When the First Wave of Covid hit India in the month of March 2020, everything was overwhelming. I was wondering, when will this Covid get over, perhaps the 21 days lockdown would bring back things to normalcy. But soon 21 days walked towards 21 months. To be frank I do not expect things to be like before atleast for next couple of years.
When the Lockdown started, my son was a 5 year old studying on Junior kg and my daughter was 10 months. The entire time, when they should have developed their social skills and fine motor skills, I was forced to keep them at home. Yes, I know, it is a luxury for me, to have a good house, but I am not complaining about the same. Keeping children inside the house also had its own set of challenges. Their appetite and Sleep cycle was badly impacted, thus, resulting into constantly demanding children. The initial few months were stressful, there were somedays when I had totally lost my cool and just wanted to run away.
The first wave relaxed and then I slowly started getting them down to play for a few minutes. They found it challenging to make new friends, but soon overcame the challenge because they just wanted a medium to let go of their energy. Friendships, which were formed post Covid Lockdown were now stronger than before. The only difference, somehow, we did not know, if tomorrow things would remain the same, we did not know if we would all meet downstairs during the playtime tomorrow. Therefore, everyone learnt to laugh,enjoy and cherish the today that we had with us. We stopped talking about yesterday, we stopped talking about troubles instead only started talking about the present and creating new moments.
When the second wave was hit, we were more prepared. During the first gap, I had already got a few more indoor toys and activities for the kids. The children were also now grown up a little bit and understood the surroundings. The second lockdown kept us home only for a couple of months, but during this time, we ensured that none of us broke down mentally. There are already talks going on about the third wave that would be coming soon.
I still take my children down to play but with their masks and sanitizers and strict hand wash rule. I do not know if there is going to be another lockdown or when my children are going to be vaccinated. I just hope that by the time my younger daughter starts her school, she can physically go to school. Covid was tough, but it has also taught us to face challenges in our lives fearlessly. Probably in future I will not take my resources for granted. I will always have a much better back up plan for everything, like from storing sufficient groceries to handling the online schools. Yes, Online schools did have their own pro’s and con’s. Even though it was tough and made me a crazy women, Online schooling for a couple of years gave me sufficient time to understand and help my child with his studies in a much better way.
How would my world be post Covid ?
I hope I am prepared with better strategies and also prepare my children for any unforeseen circumstances in life. In a World post Covid, the fight for survival would be even more tough. Not only the strongest would survive, it will ruthlessly wipe out the weaker ones.
In a World Post Covid, Money will dominate over health, relationships, emotions, personal life, because money will dictate your survival. Blame Game and Celebrations will continue. The fight for survival will only be more stronger. I am trying my best to give my children a normal childhood with memories about the good times, they had with their friends while growing up, hope they remember the same in future and not those lockdown days. Today, when I look back a year ago, the entire first wave seems like a dream. Past and forgotten.
Vaccination may help us get rid of our Face Mask and we may once again be able to flaunt our favourite Lipsticks in public. Probably 10 years down the line, when we look back at our pictures with over grown eye brows and messy hair buns, we may proudly tell our future generations that was the time, when I learnt to love myself and accept myself. The students, who really wish to study and are from a priviledged families may have better chance to survive and excel than the other average students. Dependence on Man Power will reduce tremendously as people would prefer to rely on a machine due to the vulnerability of the human body to this disease. It will take sometime for the education system to resume normally.
To be frank, I do not know, what the future holds for me. This is just a small visualisation that I have about a World beyond Covid based on my past and present.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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