Today, June 7th, marks the 84th day I’ve been in lockdown which is 12 weeks. All I have been wearing is dri-fit t-shirts and shorts…god I love that!
Since the whole world has gone through some degree of lockdown, my experience is pretty similar to others. This post is more for me, so I can look back it years from now and think what a crazy time it was.
Timeline
January 30th – First COVID-19 case identified in India
March 16th – I went into lockdown
March 21st – The Chief Minister of Maharashtra announces a lockdown for the state till March 31
March 24th – Prime Minister Modi announced a 21-day total lockdown of India to control the spread of COVID-19
April 14th – PM Modi announces an extension for another 19 days till May 3rd
May 1st – Modi announces another extension till May 17th
Soon I just stopped figuring out when the lockdown would end and went with the flow.
June 8th – Bombay begins to open up
Pictures of the Lockdown
I have always loved seeing old pictures of Bombay because there were so few people in those pictures. I used to joke that someone must have airbrushed all the people out. With the lockdown, I was able to personally take 100s of pictures with no people in them. The city and the pictures seems magical all the while a deadly virus is silently multiplying.
Best Memes
The number of jokes that were sent via social media and messaging platforms were unprecented, I mean what else were people to do. Unfortunately, 99% of them were garbage. Below are some of my favorites and my all time favorite one is the Maggi one.
Economic Damage
The economic fallout from the lockdown feels like it will take years to fix. All the economic numbers published look horrible. But, if you look at the stock market it’s like nothing is wrong. It remains to be seen if the economoy can actually recover quickly in spite of no vaccine and a supposed 2nd wave of COVID-19 happening.
I really hope I don’t have to update this post in the coming months to say that this was only the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Stay safe.
celestri - virtual home of manish jain 
The world is in turmoil, and India is no exception. You may need to add the following events that have or will occur in India:
– locusts destroying crops
– resulting famine, God forbid
– unemployment numbers of 144 million people which is more than the populations of Germany and France combined
– border skirmishes with an increasingly belligerent China
I don’t know what all this signifies. All I know is that this is a momentous year, one which will be remembered for years to come.
All I can say is that I pray that the country, and all of us as it’s citizens, come out of it safe, healthy and with our livelihoods intact.