By Ramita Taneja
After many days I felt so good when at day break, I made a huge cross on the date “1st April 2020”. It felt nice to count the number of remaining days of lockdown. To re-live that happiness I made sure I put a cross on all the calendars at home. Every time I ran my marker on a different calendar my smile widened. I had never felt so happy in last so many days. Unfortunately I had only 3 paper calendars at home.
The thought struck me that like me there must be atleast a hundred crore or more people doing the same..
Everyone in India is waiting for this lockdown to get over, waiting to go back into their normal routine, To step out of their houses or to let others step in.
Some must be waiting to go back to work, students must be waiting to go to school, some to step out for coffee, some waiting to meet relatives, some for shopping and most importantly some must be waiting for maids to come back to work.
Hoping that I would see a beautiful dream I close my eyes but within seconds I see a nightmare and open them in fear..
I saw people all over.. I see buses overloaded with people coming back to the “ karam bhoomi” I see the daily commuters in metros fighting for enough space to place their foot, I see traffic jams and people honking on busy roads, I see cabs shuttling, women out for shopping, children in school buses. All is see is people.. the entire population.
Yes we are back to the routine !!
But are we safe to be back to routine ?
No, not so soon, we maybe out of danger but we would still not be immune. We would need more time to adjust, not to the virus but to the beginning of routine. We would need to go slow, take each step with precaution.One mistake could take us back to lockdown again.
Correct and timely planning of the government is very important for an effective and safe Unlock.
Should it be unlocked state wise ?
Should the borders be open in the same week ?
Should the migrants be allowed to start movement immediately ?
Should the religious places be open to public immediately?
These are some decisions the planning committee must take before hand, A sudden lockdown created a many problems for the “ aam janta” but the sudden opening of gates would bring the tide with such force that it may turn uncontrollable.
Like they say “ Rome was not built in a day “
