Corona Times...

THE ONSET

They say bad time often comes without a heads up! It just sneaks upon you when you are least expecting it. Something similar happened to the world with Corona virus or COVID 19 as the name given to this deadly microbe by the World Health Organization. 'CO' stands for 'Corona', 'VI' for Virus, and 'D' for disease and since it was found in 2019, hence the number 19 attached to it. Certainly the most talked about & the most unprecedented event to hit us in 2020. 

Friday March 6^th 2020, I took the day off from work to spend some quality time with my son who was turning 15 that day. My world was as normal as one can imagine. I picked up my son after his school, we drove around the city until he picked a place where he wanted to have a late lunch with me. We ended up at ‘On the Borders’ his favorite Mexican chain. Given that time of the day, there was hardly anyone there. When I say hardly anyone, I mean we were the only two people in the entire restaurant and I joked with him that I reserved the place specially for him. The waitress attended us like we were the VIPs and even brought a birthday brownie and a Sundae ice cream as a special treat from her! As we were basking in the happiness and glory of our 1 on 1 birthday celebration…little did we know at the time that this would be our last dine in, for a while, in our favorite place!

Later that day, we had a bowling party with about 8-10 kids and their parents. The place was packed! We had a great time enjoying everyone’s company. Party lasted for about 2.5 hours and as we were dropping some of the kids off on our way home, little did we know that this would be the last time, for a while, that our kids are going to be hanging out with their friends.

March 10^th the first two corona virus cases were officially confirmed in the state of Michigan. I remember how my antennae and alarm both went up as soon as my husband delivered the news to me first thing in the morning. I blamed him for being un-auspicious and told him we should be thinking positive things and sharing positive thoughts in the morning. Deep down in my heart though I had this strange feeling of impending danger, a threat of some kind, an unexpected ill omen. Fast forward 30 days, today April 11^th Michigan has close to 23,000 confirmed cases and over 10,000 deaths from this deadly virus. It didn’t take too long at all for things to accelerate to this point and in these last 30 days our lives have totally transformed and metamorphosed in a way we had never imagined in our wildest dream!  So surreal. So Unreal. What did we miss? How did this all happen?

Human Corona viruses are not new to the earth. This group of virus have been prevalent and known to cause mild upper respiratory tract illness. What was new about this virus was the way it caught us unguarded, unaware and how it pushed us (in about 185 countries and many billion people) across the world in ways human beings had not experienced or imagined before.

THE NEW REALITY

A lot has changed in the last one month. We now live in the era of ‘Social Isolation’ and ‘Self Quarantine’. It is not normal or expected to leave the house. Its for your own safety and for the safety of others. All schools have been closed for the rest of the school year. Non essential businesses and offices have completely shut down. Restaurants are closed and some who had a stronger financial back bone are open only for carry outs. Grocery shopping is now a life-threatening event that one dread approaching. Toilet papers are a rare sight, almost at the verge of extinction, were last seen in any store more than a month ago. Hand soaps and sanitizers are as precious as gold! Outside there is a long spread silence, even if you try your hardest you don’t hear a thing. No sounds of airplanes crossing the sky, no auto mobiles, no kids biking around…nothing. Its good to hear birds chirping still in the morning and ducks coming out for a morning walk with family!

As humans are confined to the boundaries of their homes, the nature is getting all the time to heal. The only positive in these grim times. A lot to unpack and think about there. The list of atrocities and selfish acts human species had been doing to destroy the animal kingdom and pollute the nature for their greed, for their selfish interests. It was clear that humans were on a time out and all other species in the nature were coming out to enjoy the planet earth, uninterrupted! As they should have hundreds of years ago.

In this new reality, ventilators are the new war weapons. Countries and states within countries are in an open bidding war over who gets them first and how many. Leaders across the world have no other option but a total lock down to prevent their citizens from falling ill and dying. Scary times for sure. Health care workers, the war zone heroes are endangering their lives every day as they go into the ICUs to take care of the corona victims, putting their lives at risk with every interaction. Personal protection gears are not available all the time, and even when you have those on, the virus is penetrating all the layers taking more and more health care professionals in its vicious grip every single day. It all seems like a scary dream sequence, a dreadful science fiction or a Hollywood thriller that was never supposed to turn real. But this is all real. We are living in this reality. Scared, confused, astounded! No cure, no vaccine in the sight.

THE POSITIVE

Although these are very dark times, there is still so much good that can be seen happening around. Communities are coming together at an exponential level to help each other out. Schools are packaging lunch for thousands of families every day. The big three auto makers are turning their manufacturing plants to focus on making ventilators and personal protection gears. Technological platforms are offering free services so people can come together via conferences and schools can turn to online education. Restaurant chains are providing free meals to senior citizens and to health care workers working 24/7. Philanthropists from across the world are funding all kinds of efforts to relentlessly fight this beast of a virus and keep it under control.

Air is all time cleanest. Gas prices have reached all time lowest mark in decades.  Bills and tax timelines have been extended. Families are spending time together which they did not have the luxury to do in their usually mechanical and robotic schedules. Parents are home taking care of their children. People are learning how they can survive just as well within limited resources. We are at our highest peaks of awareness with respect to health and hygiene. And mostly everyone is appreciative and grateful towards life in general.

The breakout has given us all the necessary mental break to look back and introspect our lifestyle, our habits, our mindset, our attitude towards things. In short there are so much learning in this experience that is beyond words.

THE UNCERTAINTY

Its been a month since we have been living in this new reality and getting used to the new way of life at various levels. After forming and storming through the new reality, we are finally getting an inch close every day towards norming and performing our role as best we can in the given scenario. We have, to a certain extent, accepted and made peace with what is going on, although there are still ups and downs with us mortals and many a times anxiety and panic still surface in our thoughts and actions. The biggest denominator is still the uncertainty that prevails everywhere. We are listening to the news cast and the daily presidential task force addressing, but data is taking is us everywhere and in many possible directions. No definite answer to how long can you expect this to last? When can we expect to resume normalcy? How soon can the world be open for interaction again? So on and so forth. We can interpret data and make best assumptions but there are certainly no best answers. Only the virus gets to decide the timeline. No one else has the power anymore.

These are Corona Times. Times no one could predict we all would have to face one day. Part of me wants to believe there is a ‘Super Power’ driving this all, and that super power is no human or country. That Super Power is above it all. I want to believe there is some larger good that is going out to come out of it for all of humanity, but not without a ton of sacrifice. Who knows what nature has planned. It is not obligated to tell us anything, especially after our ruthless attitude towards it for years over years.

Humankind shall have to wait. We shall have to be patient. We shall have to have faith. In these tough times, the only way out is the way in. Time to look within ourselves, do some soul searching, where we have been, what can we change, how can we come together to help our planet in positive ways. I would just leave it here, for now.