SECOND OPINION: 2021

BY APURVA RAI

EACH one of us, these days, is forced to live a life that nobody had ever imagined. Corona virus, better known as Covid 19, has caused tremendous setback to our personal health as well as the national public health system. Crores of our fellow citizens, within and outside the country, have fallen ill and lakhs and lakhs others have even succumbed to the Covid pandemic. The outbreak has not only added to the miseries to our lives but also changed the way of life, our thoughts, our mindset, our priorities, our habits and much more.

Today all of us are living in lockdowns, a term hitherto unheard of. As of the day almost everyone of us is staying indoors for the fear of catching the infection. Schools are closed, no office for most of us as only those involved in essential healthcare services are moving out, markets are closed so no shopping, cinema halls are closed so no movie or entertainment, all public parks and restaurants are closed so no place to go and refresh ourselves. The scenario and our way of life has completely changed and has fored us to find new methods to keep the wheels of life going.

Our children never knew about online classes but today attending them on laptop is a reality. Except IT people nobpody else had ever experienced work from home culture but today this too is common. Office work, online meetings on zoom have become norm of the day. With shutters in the market down the online business thrived. We are now buying everything for our daily needs through various portals who have evolved newer strategies to boost sales in the wake of growing ‘online competition’.

In nut shell while we have managed to keep our life going the pace of life has come to a standstill as a result of lockdowns and disastrous corona pandemic. In the beginning the whole thing sounded good and many of us enjoyed as there was no rush to get children ready for schools, no hurrying to reach office on time, no more tantrums from wife for not taking her for shopping or a movie and no tension to find a new restaurant to your girl friend on a dinner date. Everybody was pleased as everything was closed and you were still available either on video chat or mobile phones. Lots of people tried cooking newer dishes in between office work and kept the family happy.

Gradually the happiness started fading and boredom, depression and many such things creeped into our lives silently. The new lifestyle, the result of corona crisis, has undergone drastic changes and one has to accept the fact that things are going to stay the same way for some more time to come. It is, therefore, important that we adapt ourselves to the new-found circumstances and find better ways to keep us and our families in good shape.

Here are several aspects of our lives that have changed.

HEALTH

With restrictions on movement and outdoor travel under strict ban staying inside has proved to be a curse for many of us. It is now common to find people suffering from low blood pressure, depression, anxiety, low feeling, irritation, loss of appetite and many similar symptoms. News of some near and dear one hit by corona virus affects us as well and leaves us frightened.

We need to overcome the low feelings and depression. For this it is advised to perform some yoga or meditation everyday, preferably in the morning. Say a prayer before going to bed; or at least listen one on your bedside music system. This will give you great respite from the negativity surrounding your mindset. This is also a good method to energise your loss strength.

Take short walks in your flat balcony or the verandah of our home. Think of happy moments of the day and share them with your family members. This will help you cheer up and refresh your thoughts.

FIGHTING ANXIETY & DEPRESSION

The pandemic has thrown the biggest challenge of our lifetime in the form of heightened anxiety levels and causing depression to a growing number of population across the globe. General physicians have been dealing with similar like never before. Not being able to move out and remaining confined to the four walls of your home, no interaction with those close to your heart, salary cuts, job loss and many similar factors are responsible for leading us to a medical condition.

Fight low feelings by indulging in some or the other activity in your home. Experts say you and your family members are the best to find out a suitable method to keep yourself engaged.

Do you remember your childhood days when all cousins would gather at one place and play various small, silly domestic games! Yes, they might sound silly today but they kept you involved all day-long and you even forgot the lunch time. Refresh those days with your children now. Get a pack of cards, buy a carom, take out the board games like chess, snakes & ladder, ludo and much more.

Still have energy and time for more! Sing a song with your kids and it hardly matter how bad you are at music. Nobody is listening and there is nobody to laugh at. Just fun. If that does not suit you then play some music on your Bluetooth speaker and dance with your wife.

Believe it or not, these things will have magical effect on your mind, body and soul. Try!

