Mumbai's delicious street food such as Chana Batata and Paya (Nalli Nihari).
But owing to the unusual nature of the latter, I chose to feature it on this blog.
S.B. said that he is very fond of these foods and he really misses eating them during the long duration of the lockdown.
10. TRAVEL
For a travel-enthusiast like H.M., an enforced lockdown and sealing of borders has brought all his travel plans on an indefinite halt. He lives in the small country of Brunei and loves to explore the neighbouring country of Malaysia. During holidays, his friends and he plan trips to far-away destinations like Philippines and Vietnam too.
This year, the possibility of travelling outside of Brunei looks bleak. So much so, that it's been over a year since he visited India and his original plan to visit later this year, now very heavily depends on the international travel relaxations that may come into effect in a couple of months.
Special Thanks
This post has been made possible due to the contributions of these special people, from across the globe, who generously shared their experiences with me:
Abazer Siraj Biviji, Mumbai
Alifiya Biviji, Mumbai
Ankur Shah, Mumbai
Attiya Biviji Brar, London
Hussain Malkapurwala, Brunei
Juhi Ektare, Mumbai
Jumana Biviji, Mumbai
Nafisa Biviji, Dubai
Naureen Kanthawala, Mumbai
Nitika Jain, USA
Rizwana Biviji, USA
Saurabh Sharma, USA
Shaheen Kanthawala, USA
Siraj Biviji, Mumbai
Comments
Post a Comment