Now more than one year has passed – almost from the beginning of 2020- the life of the most dominant species of this planet has been under the grip of the covid-19 pandemic. This epidemic has badly hit not only our bodies but also our mind. The human mind is not keeping well; many people are suffering from severe mental health conditions. The sky of our mind has become shrouded with feelings of insecurity, uncertainty, anxiety, depression, fear of death – from children to the elderly – perhaps nobody is spared.  

Side effects of the Covid – 19 Pandemic: Challenges to the physical mobility

The scientific research finding that the coronavirus infection is a contagious disease which has started to regulate our lifestyle during this period. If the spread of infection cannot be arrested, the situation would become virulent; we cannot let harmful viruses colonize our bodies. As a result, many various restrictions have been imposed on our day-to-day life to protect ourselves. This form of life is totally unfamiliar and unprecedented to all of us. And sadly enough, this different lifestyle is being called ‘new normal.’

One of the most critical aspects of this ‘new normal’ life is restricted physical mobility in public/social space, as maintaining social/physical distance has been identified as one of the powerful tools to arrest the spread of this infectious disease. Hence, the need has been felt to control and curtail our free and arbitrary movements. Society vis-a-vis state mechanisms have deployed various means to keep watch on and monitor an individual’s movements.

Yet these days, contemporary urban life had come to accustom to enjoying the flavour of freedom with free, unrestricted physical movements and self-regulated activities. Any kind of state or society-imposed injunctions generate a sense of resistance and conflict in the awakened minds of 21st century people.

Having come out of the inertia of unquestionable compliance, individuals of today’s world find the meaningful presence of their independent selves in the acts of protest and opposition. This is eventually reflected through various organised protests, debates, and attempts of disobedience and violation of restrictions and protocol advisories issued to maintain health and hygiene during this ongoing pandemic in multiple corners of the globe. Because of their lack of awareness, some people are showing their disregard for the entire Covid pandemic situation. Also, there are people whose struggle for survival is so very challenging that they cannot afford to sit at home to abide by the regulations of maintaining physical distance and avoiding exposure to the public domain.  

Almost all individuals are finding it difficult to accept the compelling closure and stalemate of homebound life that they have been thrown into by restricted physical mobility due to this pandemic. This sense of confinement is creating stress on their minds, which is affecting their mental health badly.

All these floating thoughts in my mind fetch many other thoughts along with them. Some hitherto forgotten thoughts have surfaced out of the oscillation that is going on in me between dynamism and stagnancy. The repetitive mundane life had covered them up from my sight until recently.

Physical Mobility of the Human Beings

Human science claims that human beings are the most evolved species on this planet and the best of all creations of nature! Human consciousness is the most developed, and therefore, human thought, understanding and senses are the finest among all other species of life. Human language – sign, words, gestures, or any other medium, through which humans express their thoughts and feelings, interpret other minds and external worlds in their terms, is also the most advanced one. This species experience the feeling of bondage in the state of immovability and immobility.

Stagnation, getting stuck in one place and lack of dynamism make humans unhappy, and take away their vivacity. To a species that can change their geographical location at their own wish and will, changing physical position, moving from one place to another, mobility of body are prerequisites of freedom. Unrestricted mobility of both mind and body keep human beings lively, cheerful and enthusiastic.        

But interestingly enough, this same species of Homo Sapiens, at some point of evolution, chose to settle down in one particular place to build up a durable/temporary shelter at the cost of their nomadic life. It took resort to stability in life and bid adieu to the once ever-volatile lifestyle. Since then, a permanent abode, a protected shelter, has started to provide a sense of psychological security to them, which helped them cope with the outer world’s sheer uncertainty. Thus not having a stable residence has become one of the basic existential crises of present-day human life.

Recommended Read: Covid -19 thoughts of a medical professional.

This crisis gives rise to various feelings of insecurity among the dwellers of today’s earth. The sense of security in recent civilized people has become inseparably attached with the assurance of a consistent place of dwelling. The episodes depicting the sufferings out of displacement and homelessness uphold one of this civilization’s major and serious community exigencies. In this way, contemporary human individuals carry inside them the dilemma of motion and rest, immobility and physical mobility, dynamism and stability, change and stagnation.

