3 most important things I experienced in this lockdown
The only truth that any creation can undoubtedly and unquestionably experience is death
I am an undergrad student who is growing up in a country which has a very promising economy but with the worst governance. Though it seems unequal that a country is growing in economy but has a bad governance, although, in real sense, in the era of 21st century capitalists, businessmen and entrepreneurs actually pushes the economy more than the government does. So, even if the government of Bangladesh sucks, it is a thriving economy. That means, if you don’t have any business or money-making enterprise here, you either have to work for someone or have to starve unless you start begging door to door. The government will not help you to live without money.
This scenario became much worse during the lockdown. Both the businessmen and workers became effected by the pandemic. My family and I also had to experience the cruelty of lockdown. And during this nearly one-year-period I’ve experienced some events which have certainly changed me a lot.
The rural life
I was born in a rural village of Bangladesh. But when I was only three years old, my family moved to Dhaka which is the capital city of Bangladesh. Basically, I grew up in Dhaka and it became homeland to me. I studied there, I completed my school life, then passed college exam and now I am studying ‘politics’ in one of the renowned universities of Dhaka. So, you can easily understand that I am a city-fashioned person who is not acquainted with soil, grass and physical labor.
But when the pandemic struck Bangladesh, government imposed lockdown all over the country. Our income source was closed and we became unable to bear the house rent. So, we were compelled to move back to our village.
After 20 years I started to live in my birthplace in rural Bengal. The house was nearly destroyed. Part of its ceiling collapsed. It was dusty and full of spider web. It looked like a dumping place. We cleared the dust, washed the floor, swiped the spider web, fixed the ceiling and It took nearly 4 days to finally make it look like a livable house.
But the problem that comes after is food. As the income source was closed we decided to grow food by ourselves. My family had some savings in the bank. We withdrew that money and started farming on the field nearby.
This was the first time I had taken a shovel in my hand, worked with it at the mid noon, and two days after, blisters appeared in my palm. It was the very first time that I experienced hard labor, experienced sun burn and that the food that I used to eat and waste in restaurants is a result of a great hardship and labor. Just paying money for them does not pay their value. I should respect food and not waste it. I should respect farmers and not look down on them. Because they are the architect of civilization, they are the soldiers who ensure our survival. Without them we, the suited and booted city dwellers, would become scavengers in town.
Numbness towards death
As a student of politics, I used to check news every day and study the pandemic from the socio-economic aspect. In every national and international newspaper death news was in abundance. At first, this news would make me frightened and tensed. But as days passed and thousands of people were dying of the virus this news became as usual to me. One day, I read that Italy, which was most affected country in the world by the virus, appealed to EU for help but EU refused. This news made me sad and anxious about solidarity among nations..
During this time, the virus still did not affect my country to a large extent. But as days past, it started to spread rapidly, appeared in new variant, affected place to place. Even lockdown couldn’t hold it down. In this time, I was receiving death news through Facebook. People of my acquaintance were sharing the death news of their acquaintance. So, it became a frightening phenomenon that people around me were dying. After all, we all fear death.
But at a time, even Facebook posts became dull to me. And one day, one of my relatives died. After that, my friend from the university died, two of my seniors died. Death felt so alive back then. One day we heard the news that one of our neighbors back in Dhaka died of the virus.
Suddenly, it felt that death is not that scary, it is always with us. The only truth any creation can undoubtedly and unquestionably experience is death. But we are too busy with our daily life to remember the certainty of death. We forget that in anytime we could die. Even when I was writing this, an earthquake could occur and my house could be destroyed instantly.
So, death became so real and obvious that I was feeling even if my parents die now, it won’t be so shocking or sad incident. This numbness towards death was my very first in my experience.
Closeness to nature
As I said earlier, I grew up in Dhaka which is the sixth-most densely populated city in the world. Hence, I knew a lot about people. I knew how they used to think, react and interact with one another. But when it comes to nature, I knew only a sky which for most of the time remained gloomy and dark. To be honest, I had no time to look at the sky. I was surrounded by buildings, shops and offices. Trees were scattered here and there.
But here in the village, sky was always there, no huge buildings were blocking my sight to see the sky above. I’ve seen beauty of sky that varied time to time. In the morning, the sky would appear clear with blue color. In the evening, it would appear with orange color and at night, stars would appear which was the most magnificent scenery to behold. At that time, I used to lie on the grass, fit my earphones in my ear and listen to music.
I’ve also became familiar with trees. Some were very old and huge; some were new and fresh. There were flowers and fruit trees all around. I wondered, if I could talk with those trees I would have listened to many stories. Some trees were very old that even my great grand father saw it. During this time, I would often recall some verses from one of Robert Frost’s poem-
‘‘The woods are lovely dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.’’
There were ponds of fresh water everywhere. We used to take bath there. Fish were in abundance in those ponds. My little brother and I would like to catch fish from a pond nearby.
During rain, the surface of the pond water would turn into a magical realm. Rain drops would dance on the surface and the droplets of the water seemed like crystals jumping around.
And thus, I’ve seen nature which was hidden from me for twenty years. The city gave me fancy living but in return it took away the beauty of the creation from me… from us.
After the lockdown ended we have moved to Dhaka and started the same old living there.
