What lockdown has taught us

Hrishikesh Upadhyaya

(The writer is a second year student of Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh.

He can be reached at hrishiupadhyaya16@gmail.com)

"Sweet melody amidst this moving sphere,

Breaks forth, a solemn and entrancing sound,

A harmony whereof the earth's green hills

Give but the faintest echo; Yet is there,

A music everywhere, and concert sweet!"

These scintillating lines from Madame Bessie Rayner Parkes's poem perfectly embodies the beauty that the mother nature possesses. The sheer bright and shining hues of the sky, the captivating colours of the leaves, and the comforting redolence of the blossoms, just dissipate the almighty's love upon us. So beautiful, so calm, so serene. Have we ever sat for a moment and pondered upon, that how little does the nature take to keep us alive? No, we haven't. But, once we sit and feel the breeze kissing our cheeks with the love that none can shower on us, maybe then we'll realize what true and ever-giving love is.

This ever-mystifying creation of the Almighty has sustained life even beyond human mind can fathom. It's the sole reason why we are living and breathing. The very basic of human emotions that we feel, we learn from the nature. The spiritual response, the emotional and intuitive reaction, and the deep love we feel, comes when the soul connects to the nature. The mystics of nature traces deep down to the heart of things, and says that connecting with the nature, is like tying a knot with the divine spirit within us. It has very little to take from us, but in return, it acts as a conduit between us, and the millions of other substances, whether living or abstract, helping and shaping our lives towards the most of comfort and ease.

Millenniums have passed, and it was known that the consequences of the ever-increasing atrocities of humans were going to be catastrophic. There's no mystery about why nature is under inevitable threat. The assault on the natural world comes from all directions, but primarily from harmful human activities. For thousands of years, the human civilization has advanced on the expense of brutal demolition of the species that once stood as pillars of the world. The humans have always created ways to push countless species to the edge of extinction. The climate change and habitat loss are for real, owing to the thousands of acres of fertile forests that we have swept off the face of the planet. No factory or warehouse ever cares about the loss it did to this planet, instead, the facts that they put up to support their work are rather uncanny. None of the goods available in the market can give us the value of what we've lost, as none can assess the value of a life with those petty inanimate objects.

Humankind has exploited the nature for thousands of years. Every action has its own inevitable repercussion, and it was known that someday, when the vessels of our glorious blunders would be filled to the brim, the nature will definitely show us its way of reprimanding. This can either be with a calamity, or some unforeseen outcome, that would question our existence. Sadly, longing for such a day is over. The widespread pandemic of COVID-19 has questioned and challenged every possible norm that human beings follow. Unforeseen, unanticipated, unexpected and instant, the fangs of this deadly disease have held so firm, that the basics of living and breathing has become a matter to be thought twice. The deadly flame, aiming to turn the whole humankind down to ashes, has shown us that the world is not just about jewels, infantry and artillery. The technology biggies and the ones with enormous wealth couldn't but run inside their homes, putting a halt to everything they had. The least, or rather the most that we could do, was a total shut. Lockdown was the best and the immediate solution, and the primary remedy that could have been prescribed to this ailing world. It was so surprising to witness how the bravest of the brave, and the wisest of the wise just stopped every deliberation they used to suggest, and ran into their homes. It is clearly understood that whoever they be, when things come down to survival alone, everyone gets shaken to their roots.

Nature exquisitely used this lockdown as its own way of refreshing and rebooting itself to the fullest. In some way or the other, we do accept the fact that this lockdown is necessary for the humankind to understand their worth and for the nature to show us what it was, is and will always remain the supreme. All we know is that the nature was 'coming home', to clean all the dirt off it, and all we know since yesterday everything has changed.

Air pollution has dropped to an unprecedented level across the world, as major cities and countries have imposed lockdown measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. The shutdown of factories and cancelled flights has slashed the greenhouse gas emissions. The typically smog filled skies are now clearer and blue. As we humans stay 'caged', wild animals were reported to be roaming around the open streets. People settled in the foothills of the Himalayas expressed their ecstasy when they could, for the first time, actually see and appreciate the snowy peaks clearly, which was rather blocked by pollution for decades. The traffic-congested city of New Delhi, with some of the highest smog levels, has seen nitrogen levels drop significantly, and recorded a 60% drop in particulate matter. The skyline that was rather obscured by air pollution has finally shown its 'silver lining' to the people.

The water bodies all around the world have never been this clear in many decades. The canals in European cities saw clear water for the first time in many years. The Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board made an announcement that the water of the Ganges was actually fit for drinking in Haridwar due to its decreased pollutant levels. The river Yamuna was astonishingly cleared off of all the foam and chemicals that was disposed. The critically endangered Ganges Dolphins were reported to be seen in the river bodies near Kolkata, after thirty years. The aquatic life saw the best cleansing effect among all the other species.

For many years, what we humans did forget is we are living in this world with innumerable other inhabitants, and they deserve this land as much as we do. But the sheer self-inflicted superiority on the wildlife of this planet, has thrown many of those animals into the cruel hands of extinction. Poaching for essentials had become a leisure task for the humankind.

Amidst this lockdown, for the first time in many years, animals were observed roaming around the streets and settling up on the roads fearlessly. The city of Navi Mumbai surprisingly witnessed tens of thousands of migratory flamingos standing on the sea-shores amidst this lockdown. The nature used its best weapon to give these animals the respect they deserve.

The nature has purified its air, cleansed its water and fertilized its soil. It took the best remedy for itself on its own, as it was totally necessary for our survival. One world, one nature and one life! If we spend this one chance in destroying what we have to hand over to our children, then I think we do deserve this massive and deadly retaliation from the nature. The environment, its resources and its benefits, have been bestowed upon us to be shared among all life forms, and not just exercise our gratuitous supremacy over them. We were blessed with the ability to think, speak and rationalize out thoughts and actions. Rather than using it for the benefit of the world, we have just used it to fulfill our jealousy, and indomitable greed. Tracing some far-fetched seven million years back, it is still a mystery that why did the nature choose to empower just one of the million species inhabiting this planet, to possess certain abilities, that would make them behold the false notion that they are the strongest and the most invincible inhabitants on this planet.

While Nature was teaching love, mutualism, co-existence to its babies, little did it know that one of its bud was already learning the ill-art of betrayal, dominance and sheer animosity. Should we call it a divine fault, or just a miscalculated error, the most notorious brat was chosen to possess a few abilities superior than all.

Lest, all we can do on our part is reduce the detrimental atrocities that we commit on our own land. Harmony and mutualism were the basic virtues that we're expected to follow. This pandemic, and its consequent lockdown, has taught us how the world can shake our arrogance if it had to.

"This path we see is what we need to follow,

Fill the heart that's rather hollow,

To shed all anger and see the brighter hue,

To look up and see how the sky's been blue."