Perhaps, when the human beings said goodbye to the nomadic life to deal with the uncertainty, contingency, and suddenness of external reality, they started to feel in themselves their dynamic, change-loving spirit more and more. Whenever this spirit gets dampened, humans feel lifeless, depressed and gloomy.    

Continued in Part 2

The post Pandemic thoughts (Part 1): Life beyond physical mobility appeared first on KolkataFusion.

Politics, on the other hand, was moving at its own pace. Central Government declared Janata curfew on March 22, Sunday. And from Tuesday midnight, a nationwide lockdown was imposed for 21 days. In the absence of prior intimation and sufficient window period, mayhem broke in every household!

And our lives….

Work-life balance or work-life amalgamation

As a work from home mother of a nuclear family, Neha was expertized to balance her work, kid, love, and “me-time.” However, the sudden closure of schools and daycare hit her hard on the head. And the cherry on the top has been – no househelps!

On the other hand, Parna has been quite in a soup with no nanny for her toddler and no househelp. She has calmly decided to reduce her freelancing projects, even if it means curtailing the few hours of what she enjoyed the most – writing, to manage the increased chore load with her family members. And even if that meant compromising with her BI career.

Payment cuts have started, clients’ complaints are increasing, mom-guilt is on a new journey, taste buds are at peak. And the married life – that’s also not taking any back seat. But, a day still had 24 hours only!  

Makeup and masking

Being pathetic with makeup, Neha’s friends have always chided her. But none could impact her the way COVID-19 has – she is dying to put on makeup. Mask suffocates her and sanitizers give her sneezes! She badly wants to show off her lipsticks!

Parna is having her best run now. She always enjoyed being socially reclusive, abhorred dolling up and the COVID-19 era has helped her in more ways than one.

COVID-19 Shopping or hoarding

Once again, our educated minds said not to hoard, but Neha couldn’t stop herself from panic buying! On 23^rd of March, she bought grocery supplies for another month and stacked her fridge with sufficient eggs, meat, fishes to last for 15 days. For the first time, her 350 ltr refrigerator started being optimally utilized.

On the other hand, Parna guided by her mother, started planning meals in a foolproof way so that the stocked supplies last them for longer days. The wise managerial skills of her mother had saved them from the initial crisis.

Rekindling the old hobbies

While Neha has found new love in TV, Parna has rekindled her old love for books.

Neha was fortunate enough to receive the Fire TV Stick before the nationwide lockdown started. And it has been her family’s companion since then.  With popcorns and french fries, every weekend is a movie weekend, and she’s catching up on all the missed out web series and movies!

Parna used to be a bookworm during her student days. The present situation gave her chance to read books, both e-versions and physicals, that remained stored in her laptop and almirah.

Virtual world – new way of socializing

“We are from a different generation and we are not comfortable with video calling” – something Neha used to often say proudly before lockdown. And now, her parents babysit their son virtually, schools are held online, her son and his friends play hide and seek in a video call – the new normal!

While Neha’s still learning to be comfortable with this new method of socializing through video calling, Parna thoroughly enjoys it.

Though Parna’s cynical about screen times, but at this present condition without the nanny to look after her kid when she does the chores, there’s no other way to make her sit for some time. Her take – “monitored and quality screen time can be beneficial. So, we need to be positive.” On the other hand, for Neha – the tug-of-war between screen time and no screen time has become her life’s integral part.

Yet…..

They are trying to stay focused – to stay ALIVE as the virus spreads like wildfire. Neha’s TV which wasn’t used for a year or so goes abuzz with COVID-19 headlines every hour. Whereas, Parna has shunned social media altogether as well as TV News Updates. And with COVID-19 as their ringmaster, they are walking on the tightrope. 

Four months have gone by; how many more to come; we don’t know! But, COVID-19 teaches us the importance of independence, discipline and integral values of humanity. No boss, or client hovering over our head, no hurry to rush to school, no help to do our household chore – and we are still surviving and we will continue. With each day, we’ll be more resistant and we will learn to live our lives in a better way.

So, how are you all coping with this current pandemic phase? How are you welcoming the new normal? Please share your experiences with us in the comment section below.

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