DIET

Cooking everyday, eating home-made stuff everyday, months after months, often becomes monotonous. We all fancy outside food and it is good to go out to a nice restaurant sometime and pamper your taste buds. Post covid things have changed in a big way. Initially many of us tried new dishes at home but over a period of time this too has become a task and is no more enjoyable. In this situation find an outlet that is catering takeaway food and get something for your family. This will please everyone.

Staying indoors, eating all kinds of fancy food and no physical movement to the desired level has its effect on your body. So better avoid heavy food and switch to healthier diet plan. Include lot of liquids like soup, juices, coconut water etc as they are easily digestible. Increase intake of green stuff or such food that is high on protein and low on carb.

LEND A HELPING HAND

Covid has caused tremendous sufferings and added to the difficulties of the common person. There are children who have lost both their parents, there are elderly who have lost earning members of the family, many families are broken and millions of others have lost their savings.

If you are capable, fortunate to be safe and blessed to have all the facilities of life do not shy from asking your near and dear ones if they need any help in any form. During this global crisis we saw thousands of people coming out and doing charities, social services and various other acts of kindness without any outside help or without any expectation. A great salute to all such men and women. I must say we shall always remain indebted to such persons for their noble gestures.

BE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE

The covid has taught us the biggest lesson of our lifetime—be socially responsible. When we step out we have to wear a mask not just to guard ourselves but also for the safety of others.

Another covid protocol is to follow physical distancing. One must maintain a distance of at least six feet from the person sitting/standing around you. Many people hurry while in a buying goods at a store and in the process breach the distancing norm. This is bad and this small mistake could cost you dearly. It is also the responsibility of the shopkeeper to ensure that only limited customers are present at the shop counter and follow distancing norm. In fact, many shopkeepers tend to ignore this rule for the sake of making more profits by way of higher sales. They are more worried about higher sales and thereby behave in an irresponsible manner. A bad practice indeed.

Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds every time you have returned from outside. Keep sufficient liquid handwash in advance in home so that you do not suddenly run out of stock.

GREETINGS

Corona has changed the way we greet people. No more shaking hands or hugging. It is a joy to find that our own Indian method of greeting people with a Namaste is now universally accepted method. Nowadays an elbow bump has come into common practice and looks stylish too.

However, a flying kiss remains unchanged and you can still send some to your loved ones without any fear.

MAINTENANCE OF GADGETS

With the advancement of technology many of us have upgraded our homes and have purchased a variety of gadgets to keep our homes modern. Now that we do not have guests dropping in many such gadgets do not find much use and are slowly removed to one corner of the house. Not using several of these machines disables their functionality. So try each of them at intervals to keep them in running condition.

The most expensive commodity in yiur home is your vehicle be it a car or a bike. When these are not running their batteries get discharged and tyre pressure reduces frequently. Hence, get the keys and start the vehicle and leave it for some time. This will help keep the batteries in good condition. If possible, take the baby out on a short drive around your home. Get the tyres inflated at the nearby petrol pump oif they are open. It is advisable you buy your own portable air compressor and fill air in the tyres at home. Plenty of portable compressors, both manual and mechanised, are available on various shopping portals. So get them without having to step out.

ENTERTAINMENT

Many of us have even forgotten when we had last seen a movie in the theatre. With no sign of cinema halls opening soon you have to find better ways of keeping yourself and your family well entertained within the four walls of your home. If you have an old CD play it on your player which was lying idle for many years. Several movies ae being released on various online platforms and you can subscribe to one to keep the family hooked. But keep your choice to lighter stuff like family dramas, comedy, music and dance and so on. This will keep you in lighter mood and make you laugh with other family members.

GREENERY

A green cover around your home is very crucial to your happy and healthy life. In cities we find public parks which are not properly maintained and do not have enough number of trees. If possible get a tree of your choice and plant it in a park near your home and also nurture it till it becomes self-sustainable. This will add to the green cover in your area besides giving you happiness and good health for lifetime. Don’t fotget this is mere one time investment, less than the cost of one medium size pizza, and you reap fruits year after year.

