It is a crisis felt on global scale. A virus that cannot even be seen with naked eyes has proved itself powerful to an extreme point to turn mankind, the supreme creature of God into helpless beings and point out their limitations and shatter their arrogance as they are powerless till now to rob the virus of its tremendous force. The whole world is under a menace to an extreme degree, created by COVID-19 and such a threat was never felt before by the globe. In consequence to that, locking down of people at home or isolating them at their houses from others in the society is adopted by different nations with firm hands to save the humanity from being swept away by COVID-19. Desperation has started undermining people due to the colossal power of the virus that sways its victims with. Leading isolated lives at home cutting off from all social ties have become very taxing for some people.
But it is said that every cloud has a silver lining. Therefore, our being in the predicament and our experiencing rigorous self isolation at homes now are also not devoid of benefits to be reaped by us. Proper self-isolation at home is considered to be the best possible way to ward off COVID-19. The crisis if we can take note of has also taught us to regenerate a number of values or good habits or customs that must have passed into our oblivion or are ignored by us.
The first lesson that the hour of crisis has taught us is to lead hygienic lives. It is often seen that we have forgotten our old practices of removing our shoes while entering the house after visiting outdoors as well as washing our hands immediately after entering and before touching any other objects at home. Those customs, which enable people to keep the house as well as themselves clean and germ free is revived now with vigour at this hour of crisis, which demands us to lead a complete sanitized life. Apart from that, leading disinfected lives is but part and parcel of a civilized nation. Hence, to keep the virus at bay, everybody is making utmost effort to keep themselves and their surroundings sanitized now and that in turn is strengthening their sense of hygiene as civilized beings.
We have played ducks and drakes so far with whatever resources we possessed. It is especially a recent trend to be noticed among people is their food wasting habit. Frequenting the restaurants often gives the spectacles of people having their eyes bigger than their stomachs. Such people order more food than they can eat and ultimately it is seen that heaps of food go waste. The lock down system adopted to ward off the virus never keeps the possibility of food items to be available for people outside at anytime and anywhere in a day. Hence, people are frightened of running short of food items at home and are learning now to lead lives consuming that much food only which is enough and is not excessive. Such a policy adopted by people now happens to be a good sign, which will prevent the wastage of food. Wastage of food happens to be one of the crucial reasons of disparity prevalent among people in the society such as some live eating to their hearts’ content and some remain empty stomached.
It is not only the food that we are not wasting now but whatever resources that we have in our hands to lead our lives at present; we are not over using that. Therefore, the hour of crisis has taught us to adopt the steps owned by the minimalists to lead their lives, which can be termed as efficacious in procuring happiness for the self as well as for others without creating scarcity of any of the things in the society.
We played pranks with our health so far gobbling down all the junk foods to please our taste buds. Most of us never minded to be aware of all the healthy foods to keep us strong. But the crisis that we are facing now demands us to keep our immunity strong to fight against the virus. Hence, we are trying now to differentiate between healthy and junk foods and are gradually tilting towards the former.
It is not a matter to be concealed is that a sect of people liked to indulge in creating divisions among people in the names of caste, creed and religion so far. Such a tendency among those people became very effective in spreading hatred and that often resulted in spilling human blood. But the isolated lives being led by the people at their homes under the threat of virus have made them to forget the divisions that they tried to create among people. That is due to the fact that the virus does not believe in dividing people and targeting any special group or sect out of them considering their faiths or beliefs. It can attack anybody at any time who is but not following rigorous self-isolation at home. Hence, under the threat of the virus, people living in isolation have started seeing them as parts of one human race and not as fractured groups professing different faiths or religions and therefore have started praying for the safety of one and all in this world. Hence, the hour of crisis has taught us to cherish brotherhood among us as a single mankind that we ignored or forgot so far.
People now severed of all social ties and living at their homes often find sufficient times in their hands. That time, some of them are trying to utilize in cultivating their hobbies indoors. Hence, the tough time has also seen dormant hobbies in people waking up and hence the bursting of creativity and its effervescence are there under different roofs now.
The critical time must have satisfied some of us who cry for a healthy and egalitarian society with men and women viewed as equal parts. That is due to the reason that regardless of all social classes whether high or low, both men and women are shouldering the responsibility of homemaking equally now. That has happened due to the tough time with its lock down system that has made it difficult to get the assistance of all the part time domestic helps now with whose services most of the families actually manage to accomplish the household chores. It can be said that the time has also revealed to us the domestic helps’ role in incurring all the pains to contribute to the smooth maintenance of our domestic lives. Hence, we are able to feel their worth now and therefore it is time now to thank them from the core of our hearts for all that they do for us. It is also time for men – those who have taken part in household activities as well as those who have not but can view the activities at close quarters sitting at home now – to learn that homemaking is not an easy job. Hence, tough time may also make it possible to give all the homemakers their due respect.
The crisis may also turn out to be beneficial for children in making them stronger and more active. If the children who are at home given some shares of domestic activities to perform in order to lessen the burden of household wok done without the assistance of domestic helps now, it can be ascertained that even the most sluggish children, who love eating on the efforts of the elders of the family, will also grow active or vigorous.
Prayers are powerful enough to keep us filled with positivity as well as in relieving us of anxiety. Prayer undertakes such a healing process making us confide to God all our worries and cares and thus aids to keep us relaxed. Leading hurly burly lives we ignored our prayers to be said daily so far. But now while sitting at home and looking around and feeling that no power seems to be adequate enough to arrest the power of COVID-19, we have started looking at the sky and praying to omnipotent God for our safety and are relying on Him to keep us in a peaceful state of mind at the hour of crisis. Hence, the crisis that we are confronted with now has taught that the prayer has much capacity to placate a ruffled state of mind and upkeep our equanimity during troubled times.
It is also time to cherish our values of selflessness and of gratitude. People who were self-centered all along have good chances to learn the lessons of selflessness from the squads working out venturing their own lives to keep us safe at this hour of crisis. We should salute them for the service they are rendering and be thankful to them isolating ourselves at homes and thus making their task to fight against the virus easier.
Hence, the above are the sunny sides of the present dark hour of crisis, which are already noticed by some and if all other people also take cognizance of those then they will no more feel stressed by self- isolation at home that protects us from COVID-19, aids us to revive our lost values or has so many things to teach us as discussed above. If we all continue with the values and teachings, that we are rejuvenating or learning living through the tough time, after the crisis is over then we are surely going to revive the lost beauty of the earth and make it a better place once again for all to live happily on.
—–Dr. Fathema Begum
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