From Riches to Rags: Same Life

It had been less than a week since our 12th std had started and suddenly we were told that the school will remain closed until the whole pandemic situation had been solved. Of course, it was a dream come true for us students. No school, no studies, no homework, nothing. I was very excited. But little did I know about what the future had in hold for me. The first few days I was in absolute carefree mode. I slept till late in the morning, watched tons of movies, ate food, went to sleep, and on went the cycle of my new, modified routine.

After almost a week into the lockdown, I had had enough of the internet, food and sleep. I was bored and wanted to do something fun. But in the back of my mind I had an eerie thought- "What if the coronavirus took over each and every part of the world?". So many such 'what-if' thoughts kept on popping in my mind. After acting all frivolous and ignorant, the severity of the situation had set in. By this time I decided that I needed to distract myself. I started by calling my family members and catching up with them. But there's only so many relatives one can have. So I surfed the internet for activities to do during lockdown and stumbled upon an article that suggested baking. So I decided to bake chocolate cookies but they turned out to be a complete disaster. Then I started helping my mom around the house but that didn't go well either because apparently it only increased her work. After so many attempts to get rid of boredom, I decide to give reading a try. But I am a very fast reader, so it was not long before my brain had had its fill of all the stories in my possession.

That day my parents were talking about how difficult it was of get hold of any vegetable vendor. So I started to look up articles on how to grow food at home and I found that many people were doing ' hydroponic farming'. I told about it to my mom and soon we started growing our own vegetables and pulses. All we had to was take some water in a bowl and put a strainer filled with seeds over that bowl. A few days later when we were eating the parathas made from the leaves of coriander we had grown, we could literally taste the success.

Also it was our Boards year. We were going to give our board exams in almost a year's time. So we couldn't afford to not study. Our school had started taking online lectures so that we didn't lag behind in our studies. Every morning was spent in attending these lectures. Our teachers did everything they could to make us feel comfortable and give the feeling that we were sitting in our school itself. I cannot put enough stress on how much I appreciate our teacher's hard work and the lengths they had to go to help us.

Then it dawned upon me that I was actually missing school. I missed my teachers, I missed my friends and I even missed the ever-so-loud school bell that rang every hour. And to add more sadness to my already depressed state was the fact that, this was my last year in the school. After being in the school for almost 14 years, one can imagine how hurt I was that I had to spend my last school year at home. I prayed to God for this pandemic to be over soon. I prayed that no more people would die due to this. I prayed that children will get to go to thier schools. adults to their workplaces and every thing would return to normal.

If we all work together, we may soon be able to win over this deadly virus. If we all follow the rules of the government and cooperate, for the sake of ourselves, our family, our friends, then I am positive that it won't be long before we all can get back to our usual lives.