Over the past two months, the whole world is facing lockdown due to corona pandemic. Pakistan also went into lockdown on March 23. Since then, debate over the issue has widened and every person seems to be voicing concerns over the adverse effects of the lockdown. Undoubtedly, there are many serious adverse impacts of COVID-19 and these aren’t to be downplayed. Nonetheless, I hope that many of the positive effects that I observed will endure into the future.
Due to this pandemic, everything is under lockdown. But the lockdown does not affect natural life. The chillness of the earth is gaining the warmth of the sun. Plants are growing. Flowers are blooming and enhancing the beauty of earth. Birds are chirping and twittering. The sun is rising and setting on its time. What really affects from this lockdown is “our artificial life”. We are getting things, we need actually but we stop to going in shopping malls. We are eating simple food but we left to waste money in restaurants. We are only consuming the foods we need. Before lockdown, we have no time for our elders, parents/grandparents. In contrast, parents were busy in their own schedule. We were constantly distracting and disrupting our lives by using our mobile phones. But in these days, we started to cherish our time to our family. We started to listen and understand each other. Many people started exercise/yoga and consuming healthy food.
As per NASA report, there is significantly drop in pollution and air quality has improved dramatically. Ozone layer is also recovering. Another unexpected effect of the lockdown has been witnessed on water. Polluted water of canals and rivers are clearer now. Road accidents ratio have also decreased during these days. Due to consuming less and healthy food, our health has also been improving. This lockdown has taught us many things. We are physically in lockdown, but everything is not locked down. Kindness, love, learning, reading and better relationships are not locked down. The lockdown has not affected prayers and motivation to help other. The lockdown has provided us an opportunity to do what we always wanted to.
By: Amna Rasheed