Preparing for Lockdown

                Lockdown days of Deepbaazigar - 1

     The most heard word in India is 'lockdown' and not the Coronavirus. India is fighting Covid-19 much better than developed nations thanks to simple measures like 'lockdown', social distancing and frequent hand-washing suggested by Govt of India. We knew that India has the second-largest population in the World and the community outbreak of Coronavirus can kill lakhs of people in India and we don't have enough healthcare structure to manage that scale of patients. That's why the lockdown became the most important and only way to flatten the curve and ramp up the healthcare facilities wherever possible. Central Govt and State Govts are working as a team and this should continue even after everything gets normal. Worldwide elders above 60 are considered as the most vulnerable group but then there is also a group called 'people with co-morbidity' who have very low chances of recovery when they get infected by the virus. Due to my diabetes and hypertension, I became part of this second group. Hence, I decided to stay at home and save my life. Thankfully, I am still not infected but I can't predict the future as I always go out to buy essentials needed for the survival of my family. Nevertheless, this lockdown has given us all good time to take some much-needed rest from the busy schedule, get in touch with our friends and relatives, focus on our hobbies and most importantly introspect about our lives. I will try to share what I did so far in this lockdown. 

     Being a trader in the share market I am tracking updates related to Coronavirus right from January month-end. In January, I travelled more than 2000 Kms for visiting various schools in Palghar districts for spreading awareness of Solid Waste Management. In February month when Coronavirus cases started increasing rapidly in China and India brought many stuck Indians from China to India I decided to stay at home. I travelled hardly 200 Kms in entire February month. My main interest was to study Coronavirus and how it can spread in India and what we should do. On 24th February 2020, I made Facebook Live video to explain how the Coronavirus outbreak in India can affect the Indian Economy. As the March month started I decided to stay at home because I somehow knew that India will soon declare nationwide lockdown. I tried my best to convince my Sister and her Mother-in-law that we must leave Virar and shift go to our hometown before this lockdown happens. Unfortunately, they didn't listen to me so I decided to stay here with them to support them instead of running to Solapur where my parents live. When Govt decided to close all the Schools and Colleges in India, I suggested the team Ashwamedh Foundation do the same. We stopped operations of our NGO Center in Vasai (Ashwamedh Foundation's Knowledge Center). After completing the rework on the Solid Waste Management Project we halted that project too. In March month I came in touch with my Primary School classmates after almost 30 years. Most of my time went into chatting with them on the WhatsApp group and getting to know each other.  Apart from winding the work step by step, I was already preparing for the lockdown. We did shopping for essentials in advance, talked to family members and told them that we aren't taking the risk to travel there now and started keeping ourselves updated about the spread of Coronavirus in India. 

      One fine day, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi came out to say that on 22nd March 2020 there will be Janta Curfew and people should not come out of the home. To announce the war against Coronavirus I and my family I participated in 'Taali-Thaali-Ghanta' bajao in the evening. The opposition criticized this event calling it a mockery of the Scientific approach towards pandemic but still, India went ahead with the task and announced it's the beginning of a war against Coronavirus. One day Curfew helped Govt to send most of the population of India at home and prepare the Police Force to take their positions across India. 21 days lockdown was announced from 23rd March to the 14th of April. And India started implementing its strategy to fight against Coronavirus. Most of the people fled cities like Mumbai-Pune well before 21st of March because they knew that sooner or later there will be complete lockdown. A huge population of daily wagers stuck in the Metro cities became panicking and started walking towards their homes in other states. A crazy phase of Lockdown started in India where Rich and Middle-class India was in holiday-mood while poor Bharat was worried about its survival. The Great Indian Lockdown has begun!