March 18, 2020:
I was busy with Research works in my college. Every day during my lunch and dinner, I discuss with my sister on the different ideas I have and try to get some kind of feedback and opinion. Corona Breakdown was slowly spreading in different states of India and suddenly made the government announce a lockdown and sent us all home thinking, it is for a few days.
August 1st, 2020:
After four and a half months, now when I am writing this, still the situation is not normal, though we call this as NEW NORMAL. The entire world was greatly affected by this Pandemic novel Corona Virus and the year 2020 is diametrically opposite to what at least we imagined, "India becoming Super Power".
Work from home (WFH) was at least an existing and known practice. Learn from Home (LFH) and Teach from Home (TFH) are totally new to the majority of the population across the globe, which bought in a multitude of challenges with it.
Internet charges, Electricity Charges, Need for more than one Laptop/Desktop in a house, absolutely no Physical movement because of prolonged classes and assessment through online mode, etc....all these struggles are not just for the students but even the teachers have found it difficult to cope with.
Just like how social media throws out hundreds of posts, feeds and stories. COVID19 Lockdown seen a huge increase in the online mode of learning, which also provided an opportunity for cyber attacks. Thousands of Webinars were offered by the colleges, government institutes, private institution and individual freelances during this ~140-day lockdown. Though we can blame COVID19 for the difficulties we have faced, for sure it has made people think about different aspects of life and living.
Personally, COVID19 gave me a lot of time to complete unattended or forgotten tasks. I was able to focus on taking my hobbies and research to the next level. Happily, I was able to make my mother sit for a webinar on Thanjavur Temple from Engineer's view - a session in Tamil which she actively participated which otherwise wouldn't have happened.
