Coronavirus disease– or as it’s more commonly known, CoVid-19 – has brought life as we know it to a standstill. What began as a case of pneumonia of an unknown cause in the small city of Wuhan in China in December 2019, has now spread all over the world, bringing major governments to their knees. It feels like a dystopian scenario similar to that seen in books like Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and movies like Contagion (2011) and 28 Days Later (2002). 

While there are several conspiracy theories about the pandemic floating around, what we do know about the virus is that it causes respiratory problems, similar to the flu, with symptoms like cough, fever and difficulty breathing. It spreads through contact with an infected person, and the immunocompromised– namely the elderly and the sick– are the most vulnerable to the disease. However, with the number of infections and deaths skyrocketing in the last few weeks, it’s become clear that being a carrier is just as dangerous as being a patient. 

It is for this reason that countries all over the world have issued quarantine orders for citizens. Beginning with China, countries like Italy, Spain, Germany, Iran, the Netherlands and India have enforced strict curfews on civilians. Governments all over the world closed their borders and declared lockdowns on its citizens, effectively trapping tourists, migrants and civilians inside the buildings they resided in. People began to panic, hoarding essentials like food and medicine, causing widespread lack of supplies for those unlucky few who waited too long.

On March 19th, 2020, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi called for a ‘Janta Curfew’ on the 22nd of March, urging civilians to stay indoors from 7 am to 9 pm. Little did we know that this was a precursor to a longer, more strict quarantine. 

On the 22nd of March 2020, Prime Minister Modi in his second address concerning the virus declared a 21-day lockdown, far stricter than the curfew. Essential services like hospitals, ATMs and grocery stores would continue to function but all transport was forbidden until the 14th of April.

It is during this lockdown that I pen this post. Cooped up in my uncle’s house after being temporarily evicted from student housing– like a lot of my classmates– with no interaction with the outside world except to run to the store to buy essential groceries. Even then, on my way to the store, I see police vans parked every few hundred meters, stopping vehicles and pedestrians for questioning. “Where are you going?“, they ask, “What are you going to buy?”

I answer their questions, my words muffled by the mask I wear and go on my way. Several days I’m tempted to take the long route to the store, just so I can feel the sun on my skin for a little longer, and take my mask off for a minute so I can breathe in the fresh air. But I don’t, I just hurry to the grocery shop and back, three times a week.

This is life now. Confined to the same four walls for hours on end. I do my best to stay busy– picking up a rigorous exercise regime, learning to cook, watching movies, reading books, trying to create something, anything to escape the clutches of inactivity. It’s lonely to be separated from friends and family, and the irrational fear of never seeing them again creeps up on me occasionally. But some days, when I sit in my uncle’s balcony next to his potted plants and look outside onto the empty streets and the rows of closed stores, I feel a calmness I’ve never felt before.

Without the noise of people outside, I can hear the birds again. With no cars on the street, the sky is a lot less hazy. I laugh as the pixels on my laptop screen momentarily arrange to form the face of my mother, sitting all the way in the Netherlands, as she calls me on Skype to tell me what my cats are up to. My mother and I end the call saying “I’ll see you soon,” and in that moment I truly believe it.

We hope that our grandparents stay indoors and protect themselves. We hope that our little cousins are getting the care they need. We hope that the healthcare workers all over the world who are fighting this virus stay strong. We hope that we survive this. This is life now, and we can only hope that it gets better.

“To state quite simply what we learn in time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.”

– Albert Camus, The Plague