Day 6 of the Lock-down!

As we enter Day 6 of the lock-down, my mind races to find out what are the things I achieved being indoors.

Zilch!!

Other than seeing stupid forwards on social media, getting bogged down by messages of doomsday announcements due to COVID-19, forwarding stupid forwards, becoming another stupid link, in a chain of stupids, Zilch!

Having no personal social contacts with anyone else apart from my household members, is a first-time experience to many and most of us. Even the first circle of family living outside the house can only be contacted by Phone (Voice or Video) and not in person.

For so many people; their wish for a break has come true as they can do whatever they had thought to do (except go outdoors)! I want these people to reflect on their accomplishments or have they started of yet on their quest to achieve their dreams?

Be that as it may, this lock-down has given us all time to reflect on the happenings so far in our lives, make amends and move forward towards a better life.

If nothing has been done in the last 5 days, we can still think of the days to come and utilise this opportunity, provided by providence, to nurture our hobbies and move towards their perfection.

Some of them, to my humble knowledge, are listed below:

• a.      Learn a new skill – there are so many things that we would have missed out due to lack of time or inclination, in the past that can be rekindled and though not perfected, can be reasonably learnt. Who knows, this can perhaps become our favourite pass-time in our retired years.
• b.     Reading – There are umpteen free websites that offer many reading materials (both fiction and non-fiction, self-development, inspirational auto-biographies, etc.) which can make our lives better and also; of those around us, by practicing our understandings from these readings.
• c.      Dwell on our hobbies and try to better our skills – after all what best than to have our hobby as our life-skill. In times of need, we could make our life out if this and we will never get bored in life, again, if our hobb(y)ies become our profession.   
• d.     Learn a new language – this (though not simple) can be done a bit easily these days, what with so many online stuff available to assist us. All we need is bit of interest.  
• e.      Writing memoirs or travelogues – This can be quite interesting as we challenge our grey cells to remember and recollect all those events and incidents of yesteryears – good and bad, joyous and sad, exciting and dreaded, etc. If we have loads of physical copies of photographs, it is all the more interesting as the whole family can enjoy these in remembering the anecdotes around each of these photos.
• f.       Meditation and Yoga – Clampdown on moving outdoors, can be a boon for those of us seeking inner peace. What better time than now, to start meditating and yoga albeit in small doses to being with. Who knows, by the time the lock-down is lifted we might have achieved couple of levels of mastery over Self.
• g.     Going through the Religious or Philosophical Scriptures and trying to practice – This can have a soothing effect on those of us who are inclined towards religion or philosophy. Bear in mind, being religious and being philosophical are two different things. One can be either of them or both. Again, there are a lot of stuff available online to help us.
• h.     Lazing around – I am sure most of us are doing just this for now. For many of us, this is our default position. We all need this a bit to relax but this shouldn’t be the mainstream focus at times like these.
• i.       Challenging each other about things we aren’t used to – like staying away from those smart things that has made us as duds. Yes, I am talking about our smartphones. Penalty for not staying away could means some punishment like sweeping or vacuuming, doing the dishes, etc. This will be a great fun in times like these.
• j.       Any type of service towards the underprivileged in times like these, being safe and maintaining social distance, is perhaps the best some of us are embarked on. I  take my hats off to those who are in this stream of activity!

The list can go on to include many more. Everything is left to our imagination and there is no dearth for it.

Effect of this lock-down can be seen in some of the below;

i.                 Rebooting of Nature!

ii.               Birds’ chirpings can be heard distinctly now.

iii.              Air is devoid of pollution from fumes thrown by vehicles and industries belching out gasses from their boilers, but we still have to wear our marks to avoid COVID-19 infection.

iv.              Cacophonic noises blaring from vehicles reduced to nil.

v.               For some, irritable door to door vendors’ visits have come to a nought.  

I am sure, if we can utilise this God given opportunity in a positive way; we all can be better human beings, by the time the lock-down is lifted.

God Bless us all to be healthy, safe and secure, in these testing times!

Lessons from "Drama in Real Life" !

Met an old friend (my namesake) at Sagar Hospital a couple of days ago. 

He was attending to his brother who along with his family met with an accident, a head-on collision with a tractor coming the wrong way on Hyderabad freeway. 

Sounds familiar?

Yes, most of our vehicle drivers take shortcuts in avoiding travelling extra distance, to take a U turn (right thing to do).

Instead, they switch on their headlights as if it's panacea for breaking the law and drive on the wrong side of the road, proudly.

Back to the story:

His brother and sister-in-law were in the rear seat while his nephew was on the front passenger's seat.

Ironically, many abhor wearing seatbelts in our country. Safety, road safety at that, is at a huge discount.

That said, how can we expect passengers in the rear seats to wear protective seatbelts?

As luck would have it, front seat passengers were wearing seatbelts but the impact being severe, driver was injured very badly. Passenger got away with minor injuries.

Luckily, his sister-in-law was saved as she perhaps, took evasive action and survived with minimal injuries like whiplash, bruises and cuts as she was awake during the night journey.

My friend's brother, however, had dozed off and was thrown on to the driver's seat on impact resulting in severe head injuries, fractured ribs, etc.

Could he have saved himself of these injuries?

Definitely!!!

All he had to do was to wear protective seatbelt.

It is all the more essential for backseat passengers to wear protective seatbelts, if they have strong tendency to doze off, while travelling by car.

For many, it is an unnecessary, avoidable and uncomfortable nuisance to wear protective seatbelts. When one hears of, or experiences such incidents, the importance of the seatbelts would come to the fore.

Bottom line:

Please wear your seatbelts, irrespective of whether you are a front seat passenger or backseat passenger and be safe.

I wish my friend's kins, speedy recovery!!