It was
the last semester of my college. Besides knowing the fact that my life filled
with absolute bliss and leisure was soon going to get converted into a life
full of frenzy and panic. Though I had polished my skills very well in the
entire four years of my college and I had a crystal clear plan in my mind to
pursue my dream future Endeavour. Still, I was very much familiar with the
imminent major changes and impediments that were going to block my way. This
perplexing situation and the state of huge mayhem were putting me in a state of
lament and sorrow many times. As I was figuring out a reliable solution to
get over all these tormenting thoughts and trying to enjoy the last few best days
of my college to the fullest, I got to know about the grand farewell which the
juniors were planning for us in a concealed manner. And that was it!!!
In a minuscule second all the worrying thoughts just wiped off my mind and I
started preparing for the grand performance I was about to give in the
farewell. The performance for which I had been preparing for the last two
years. It was kind of the biggest to-do-act on my bucket list.
Unfortunately, we, the students of the final year engaged in a conflict with our
juniors a few days back, and at that moment the juniors had strictly decided to break
the ritual of bidding farewell to seniors. I was totally broken due to this and
honestly, that was the sole reason behind all the misery I had been facing for
the last couple of weeks or so. But, finally, it was happening and I was on cloud nine.
.
.
.
I came to my home a week before the grand event to carry some
essentials and to have an important conversation with the dearest person of my
life regarding the performance. Till the day, the evilest, filthy and
deadly COVID 19 thing had already put its jinxed steps in our
country. Though, the situation seemed hunky-dory at that moment, but, with
the passage of time, things changed a little. The fear of this virus had now
started disturbing people quite a bit. Well, I thought that it will not
sabotage the lives of common people. Finally, the penultimate day came. I had
to leave for my place the next morning. I was busy packing my bag, trying to put in
all the essential instruments, costumes, and precious documents for the
most special performance of my life. I completed the packing, turned on the
television, and arrived in the dining hall for the dinner. Fortunately, it was the Prime Minister’s
address to the nation scheduled at 9’O clock. Addressing the entire nation wasn’t something
ordinary. We were not used to having these kinds of addresses very often. As soon
as the hour hand was approaching 9’, each one of us’ anxiety was building up
more and more.
.
.
.
“There would be a complete lockdown for 14 days”. As this
message reached my ears, I didn’t actually believe it. I pinched myself and got to know
that it wasn’t a nightmare. I was gut-wrenched. Within a moment, everything –
all the planning, preparation, and efforts I had put in came in front of my eyes, and boom!!! Everything just vanished in a second. It was official that
something was going to happen which hadn’t ever happened before, or at least,
something I hadn’t witnessed before. I took a deep breath and collected all my
dreams and ambitions spilled over the floor. Nothing came to my mind at the
moment, just a line – “apna time aayega”. I accepted it and here we
go…putting our trembling steps into the lockdown.
.
.
.
In the beginning, I was badly worrying about how the time
would pass and what I will do stranded at my home. But, as we all heard it
quite often – “this shall pass”, and yeah, it actually did!!! Here we are,
standing on the verge – ‘the last few days of lockdown’. We had spent about 50 days stranded at our home. And now, it was the time to step out finally. In the
beginning, I was so much worried and was full of sorrow and despair, but,
today, standing on the verge of this, I feel like it wasn’t a bad time. Last 50
days had been absolutely wonderful for me. I had got to learn a lot of things
which I never couldn’t if I didn’t get to face this.
 |
| Photo by Ahmed Zayan on Unsplash |
Below is a note on ‘How the lockdown impacted me and
the lessons I learnt from it’:
1. This
lockdown blessed me with the abilities to see the true faces of inner me, my
closed ones, the society, the administration, and the government. I got to know
the wrong intentions of few groups of society who have malign thoughts and
who just want to hamper the happiness and peace of our beloved nation. No
one of us ever thought that this lockdown will show us the true faces of the
actual enemies of the nation. Having an enemy won’t hurt much. But,
having an enemy and not knowing about it will definitely do. This lockdown
has clearly shown the true enemies of our nation and that’s really a sense of
relief. It definitely will save us from any kind of unwanted activities in the future.
2. Besides
this, what this lockdown has taught me is that no one else loves us more than
our family. Our family-our parents will always stand by your side, no matter
what!!! In the fast-moving world, we hardly get any chance to spend time with
our loved ones and that’s the reason behind most of the conflicts in relationships.
This lockdown has given us enough time to spend time with our loved ones –
be it our parents, our spouse, or our kids. No one is going to see the big
positive significance of this at this moment, but, actually this time spent
with our, loved ones will contribute a lot in strengthening our relationship
with our closest ones.
3. We
hardly take time out of our lives to thank the ones who work day and night for
us - for our safety and betterment. Be it the entire Police force, the
Doctors and the medical staff, the Administrative officers and the media personals.
We hardly thank any of them for their unconditional work. But, this hard
time - this lockdown has clearly shown its true significance in our lives.
We can’t assume a civilized society and eventually, it would be so hard to
survive without them. Without caring for their lives, families, and future –
they have given their everything to save our lives, maintain discipline and
eventually put the situation back to normal. With all our hearts we must
thank them all for everything they have done and what they have been doing for a
long time.
4. In
this world, full of tremendous competition, we continuously need to build new
skills. Being an Engineer I know the fact very well that, technical
knowledge alone will not be enough to get a wonderful job in the future. I need
to have many other soft skills also. I have always been passionate about
learning new things and building new skills. This lockdown has granted me a
hell-lot-of-time to work on them. In the last 50 days I have gained mastery in
a number of crucial skills. It wouldn’t have been possible if I haven’t got
this huge amount of time.
This is how the lockdown has worked positively for me. There
was a time when I was petrified about what I’ll do in this long, daunting
duration, but, today, standing on the verge of this whole lockdown thing I am
up with an absolutely ‘new me’. I am so glad that I got to ‘see, spend, do and learn’
all this. I sincerely want to thank all ‘Corona Warriors’ from the bottom
of my heart for all their efforts and sacrifices. With a heavy
heart, I would like to pay my sincere condolence to everyone who’s deceased due
to this virus and offer my best wishes and prayers for the ones who are still
fighting with this. We all will be fine soon. On a concluding note, I
just want to say – ‘have faith in Almighty, this time shall pass’.
If I wouldn't have been an optimist, and not had seen this hard time as an opportunity, I might not have learned all these lessons and just ruined the last 50 days - sitting home, doing absolutely nothing, what many people did.
Well….want to know what happened to my performance, what
actually was it and why I was badly mad about it??? Ahan! I won’t disclose it
now. Let it be a top-secret!!! I just can't disclose it here. Hope, we'll meet some good day and I'll expose the biggest secret of my life.
I'll see you next time.
Till then, take good care of yourself and your families.
And please, don't forget - "this time shall pass by."
To get reliable solutions for any of your love-relationship, personality, and career-related issues. Feel free to contact me directly here at anant.vyas13@gmail.com