LIFE IN A LOCK-DOWN SITUATION:

Who would have thought what our lives would be if we were to live in cages. Being isolated
from the rest of the society and almost being marooned in a deserted island gave me a lot of
time to reflect on all those things which I had taken for granted. As an young adult i always
enjoyed strolling around in the park, often meeting with my school friends on the weekends
and grabbing a snack from the nearby french cafe while reading my favorite book laying
aimlessly on that not so comfortable park bench and gentle breeze used to brush my face
making a mess of my salt and pepper hair. Here in this same old-school park bench, was
where I met the love of my life and in this very spot where I had asked her hand for
marriage. Now in recent days, considering the horrors of world wide global pandemic COVID
19, it only seems like a dream of the past, if one is thinking of venturing into the outdoors.

Different people bears different mechanisms for coping with disastrous scenarios, for
example my mother these days, who happens to be a school teacher, had always been
invariably busy with her students, she now has taken the utterly important and daunting task
of disinfecting all the household articles, especially the groceries; every time they enter our
lavish paternal mansion. The same is certainly not true for my father, being the scholarly
person he is, most of the time he indulges himself with all his vintage philosophical books
most of which hailing from the Victorian timeline, needless to say attaining those books into
my father's mammoth collection created quite the vacuum in his not so philosophical bank
account. My wife who happens to be a dentist, having an well established practice with a fat
yearly turnover, considering the virulence of the virus, now has stopped her lucrative dental
practice; and with all the much excess time in her hands now I feel she is aiming to be the
next Instagram sensation with all her makeover tutorial and healthy eating habits. For the
sake of my wife and to keep her nerves calm, also to keep her engaged with her acts, most
of the time i play the role of the silent video-grapher ''autobot'' transforming into a living tripod
and the submissive husband. I do not mind all the changes, as long as there exists peace in
the family.

The COVID days may be different from our usual days, yes the times are hard but in spite of
all the harshness and calamities and fear of losing our loved ones, what I enjoy the most is
the time which I get to spend with my family. Perhaps we have been locked down forcefully
against our free-will but knowingly or unknowingly we all have grown more close to one
another and maybe this is the story of every home. People fear death and they want to live
long but I have come to realize it is not the quantity rather it is the quality of life which
actually matters.

Dr Saad Andalib
MBBS,MS​(THESIS​)
Senior surgical resident
Dept' of Pediatric & Neonatal surgery
Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, Bangladesh.