Gossip today is abuzz again, and again it is the word Covid-19. The world was split in two by Covid-19 and the fissure grew bigger with the spike. There were no names, no people, only groups and tags like there are in Wars.   The positive v/s negative, the old and hence vulnerable v/s the young  therefore reckless, pro mask v/s anti-mask, the dead and the living---  Somehow we missed a more threatening division of the world :Chinese or not, but it’s amazing that we are always divided no matter what.

 

This time however the division is more amusing than any. It is almost cute. There are people dying to break the doors free and run wild through the length and breadth of the country, eat at every bohemian-kempt food stall, drink at every cafe, drive through every open drive through and never come back to those four walls waiting to entrap their life again. While there are the others, altogether different species, grumbling, scared of the other kind and their not so kind craze. Let the Covid go but please God let us keep the lockdown. Do not be surprised dear reader, they are all around you even if they do not come out, know them by the signs.

 

They are the ones hating the traffic, complaining about the weather, whining about careless crowds, and cursing the news channels for not stressing the point enough. Lockdown was the new norm.  Let us go back to that normal again. Because for every introvert, every reader, for every morning mourner it was simply better.

 

Let’s not judge them too harshly they don’t want the labours to suffer neither do they want more Covid-19 cases it’s just that the enjoyed the cleaner weather,  the wallets that were filled with minimal chances to spend on burgers. The time that ran free of clock , the life that danced free of social shackles , the freedom and independence we all learnt during social distance ,is to them the best thing they have gained out of this Covid-19 season. Forgive them we all covet stranger things than this half of our world population.

 

Shout out to all introverts and antisocial people. It is okay to be this way.

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BaSila Hasnain 07-09-2020

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