paragraph on science fiction story writing of life in covid 19
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And just like that, we were all out of flour. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time. It was 9:00pm in our suburban neighborhood in West Bengal, and India’s federal government had just announced a statewide lockdown an hour ago. The lockdown went into effect at midnight, and would enforce a halt to pretty much everything in the country save emergency services, with a mere four hours’ notice.
People surged into the streets on motorbikes, in cars, and on foot. Everyone scrambled to buy groceries and essential items like soap and toiletries. And when I say buy, I actually mean hoard.
Our house is on the main street, and we could hear a police car pass by with its loudspeaker blaring that essential goods would be available throughout the lockdown, and there was no need to panic-buy. Nevertheless, people kept pouring outside, most wearing little more than a handkerchief turned into a makeshift mask for flimsy protection.
But we needed flour. I tried to carefully avoid every shop where there was a crowd, but pretty much all the grocery stores were packed. I went to at least five different shops in our small area of town before I found one that was comparatively empty. Thankfully, it still had flour.
The three-week lockdown was announced on Tuesday, March 24 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that, at the time of publishing this article, has caused a reported 13,000 deaths and counting in the US, and more than 86,000 deaths worldwide. In India, reported deaths are comparatively lower at fewer than 200, but many fear for what’s to come, especially when people have refused to practice social distancing or stay at home despite repeated warnings from researchers, doctors, and government officials, leaving the administration with no choice but to enforce a full-blown lockdown.
Even before the announcement was made by prime minister Narendra Modi, several individual states had been instituting partial lockdowns of their own. West Bengal, the state that we live in, had already been on lockdown since that Monday. But even now, despite constant police patrolling and the closure of all non-essential businesses and establishments, people are out in the streets, most shopping in fear of not having enough supplies to last through the crisis.
To say that our administrations have been ineffective would be a lie. But our country has a population so huge that issues of miscommunication and mass hysteria are bound to arise. There have been reports of people with symptoms of Covid-19 trying to evade examination, infuriated pedestrians attacking law enforcement, certain law enforcement officials forcefully shutting down essential or emergency services, healthcare professionals being evicted by their landlords, and of course, hoarding.