Disclaimer: This piece was written out of sheer frustration looking at the ignorance of our fellow citizens. If you find it offensive, be assured you did something wrong. Nothing personal, but you could be a covidiot (which is explained in the article). If you are not offended, happy reading. You are doing something right. It's intended to be light-hearted and enlightening. Let's keep it that way...

All of us right now know how Harry felt back then, dont we? We were so used to moving our asses out there in the open, now it almost feels impossible for us stick to our couch minding our own business. I mean how could we. We all are social beings, aren't we?

It goes without saying that the entire humanity is staring at a pandemic which is potential enough to wipe out significant portion of it. This is probably the gravest challenge that the modern digital world is facing in the recent times. This pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) respects no boundary, religion, caste, creed, nationality. I know you've read all this stuff already, I won't elucidate either.

This is nothing short of a war. A war, not fought by soldiers in the borders, but by doctors and other healthcare workers in the Frontline. Well this war seems simple than the wars that our grandparents had to fight. All we have to do is stay at home and wash our damn hands! But clearly, something's not right. We don't seem to follow. Are we that stupid? Or do we think ourselves to be super-resistant to this goddamn virus? Countries have been put under lockdown. Prime ministers and Presidents are shouting on top of their voices to keep away from roads. But no! Some of us seem to be reluctant.

There's this word making rounds in the internet after the outbreak of this pandemic. It's 'Covidiot'. I'm pretty much sure you've read about that too (if you haven't heard of it, really? Which planet are you living in? Google it already) Im not here to say what's the meaning of the word, but I will definitely brief you on who are covidiots.

Covidiots are those morons who came back from abroad during COVID-19 outbreak, and did not quarantine themselves for at least 2 weeks. Covidiots are those who went to their natives from metro cities after the outbreak (specially after March 22 in India. Why?  I hope you have read about being an asymptomatic carrier). Covidiots are the people who are still roaming around outside casually as if it's just some other regular day. They are those who are waiting in huge queue at non-veg shops after yugadi festival. They are those who go out with their friends just for the sake of fun (though they know they have a fair chance of getting their ass whooped by cops who have clearly lost their patience after giving umpteen warnings). They are those senior citizens who come to banks along with their grandkids to get their passbooks printed! ( Like, seriously?). The biggest of them all are those landlords who are getting their doctor tenants evicted (if you get affected by Cornavirus someday, he/she might be the  one who have to treat you. How can someone be that stupid!). Well, The list goes on.

Then the question arises, what do we do at home all day. Probably this is the best time in the history of the humanity to stay at home and still be productive. We of course can work from home. Other than that, we can indulge ourselves in Netflix, Amazon prime and other online streaming apps. We could have quality time with our family. With whom we seemed to have missed that vibe owing to work pressure and hectic schedules. Nows the time to get that vibe back. You could indulge in that hobby you promised yourself to work on (which I assume was your New year resolution for 2020. Well, here you go. Nows the time. Do it). You could say hi(via video call or something) to an old friend with whom you lost touch. There's so many things that you can do. Just imagine if the epidemic were to occur somewhere in the 70s or 80s. What were we supposed to do?! Back then earning a livelihood meant for us to go out and do a job. You had no Netflix and stuff. We need to accept that It's boring to be at home for this long, but if there was a time where we had to stay at home, nows the best. So consider yourself lucky, and stay at home.

There's this another word thats making appearance quite often (of course it comes after words like quarantine, social distancing), that is 'silver lining'. It's being seen as an act of nature taking back what belongs to it. Pollution levels are lower, lakes have become cleaner, nature is thriving again. It's as if nature is telling the humanity that they screwed up. It's telling us to stay at homes while it cleanses itself. Greta Thunberg must be happy with this unexpected outcome of coronavirus outbreak ( although there have been reports of her getting affected too. I hope she recovers soon). Seems like coronavirus is forcing us to adhere to Paris COP 2015 committments. There is still more to do on the climate change front. But it's a good place to start with.

Is there any hope left? May be there is still some left. There's no magic solution. Heed to your government's directives. Take all necessary precautions when you go out to buy essentials. And pray God that some genius develops a vaccine. A vaccine will be developed. But how quick and how much more lives will the virus take is the question. It's a waiting game, let's wait patiently. Im sure once the virus is defeated, we all want to go out and party. Like this

After partying, what do we do next? What lessons will have we learnt? I'm sure we all will have developed a new found respect for nature. What we also can do is make a pact (like the one they do in Zindagi Naa Milegi Dobara. Yeah you guessed it right. 'agar main zinda raha toh' pact. Hopefully, we all will be alive to make this pact). This pact is to make a significant change in our lifestyle. It should be for the greater good of the humanity and nature. What exactly is the thing that you need to change, is left to every single individual. But we need to change ourselves, be more nature friendly. Or else we can all be sure one more disaster, bigger and better than coronavirus awaits us. I hope we all come out of this COVID-19 pandemic a better human beings.

PS: not that I blame them, but China we are scared of what you are gonna eat next!