Written by Smriti Guruprasad, a grade 8 student

After the 14 hour voluntary public curfew on 22 March 2020 the lock down 1.0 was initiated on the 24 of March 2020. All of this was due to the breakout of Coronavirus also known as Covid-19, this virus started out, just like a spark that led to a huge fire, initially at Wuhan in China.

Corona in Coronavirus means crown in Latin due to its appearance (the spikes on the virus looks like a crown). It is a respiratory disorder with symptoms just like fever with dry cough and headache. However, don’t let the mild symptoms deceive you, as it an be very fatal. To avoid the spread of this deadly and contagious virus many states and countries have enforced lock downs.

A lock down is an emergency protocol that prevents people from leaving a particular area this is helpful during times as it helps spread of pandemic.

A lockdown of this magnitude has never ever been imposed on 130 crore people of this country. Being the first of its kind, we were all initially baffled as to what is likely to transpire during the so called lock down. Eventually we realized that we need to sit tight where we are and not do any activities, which otherwise would have been done in the normal scheme of things. But like two sides of a coin, lock down has its disadvantages. While some people might enjoy staying at home, some might feel the need to go out.

In my opinion, the enforcing of the lock down was the right decision to make as it is our only hope to overcome this situation. But I have to say that the lock down has changed my personality and due to boredom I’ve found a lot of things to do. As they say boredom brings out the creativity in an individual. The lock down started off with a curfew, just like how there is a trailer before a movie, the Janta curfew.

It was very interesting, as I was looking forward to coming out to my balcony to bang utensils together or clap for our heroes, the doctors and nurses. It was also very nice when we had to go out to our balconies and light candles or flashlights in the night as it looked very beautiful.

These days it is a fun activity or a privilege of sorts to go to the vegetable shops or grocery shops as it is the only contact we can get with the outside world. Staying at home means the only people around are your family so my family and me decided to take advantage of it and we played board games, cooked together, we even had a small picnic in our balcony.

We did occasionally have some fights, but I don’t blame anyone for that. I learnt many things in these lock downs – like calligraphy, baking, sketching, I even started learning a new language, but most importantly I learnt that I shouldn’t take hygiene for granted.

I miss so many things like going out for movies or eating, playing with my friends or simply just going to school. The excitement that I usually have on the first day of school was missing, instead all I had to do was just sit in front of the phone for my online classes. I couldn’t talk to my friends or interact with the teachers well. But I must admit trying out new apps for video calls was fun.

As a child growing up its is very tough to simply stay in your house with almost nothing to do, but I realized that I was not the only one to go through this, so instead of crying over the things I wasn’t going to be able to do, my father advised me to participate in online competitions like this so I spent time doing studies, talking to friends, trying out various competitions.

Due to the extreme seriousness of this pandemic many people had to ask their maids to stop coming for work. The same was the case in our house, so I helped my mother with the household chores, may it be cooking or cleaning. I even offered to help my maids son with his studies he would come every day for one hour, we would maintain social distancing, and I would teach him. It was a very nice and humbling experience. We simply must remember that the only way we can get through the lock down is if we think as we and not me, and help whoever you can however you can.

To sum up, I strongly feel that this pandemic and the resultant lock down should be used to right the wrongs we as a society and human species have committed for long on our surroundings and mother earth. We must, in the solitude of this lock down, very silently but strongly reminiscence about the good habits which have just been a part of our curriculum in school and part of grandma’s yore, with little or no practical implementation.

Simple yet effective things like personal hygiene, taking care of one’s health, caring for our surroundings and fellow species on this earth should be our primary concern, rather than get blinded by the rampant consumerism which is widely prevalent in today’s age and time. We must never forget that ‘We have inherited this earth from our ancestors and it is incumbent on our generation to safeguard it for our generations to come’.

Written by Smriti Guruprasad, a grade 8 student

Want to write for I Kid You Not? We publish children’s writing.
Reach out at: ikidyounott@yahoo.com