68 days after everything stopped due to clapping and lockdown

Today, the period when everything in the country and the world has come to a standstill due to Corona, seems neither past nor future, but for those who have gone through the horrors of Corona, even today it is no less than any tragic incident in history. When we talk about blood seed, it seems no less than a fantasy, but those who have seen and suffered from Corona closely know that Corona virus was no less than the demon blood seed. It is also true in the blood seed that wherever a drop of its blood falls, a new demon will be born. This is almost what people across the country and the world have seen during the Corona period. Be it poor or rich, resourceful or resourceless, hut dweller or palace dweller, almost everyone remained confined within the four walls of their house during that period of Corona. Everything in the world has been put to rest due to Covid 19. Such were the circumstances. The very contact was becoming fatal. Sanitizer, mask, distance, four walls, quarantine and all this was seen and heard, and deaths of our own and strangers due to Corona in hospitals. The situation remained similar almost all over the world. Corona, which engulfed the whole world from China in 2019, entered our country from Wuhan, China via Kerala on January 30, 20 and till March 24, 2020, the day the lockdown started, there were 519 Corona positive cases. had come forward and 19 people had lost their lives due to Corona.

Corona’s public curfew and lockdown are about to complete four years, but remembering the day of lockdown on 24 March, I still shudder. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for 14-hour public curfew on March 22 and clapping, thali and ringing of bells in the evening on March 22 itself got full support, but till then people did not seem so serious about the horrors of Corona. People also mocked the call for clapping and did not understand the gravity of the situation. It started being called Ponga Panthi and what not. After this, as soon as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the countrymen, announced the nationwide lockdown from March 25 to April 14, everyone was shocked. But despite the lockdown, the cases of Corona kept increasing day and night. As the Corona patients started moving away from their loved ones, its horror began to be understood. The government has repeatedly given the message of use of sanitizer, continuous use of masks and distance, its effect is beginning to be understood today. The government started controlling the situation by issuing SOP. Doctors, medical workers, paramedical staff risked their lives and started serving. The situation was so severe that people engaged in service started feeling threatened by death. With the arrival of the second wave, the situation became so bad that there was a problem of availability of life-saving ventilators and oxygen in hospitals. All this is one thing and the people living in far away places started moving towards their villages by whatever means they could, even on foot, along with their families, and started moving towards their villages. The government faced the problem of providing food, accommodation and transportation to these people during the journey and that was different. Similarly, bringing back safely the people studying or living abroad was also no less than a challenge for the government. During this period, many experiences were seen in the newspapers like lack of oxygen, people dying in the hospital premises or on the road due to lack of ventilators, sadness of not even being able to participate in the last rites. The dream of marriage among twenty-fifty men was also seen coming true during this period. In the initial phase, talking about Corona vaccine was a distant thing, but later during the first phase of the vaccine, we have seen attempts to make the vaccine an offering to politics. Well, it is another matter that our initiative of providing two doses of free corona vaccination to the countrymen and the vaccine to the countries of the world was appreciated by the whole world.

Well, this was just one aspect of the picture. Actually the point of the matter is that even though today we are talking about four years of lockdown, only this lockdown of 68 days could prove to be truly life-saving in Corona. It has been a different experience to spend 68 days from 25th March to 14th April, then from 15th April to 3rd May, then from 4th May to 17th May and then from 18th May, 20th to 31st May, 2020, confined within the four walls of the house. This was the phase from work from home to online study and even today, although it may have reduced, online study and work from home are more or less going on. Although people left no stone unturned in capitalizing on the Corona period, black marketing of ventilator beds and oxygen cylinders, concentrators, oxygen beds and medicines was also seen. Well, enemies of humanity have existed in every era. It is not that we have seen the era of lockdown, but there was lockdown in most of the countries of the world and only through lockdown, efforts to stop the spread of Corona could be successful. It should not be forgotten that the then Prime Minister of England had to lose his Prime Minister’s chair due to his negligence in following the Corona protocol, even though he gave a lot of clarifications. The manner in which the affected person was taken to the hospital from that house on receiving information about the corona affected person and how tragic the circumstances of being isolated and notice being pasted outside the house were, it is a matter of imagination. Only those who have suffered from minor fever and possibility of being isolated at home know about it. The fear of death day and night should be asked of that person or family who has gone through these situations.

One thing should be made clear that due to Corona, from January 30, 2020 to March 5, 24, 3 crore 37 lakh 66 thousand 707 cases have been reported in India and 4 lakh 48 thousand 339 have lost their loved ones. This is not a small figure. Apart from this, if the government had not imposed Janta Curfew and the subsequent 68-day lockdown, the number of people affected by Corona and the deaths due to it would have been unimaginable. Despite the strictness of the government and the awareness of the people, one starts shuddering just remembering the conditions of the Corona period. In such a situation, there should be no second opinion in saying that along with others, lockdown has played a major role in reducing the effect of blood seed in the form of Corona. It may seem exaggerated to the coming generations, but those who have seen, experienced and lost their loved ones cannot forget Corona. Clap-thali may be made fun of, but it and the lockdown have played a big role in saving lives.

– Dr. Rajendra Prasad Sharma