Sweet are the uses of adversity”. This above quotation is apt for pessimistic people during this lockdown. We are all thinking that corona is a monster, but it’s interesting to note that corona is the best teacher during this lockdown period. You must all be thinking, “Really?”
Well let me tell you it’s true!
“But, How?”
Fine! Then listen. I am going to share my experiences during this lockdown. This lockdown period taught me many things which I never expected that I would learn.
The first thing I learnt was a spectacular one. I experienced a whole world of digital schooling. It was something amazing to see our teachers explaining the chapters on mobile phone. The essence of our classroom was on our palms. Did anyone ever imagine? I explored the world of digital classroom from the comfort of my home, much beyond digital classroom learning. I was learning to handle a new app Zoom through which our classes were taking place. It was very exciting though there was disruption at times due to poor net connectivity. However, on a lighter side, if I wanted to bunk classes there was the excuse of poor connectivity, something I couldn’t do in our actual classroom learning.
I learnt how to cook and surprised my family by preparing fried rice and chilli paneer one day. On another day, I prepared curry and fried puris! It was unbelievable to see the puris swell up into balls just like my mother’s fried puris. But I even burnt my finger in the process.
Also, during the lockdown I tried my hand at writing.
I wrote several poems and stories and was very excited when I wrote my first novelette, Flamingo in Wizardy Land, and thereafter other poems and stories which got published in several websites like Story Mirror and Notion Press. Luckily it managed a place in The Shillong Times too. I was so excited that I had a new ambition and desire to become an author like Enid Blyton.
I even learnt to control my appetite for outside food. With the advent of Swiggy and Zomato I was getting into the habit of asking my parents to order outside food. But during the lockdown, with the delivery partners being suspended, I had to curtail my desire. I was learning to control my desire and becoming more disciplined!
Amidst all these fun and frolic I learnt a bitter truth of life — the plight of the migrant workers who were stranded in this lockdown and the worst hit. We were still having a better life at home in spite of several restrictions and hardships.
So the lockdown period which I thought was my enemy, turned out to be a teacher of a kind!
(Contributed by Nayaab Suhel, Class VIII, BSF Senior Secondary School. The essay has been adjudged the best write-up on the topic, ‘One new thing that you did in this lockdown’. Many students wrote to us about how they spent their time & what new things they learnt during the two-month lockdown & it was a difficult task for the SS team to choose one among them. So we will publish two more essays on the same topic in the coming weeks)