If several people in your locality join hands then you can plant an entire row based on a colour theme or based on some fruit. If you go for a row of Gulmohar trees then the entire street will burst into red colour in summers when the tree blooms. What a nice view you get! Similarly, if you have a small row of jackfruit trees imagine how much of the fruit your locality will grow! The community plantation will have two-fold benefits. One, you not only make your area green but also help people get oxygen for free. During covid time we have seen how much of oxygen was needed to save our loved ones. So why not take a lesson and do something in this direction. Two, you provide shelter to birds who are fast disappearing from our cities. Bring them back.

If you do not have a park or open space around your locality you may decorate your home with small pots with seasonal plants. With every season you can change the plants and refresh your home with a riot of colours.

Good plantation is key to a healthy life. So spend a little and save the society. Perhaps, this is the best community service we can do.

READ BOOKS

The lockdown and work from home culture has turned out to be a boon in disguise for the book lovers. Many of them ordered books through online stores and finished what they wanted to read for a long time. This is also the right time to inculcate reading habit among children. Encourage your kids to buy some comics or novels for their age group. Reading is better than tossing browsers in your mobile phones. You can introduce yourself to some of the most respected authors, novelists who you have never read or have always desired to but could not find time.

Unfortunately the covid situation exposed us to a quagmire situation that barely arises once in hundred years and this took everyone by surprise. The pandemic unleashed a chain of problems that threatened human lives, challenged our health system, broke our families, forced us to remain confined within our homes and put brakes on our outside movement, led us to live a life of fear and hurt almost everyone of us psychologically leading to anxiety or depression and destabilised the economy. We had never felt so helpless in the past few decades as we felt now.

But for the tireless efforts of the medical fraternity and frantic research work done by the scientists all over the world we can now hope to bring the pandemic under control. Today we have developed vaccines and managed to bring down the mortality rate drastically.

The corona virus, whether natural or developed in a lab, has given us many lessons to learn if we prioritise happiness in our future lives. Until now we lived in a materialistic world where luxuries were a must for a comfortable life. We worked hard to add a few more gadgets in our homes. One car was not enough to define our status, we wanted several apartments to feel secured, bought jewelleries on every occasion for a small shine on the faces of our loved ones. Craving to make endless money, by any means, and well stocked vaults meant that our body language stood out from others, gave us a reason to walk straight with heads up or talk in a distinct tone. We never lost an opportunity to spend extravagantly to prove our superiority, we had competition with our neighbours or colleagues and were jealous of relatives living a good life.

The way the pandemic hit us and the way we found all our ‘rich belongings’ utterly useless gives us enough reason to rejig our past priorities. Time has come when we should relinquish a lot many things which topped our list so far.

While the whole world is recovering from Covid we should introspect what was necessary in fighting the pandemic and what has led to our victory. Obviously nothing has helped even though our treasury was overflowing, even though we were loaded with glittering jewellery, even though we had several expensive cars, even though there were several apartments and agricultural land registered in our name or in the names of our close relations. Human lives were lost like leaves falling from tree in autumn and we remained silent spectators to the wrath of nature.

Covid has definitely taught simplicity is the key to happiness.

In a speech delivered in London in 1931 Mahatma Gandhi too had said, “if you have understood my message, you will eat simple food and only as much as your body requires, you will be satisfied with small living quarters, and keep your other ‘needs’ in life to the minimum. You will realize that if you follow this principle and possess fewer assets you will become purer and truer person. You will also realize that this body, given to you for a short time, is meant to be used towards service for others and not for your indulgence. Then your attitude will change towards clothes, food and clothes used for our body and for our survival.”

The ‘second opinion’ clearly points to the fact that money and fame cannot get you the true joy. You get it when you build rich relationships, a happy home and a healthy body. The size of you home, your bank balance etc etc matter least to build strong relationship with your family and a group of dear ones who understand you and stand with you come in good and bad times equally. Spend a few hours with your family every weekend, take them for dinner occasionally, travel with the family within the country, at least, once a year. These are not very expensive but give immense pleasure and satisfaction which nothing else can give.

It is important to take good car of your health and stick to a strict diet plan. A healthy food does not cost much; it is only a matter of correct choice. If you cannot go to gym then then you can definitely do mild exercise inside the home itself.

So, bring some change in your thought process, somewhat alter your lifestyle and see how happy your life becomes.

In the last cherish a lovely poem by Harivansh Rai Bachchan: