The year 2020 has been a roller coaster ride so far, having hit by some extreme highs and lows around the world. Be it Australia’s forest catching fire, locust attack in African countries & Arab Peninsula or anti-government protests around the world, this year seemed to have opened the doors of self-evaluations even by some of the intellectuals and powerful people in the world. Before the world could take a sigh of relief from all of this, it was hit by the worst of calamities – pandemic COVID-19. It is a coronavirus that infected humans across the globe and even killed many.
With no vaccine or antidote to treat this deadly disease, the world had no option but to lockdown itself to prevent people from spreading the disease and risking their lives. This lockdown brought the world to a standstill. While people are still in a panic, the earth seems to have healed itself. There is chaos among people but the roads outside are silent. It is the perfect time for each one of us to introspect ourselves and learn from this quarantine period to change our life for a better future.
During the lockdown, I understood the worth of everything around me and how important it is to value them. From a list of lessons I’ve learnt, there are 7 important things I’ve learnt from the quarantine during the pandemic COVID-19:
- Our Home is our Safe Haven (#HomeSweetHome)
- Apne to Apne Hote Hai (Time spent with the family is the best time of our lives)
- A life saved is equal to saving the entire humanity (even it means saving our own life). That’s because if we are infected, we are likely to infect many others especially our closed ones.
- If we respect and save the natural resources around, we can experience tranquillity staying at our home without having to visit any resort in a remote village or hill stations.
- We must learn to co-exist with other animals/living beings on earth. Lack of vehicles on road and people near the coasts have resulted in sparrows coming to our windows, dolphins returning to Italy coast, Venice canals with clean water, otters roaming freely in Singapore’s empty parks, Egyptian geese crossing Tarmac of the Tel Aviv Airport, etc. Air & Noise pollution levels have also gone down.
- Nature has the power to reclaim its space if we don’t value it.
- Help those in need, especially those who are dependent on us for their livelihood. In such tough times, we at least have food and a place to call home but many can’t afford it too.
In all, we must value life over everything else, especially that of our loved ones. We must all utilise this quarantine time to develop ourselves and become better humans than we are now.