On Lockdown

One year on, what else can we do in the state of collective isolation?

A seller was seen at a market in Kota Bharu, a city in Malaysia that serves as the state capital and royal seat of Kelantan. The photo was taken pre-pandemic by Firdaus Roslan on Unsplash.

Just like some of the countries and states across the world, we have witnessed a significant rise of positive COVID-19 cases over the last 2 months. Malaysia has to go into the state of full lockdown again coming this June 1. A significant rise is an understatement if you care to check out how deep this hole we are in, as shown in the chart below.

Source: Google Stats, on 28 May 2021. More than 9000 cases were reported today (29 May 2021).

While the government is shutting down most of the sectors and only allows the operation of “essential” services, many have been in a state of familiar shock and responded with flocks of humans (in grocery stores) and traffic (leaving the current homes and heading to unknown destinations). I apologize if this sounds unempathetic, to those who really need to go back home to take care of their parents or running out of groceries supply.

Locked Down

As for me, I am almost locked in this living space alone for up to a year and have not seen my parents for nine months. “Almost” because I did have the chances of meeting a close friend living nearby, over meals before things went down here. From January 2021 till now, I had not met more than five friends in person…