Friday, April 10, 2020

BEHIND THE SCREEN DURING COVID 19


I love vacations, it gives time to travel to new places away from the city where I can connect with nature, meet new people, learn a new language and taste new food. Luckily, as far as I remember I’ve utilized all my vacations for the last 6 years to explore new places on the map which in return holistically taught astonishing lessons for life. People living around a natural environment similar to trees and plants, mountains and forests, rivers and waterfalls, animals and birds reflect great human qualities as like as Nature. Once I reach my home, I would cherish the memories and implement the lesson learned for life. Mostly it makes me wonder how diverse the earth is and the relation between everything around me.

After the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan city in late 2019 no one predicted it would become a global pandemic which let the entire world into quarantine mode for months. Followed by the lockdown global economic and stock market slowdown, breaking news and popular leaders addressing the nation, lack of medical resources and fear of increasing causalities around the globe, poverty and mass migration, family time and work from home trend, emerging rumors and conspiracy theories.

In-between all theses, there is one thing which made me so happy and gave hope to millions who think similar to what I’m thinking right now. Yes, it the nature recovering from a century of human exploitation. Yes, I was able to breathe clean air since there is no road and air transportation, able to see the empty forest without human disturbance due to lockdown, zero noise pollution, no plundering of earthly resources and a pause to violence against animals and birds.
Surprisingly I was able to see new birds around my house, wild animals roaming around without hesitation or fear, Massive drop in the greenhouse gas emission, quick healing in the ozone layer, quite an ocean floor with flourishing ocean life, the earth was actually glowing from the international space station. This is how an idea of balanced life looks like.

In the last three years I only use public transportation which reduced my carbon footprint level, started to carry my own cloth bag when I go for shopping, I stopped using plastic pen and began to use a fountain pen so that I can stay away from plastic ending up in the ocean, I buy my grocery from small scale vendor, never allow light or fan to run when I’m not in my room, Learned basics of waste segregation, and started to carry a handkerchief instead of tissue paper.
Well I should admit this, in the beginning, it sounded very strange and Impossible but after a month I feel like giving up but with a lot of practice in living a conscious life, I was able to reduce my carbon footprint. What if we learn to live a need-based lifestyle with a lot of consciousness where we won’t disturb any other life forms like how no other life forms disturbs us. Why not we adopt a sustainable lifestyle from a small step and live a life full of positivity. Three years ago, it looked impossible yet a small try brought me this far. This lockdown has shown the beautiful color of nature and how it’s striving without human disturbance. Let’s help the nature and help the future generation to enjoy the beauty of the earth. I’m not stopping here, I will find more ways to reduce my contribution in bringing down my carbon footprint and help planet earth heal, join me!



Mr V.M Ebin Navis
Dept of Sociology
Loyola College







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