Lost in a Lockdown
Lost in a Lockdown — Fictional story based on lockdown.(The world has been in lockdown for over three years. Besides sporadic trips to the grocery, you have not seen the outside world).
It’s June 14, 2025, a calm Saturday morning in Chennai. Today we are entering into 3rd year of lockdown owing to the covid pandemic. I found the climate unusually cool today. This is different from 3 years back. Chennai is known for scorching heat in May/June months. Thanks to the pandemic our traffic got greatly reduced in the last 3 years. Because of this, pollution got reduced to a very minimal level. Nowadays I breathe fresh air.
This morning, my wife Revathi updated me that we are close to running out of groceries and gave me a bag. I started walking toward the grocery shop. When I was close to the grocery shop, I found doctor Bhakatvasalam coming from the opposite end in his old Bajaj scooter. Though Dr. Bhakatvasalam is one of the senior-most doctors in a government medical hospital, he always wears a simple dress and always travels in his old bajaj bike. I can see his face full of melancholy today. When he came close to me, I wished him” Good Morning doctor”, and he replied back good morning. On seeing his face, I asked “Doctor, I think you haven’t slept yet today”. The doctor replied back “Yes, I haven’t slept yet, How can I sleep on this terrible day?” I curiously asked him “What Happened”. He told me in a grief tone “Last night We lost one of the best doctors in our hospital owing to covid, He guided us to set up a covid specialty ward from scratch, which saved thousands of poor people from this deadly disease”. He continued “Along with this grief we saw the highest number of deaths today in our hospital. We lost 500 lives in a single day in our hospital, I felt so miserable due to this twin tragedy, how can I sleep?” keeping calm for a few seconds, I tried to console him “Doctor, please go and take a rest. This is wartime, doctors like you are our soldiers, saving us our lives. Society needs you; the country needs you”. He patted gently at me and said, “Do you know, we showed our deaths today as only 50, owing to state government pressure”, I reacted with a woeful expression and we both left for our home. His last statement was indicative of pity covid politics which was prevalent throughout the country.
I reached my home and returned all the groceries to my wife. Since this is Saturday, it is a school holiday for kids. Kids are busy playing video games now. I too started watching TV. At this moment when I checked my mobile, there were 3 missed calls from my father. Mobile was in silent mode, so missed all these 3 calls. Understanding the urgency of my father’s calls, I tried to call my father. My father is a retired headmaster in my hometown which is more than 500kms away from where I live. He is running an NGO which helps education for poor school dropout children. Pandemic significantly increased the number of school dropouts. His NGO tirelessly worked to address this problem by providing technology-based education.
He picked up my call on the other end and asked me “Shanmugham, I need some urgent help, can you help me?” I replied, “Yes please, what help is needed?” He continued “Can you arrange some funding for our activities? Can you please arrange a few used smartphones which anybody can donate to us as charity? We are seeing more children going to jobs in agricultural fields in the last few weeks due to their extremely poor finances. Last time, a very young girl married a man in a nearby village owing to financial pressure and debts. Can you help me? Feeling gloomy, I replied to him, “I will check and update”. Pandemic has torn the future lives of poor school children and it has created a generational catastrophe in education. This is specifically for children who depend on government schools.
2 days passed, Today 16 June 2025, Monday. In this pandemic, one thing that went without any interruption is office work. Our WFH model has been adapted well by our colleagues in the last 3 years. Monday morning was generally a lazy one in the office. But this Monday has some special significance in the morning. Our company vice president has called all of us for an all-hands meeting via Microsoft teams for a special announcement. We were waiting for this special announcement. He started the presentation and went to that important slide. His voice is now filled with joy “Yes, this year we achieved 200% profit and all our digital solutions are wanted everywhere globally”. Now that announcement came “With this achievement, we will give all employees a 100% bonus and it will reflect next month in your paychecks”. We feel elated, why not? Even under these desolate conditions, we have something to cheer for.
That evening, after office work, I was sipping a homemade tea, and random thoughts were going into my mind. Earlier we were seeing 2 worlds, Rich and poor. This pandemic has further widened the gap behind these worlds. It supercharged the inequalities further. Governments have the power to curb this inequality, but will they do it? When will this pandemic end?
Keeping my fingers crossed — Circa: June 16, 2025
— Vijayabharathi C
