Lockdown Day 21

Dear Diary,

Today is the twenty first and the final day of phase I of the lockdown imposed to fight Corona. India has been quite successful in arresting the spread of Corona till date. To extend the gains further and to completely rout out the infectious disease from our country, the prime minister has extended the lockdown further till 3rd May '20. This is a necessary and very good step in the direction of ensuring the well being of all the countrymen. We hope that the sacrifices of our countrymen will bear fruit sooner in the form of our win over Corona.

Hope sustains life and all the people are praying and hoping for the best right now. Doctors and nurses around the world are giving their best to treat the patients. Police are keeping a close watch on enforcing the lockdown to prevent the spread of the infection. Sanitation workers are doing their best to keep the cities clean and sanitized in the most difficult situation. All these are the real warriors now fighting the invisible enemy and trying to protect the countrymen. Salute to them from the depths of our hearts.

Life during the past twenty one days of lockdown has been unprecedented. Such circumstances were unthoughtful of even in the wildest of imaginations. However, in spite of the mind numbing happenings around the world, there have been some positive outcomes also. With the now clean air, rivers flowing with crystal clear waters, wild animals taking a leisurely walk in cities, sightings of whales and dolphins in the coastal areas, breeding of turtles on the coasts; nature has heaved a sigh of relief! Apart from human activities, nothing seems to have stopped in the natural world. The trees are flowering, plants are looking a bit more fresh due to the absence of dust in the air, birds are singing merrily from dawn till dusk, the weather is changing from spring and will soon give way to summer. The green barbet gives out melodious calls sensing summer in the air. Everything seems to be perfect without human intervention. What a paradigm of sorts, we always thought that the man is the top of the creation of God. Perhaps, due to our overindulgence in our senses, nature ordered us to take a break! Hope after the break, human beings will be more appreciative of nature.

All of us might have done many new things during all the free time during this lockdown. I did a lot of yoga, meditation, exercise, read many books, learnt how to continue office work from home, participated in many Video conferences of office and above all found a lost piece of music and a lost friend, both of which were playing truant for the past more than thirty years! The details of the findings I have written in my past days' writings. I also tried to find God inside me through meditation but in vain. Though I now know that when even finding a lost piece of music or a lost friend can take thirty years, finding God may take a bit longer. Whatever be the odds, the search continues.

I wish, under all this hullabaloo, humanity's search for a vaccine against COVID-19 should not be that long!