31st May, 2020

• 

Now a days the social media is flooded with videos, images, posts, tweets showing how eagerly and enthusiastically the entire nation has embraced the so called, newly emerged, co- creation of the ongoing pandemic phase, the “new normal”..!

So let’s see what all can we enlist under it, virtual v/s real, lockdown v/s freedom of movement, breathing normal v/s wearing a mask, normal hygiene v/s strict hygiene washing hands 20 times a day, having maids & help around v/s cooking, cleaning on our own.. the list is endless.!

The people sitting at leadership and public influencing positions came up with “new normal” of their own from do whatever you want to do man to stay in lockdown, to lockdown with restrictions, to red zones, orange zones, green zones, e-pass, traveling permits granted and revoked as per their right of control to finally easing the lockdown from coming Monday.

From stay home, stay safe, happy at home, quarantine files, quarantine diaries to “fir muskurayega India” You see, in short beings humans, the most superior creation of God, instead of panicking, we using our creative and innovative minds turned the situation to sound favorable, but mark my words though only to “sound” favorable.

In the beginning of this lockdown I remember we all were feeling positive, keeping morales high, binge watching Netflix/amazon/hot star, eating home made pizzas, baking cakes, endless variety of sweets which brought along the trend of clicking and sharing a picture of everything that we ate but with weeks passing by, the lockdown being continuously extended, the finances going for a toss, gradually all the excitement started draining out, the positivity of the mind we saw was not enough to stop this dreadful disease from spreading nor the endless number of cookery excellence display could feed or provide for the huge number of migrant workers, the underprivileged, the hungry, the poor….

This Covid -19 phase, we all have realized, is not going anywhere so soon. It’s here to stay and while it does it will continue to bring along the challenges of its own. So the reality is that no matter whatever we chose to do we have to take precautions, continue using masks, sanitizer , social distancing methods and within our heart we all know that these are necessitated by the need of the hour, the pandemic phase and this is definitely nowhere near our “normal”.

Had we accepted this to be the new normal there wouldn’t be any confusion in any one’s minds, we wouldn’t see people willfully disobeying the social distancing norms, not using the mask, still going to the park using gym equipments thinking that it is okay to do so,we wouldn’t see thousands of migrant workers walking endlessly for days with no food only with the intention to reach their hometown, we wouldn’t encounter the desperate plight of stranded people waiting and running at instance of every rumor of the trains being announced to their hometowns only to return even more lost and disappointed with their state of helplessness, we wouldn’t see such huge number of people being globally wiped away from their existence on Earth. The definition of normal never really included stressed, disturbed, disrupted, helpless or isolated. The new normal is just a phrase coined to hide our insecurities and fear of the present pandemic phase that we are going through.

The “ new normal” is only spoken of, but deep within our heart we all are waiting and just waiting for this phase to prove to be temporary, for it to get over, for us to go back to normal, to who we really are…. The wandering souls who didn’t really care much for restrictions to this extent, at least not until we were unwillingly pushed into this overwhelming phase of pandemic and it’s self imposed “new normal”.!

Also available on https://my.w.tt/H7GoUTlPV6

newnormal #coronadiaries #lockdownphase #migrantworkers #covid19 #stayhomestaysafe #stayhomesavelives #stayhome #pandemic