It was around the beginning of March that I began to hear faint whispers of a new disease that had begun to spread in Wuhan, China. Back then I thought, “Oh it’ll be fine, I’m sure the people in-charge will take care of it swiftly. “Fast-forward about 3 months and today the world has been brought to a stand-still by this new deadly, and most importantly, very contagious disease.
The word “Quarantine” means when a person “suspected” (not confirmed) of carrying an infectious disease is isolated to prevent further spread of the disease. In a way, each one of us entered into quarantine the moment India was announced to be in complete lockdown starting in[on] the 4th week of March. A lot of people did not follow the guidelines, but I will save that topic for another day. So what did happen is that people suddenly found something they had been complaining always on not having enough – “Time”. Suddenly, there was too much time, for all of us , especially students!
Interestingly, a lot of creative content had come about during the lockdown- renovating homes, indoor photography, choreography, dance routines, songs you name it. But that is not how I spent my time. This is an essay [article] about, “My time during the lockdown”.
I had spent my first month just as any normal person would do that is doing absolutely nothing! And by nothing I mean nothing productive. I had spent less and less time on my books to a point where I couldn’t even recall the basics. Such was my condition. Sure, I had done a lot of research into the newly named “Covid-19”, enough to know that the name of the virus was actually SARS-CoV-2 and not corona virus. I, mostly, understood how the disease was causing respiratory problems because of pneumonia. But I wouldn’t call any of that productive, it was just a response to the uncertain and quite frankly, scary scenario we were all in. I had begun contingency plans incase if everything falls(fell) apart and we were in an apocalyptic scenario. It is hilarious when I think back on it now. I was also spending a lot of my time playing games to distract myself of the looming threat just on the horizon.
But, as the days passed, my outlook on the scenario changed. You see, I was waiting for the day, “Things would go back to normal.” However, I realised that this is [now] our new reality – This is the new normal. I decided to adapt to the new status quo. First, I began with restarting my exercise routine – which consisted of a few push – ups, squats, curls, planks, sit- ups. I had been negligent of my diet as well and the KGs had begun to go up and up. Playing badminton is a fun exercise that my sister and I started to partake in. Let me tell you, all that movement after being sedentary for so long- ouch sore muscles!
Next, I started work on a project that has long been a dream of mine- to speak [learn] Japanese. It started with simple audio exercises to remember words like “Konnichiwa” which means hello, or “Sayonara” which means goodbye. Now, I’m starting with small sentences like “Choushi was dou?” which means “How [are you]?”. What I’ve observed is that the Japanese [language] doesn’t really have tenses- no past or future but all their words are present in the moment which I found beautiful. I also decided to take it one step further- “Why not be able to write Japanese?” So I also started on my writing [Japanese] journey. What I found was that the Japanese writing system consists of 3 systems- the Hiragana, the Katakana and the Kanji. In Hiragana, sounds are attached to the alphabets- for example “あ” stands for “a” (ah), “の” stands for “no” and so on. Katakana is the same but is used for foreign words like “Cool”. In the Kanji, the alphabets [symbols] have meaning attached to it- [“木” is the kanji for tree].
What I found was that I am quite old and finding it hard to learn a new language as I am still stuck on the basics. But I shall press on.
Next, my online classes started and boy it could not have come at a better time! I was beginning to forget the basics but with the sudden injection of projects, assignments, review classes and discussions, I found my days filled up again with research and actual study which I, strangely enough, had missed a lot. It was also during this time that my contact(online) with teachers and classmates had been re-ignited. With all these tests and projects, I felt more and more productive as the days went by.
Lastly, was the time spent with my family and prayer. I am very fortunate that all the members of my family, my dad reached home 2 weeks ago, were safe and sound at home. All this free time gave us a much needed break to just relax and to get to know each other better. We also spent time praying together for all the various issues that were currently affecting the world.
All in all, I feel that my time in the lockdown has been productive (except the first month), and I have a new outlook on the value of life, of time and to being productive. I am sure everyone has their story to tell.
Mr. Takanungba Pongen
2nd Semester, B.Voc. (Retail Management & IT)
Modern College, Kohima
