PSYCHOLOGY ASSIGNMENT 22’

HEALTH

Safa Maryam Khan

5BAPYEJ
Register number - MA201462
 ACCOUNT OF THE PANDEMIC

Thrilled and on edge with finally getting done with our board exams, my friends and I were
sitting in our school canteen discussing about all the web series we intend on binge watching
throughout the summer. Little did we know, while lost in our world of euphoric imagination,
pandemic would pay us a visit. Soon, within a week or two, breaking headlines on the deadly
COVID-19 pandemic flooded all news channels. ‘The first case of covid 19 discovered in India’
stated the headlines of news stories in Times of India and The Hindu. As the cases of COVID-
19 infected people and deaths spiked not only in our country but the world, scrolling through
social media had me aghast as I initially didn’t seem to take any of it seriously. Epidemic to
pandemic our very last exam got postponed and instantly colleges, schools, workplaces started
to shut down. The COVID 19 outbreak had caused an alarming number of deaths on a global
scale and posed an unprecedented threat to public health, workplaces etc, therefore the world
went into a lockdown. The pandemic had disrupted the society and had severely hampered the
economy.
In its literal sense, staying true to its meaning, with active cases and literal deaths, the pandemic
approximately lasted for 3 years. Never in a million years would anyone ever expect such a
calamity to hit us in the 21st century. With our advancement in technology and the sciences, no
one would’ve ever guessed that we would get to experience something as deadly as this. Lack of
clarity, medical facilities and aid, suspension of medical services; no man could wrap their head
around what this was. It then struck that no matter what the advancement that mankind makes,
nature will always have the upper hand.
Personally, the pandemic gave me my long pending reality check. Made me or rather made us
realise the gravity of relations. Literal human relations of friendship, brotherhood and so on
that we had lost in an ocean of the so-called modernization that we would carry on our shoulder
with pride. The pandemic dragged us back to the long-forgotten days of being through thick
and thin with your loved ones. Initially it just meant, staying at home, isolated from friends and
family for an extended period of time, staring at empty roads that were once filled with all sorts
of vehicles. Lockdowns, buying food and essentials in a bulk, excessive use of masks and
sanitizers. Reading about the numerous deaths around the world, receiving calls from people
either checking in on us or informing us about a loss of their loved one. All this was slowly
becoming the definition of normal.
But eventually, as we entered 2021, it was really a rough year for my family as we experienced a
whole lot of personal losses as mentioned earlier, as well as us being testing positive for covid
twice. My mother’s older brother passed away. We could not save in him time, provide proper
aid as we could not find him a bed and or facilities as such. Keeping this in mind. I couldn’t bear
to imagine this happening on such a global scale. The country’s hospitals were at breaking
point. While some hospitals advised patients to look for treatment elsewhere, others placed
"oxygen out of stock" signs. Family members made the decision to take matters into their own
hands and began looking for oxygen canisters as news outlets began to report on patients dying
from a lack of oxygen. While all this happened, the pandemic also meant, doing your everyday
activities with extreme caution for instance stepping out, buying groceries, touching doorknobs,
touching anything was a big question mark.
As Aristotle said, “Man is by nature a social animal” we rely on cooperation to survive and
thrive, and clearly the pandemic was a whole new ball game. Along with the hard news, soft
news, stories of human interest were also being circulated around to ensure that people would
not get bogged down by the negativity. Everyone had developed or adapted different ways of
dealing with stress and killing time as we had an abundance of it. As I had been busy with school
my whole life, I had never gotten a chance to discover the culinary side of me; so, I resorted to
that. I built a routine for myself, which mainly included learning how to bake something every
week and evening yoga sessions with my mum. Making time to reach out and connect with
others is important for our mental health. As a nuclear family, we’d try to stay in touch with our
relatives as much as we could through weekly zoom calls. As mentioned earlier, there was an
abundance of time so I ended up brushing up on my lost hobbies such as photography and
painting. In addition to this, it was also a time, where I got to spend a lot of time with my pets.
I’m pretty sure that they must’ve been the happiest. All these were few ways I managed to
reduce my stress and the sense of anxiousness I constantly felt of what would happen next.
But like everything, the pandemic had two sides to it. While people lost lives, many relations
strengthened. Many realizations made their way into people’s lives in a positive manner, which
I personally felt wouldn’t have happened otherwise.