Life In Lockdown

Five-year-old Rony now started getting bored at home and wanted to go out and play with his friends. He is also missing his play school and playmates there. He goes to the drawing room and finds papa doing his office work on his laptop. He can see that papa is not on any video conference right now, rather doing some calculations with pen and paper. So, he goes to him and waits for his attention as Ma and Dadi have asked him not to disturb papa when he is busy with his work. Since Rony is an obedient child he listens to what his elders say. Papa puts the pen on the table and holds Rony’s little fingers in his palms and with a smile gently asks him, “Yes! Rony beta. Are you not playing with your Dadu?”

“I was, papa, but after playing with me for sometime Dadu started reading newspaper then he dozed off.” Rony said childishly showing his disappointment.

Papa smiled at his gesture then said, “ok, so would my son like to listen to a nice story.”

“No, not now, Papa, certainly not,” Rony said reluctantly.

“So, what my dear son wants to do right now?

 Are you feeling sleepy?” Papa asked lovingly.

       “No, Papa. I am not feeling sleepy. I want to play with my friends. I have not seen any of them for very – very looooonggg, you know.” Saying this he stretched both his hands to show how long. “Vicky has not even seen my new aeroplane that you got me. I want to play with Vicky with my new aeroplane. Can I go to his place? Please Papa.”

                                                                

        “But, beta we are not allowed to go out.”, Papa said. “But, why Papa, why not? Why can’t we go out?” Rony wanted to know.

       Papa didn’t know how to make his five year old understand that he is not allowed to go out during this lockdown.

        Then thinking about something he asked Rony to bring his blocks of Domino Puzzle saying that he will explain it to him if Rony follows his instructions. Rony brought the puzzle pieces. Papa then arranged all the blocks of Domino in a systematic manner on the top of the table. Rony was watching amusingly. He always enjoyed this puzzle very much.

         After being done Papa addressed Rony, “Now my son knows what he is supposed to do, doesn’t he?”

         Rony replied excitedly, “Yes, Papa, I know.” Saying this he touched gently the first piece of the puzzle. In the blink of an eye this piece fell on the other piece and that one on further another and in no time all the pieces started falling in a spiral fashion. As always Rony became very happy with the sight of this and started clapping and jumping with the joy. “Wow Papa, I loved it.” – He exclaimed. 

         “Now Rony, we will play this game again but a little differently. Let me show you how we will proceed. Rony was curious. He watched patiently. Papa arranged all the pieces just like before. Rony too helped him arrange. He couldn’t understand what was going to be different this time. Then Papa asked Rony to pick one of the pieces randomly. Rony picked one. Papa asked Rony to push the first piece as he always does. Rony was happy to do this. Pieces started falling one after another just like before, Rony’s eyes sparkled with joy but suddenly the pieces stopped falling midway from where he had picked one of the pieces. Rony looked at Papa with surprise in his eyes. He was curious to know what happened to his favourite puzzle this time.

         Papa began to explain, “Rony, do you know why all the pieces were falling one after another?” Rony glanced at Papa, Papa continued, “Because every piece is being touched by the falling piece before it.”

“But in the second game, when you picked up one of the pieces you broke the chain of the falling pieces and they stopped midway.” Rony was amazed to know this. Papa carried on, “Similarly the disease ‘Corona’ spreads, about which you heard on the news channels and from your Ma and I and your Dadu-Dadi. ‘Corona’ spreads if one person affected from it touches another, the other person also becomes affected. So, to keep all safe everyone has been asked to stay at home and we call it ‘Lockdown’. Rony nodded in support but then suddenly flashed another idea, “Then only ‘Corona people’ should be asked to stay at home.”

             Papa pulled Rony closer to him and said smilingly, “My little champ is so smart. Beta, we do not know for sure, who these people are so we can’t do this, you see.” “Oh! Now I understand.” Rony was satisfied.

“Ok, you wanted to show your aeroplane to Vicky, go get your aeroplane and I will show you some magic.”

Rony ran to fetch his toy aeroplane and came back in a jiffy. Papa was on a video call with Vicky’s father. Vicky too joined in. Rony was very happy to see Vicky after so many days. Both friends chatted at length. Showed each other their cherished prized possessions and talked about new things they did in the meantime. Then Papa got a call on his mobile so Rony winded up saying bye to Vicky and gave the mobile to Papa. After taking the call, Papa turned to Rony and asked him how he was feeling after a video chat with Vicky. Rony said that he enjoyed a lot. “But, Vicky wanted to play with my aeroplane and I with his new car. You know Papa, Vicky and I always say bye to each other by shaking hands that we couldn’t do today.” Rony asked, “When will this ‘Lockdown’ end, Papa?”

Rony’s Papa had no answer as to when will we be alert and conscious about Nature and our environment and start taking things seriously. Also, how to tell all these to tomorrow’s generation.