17th June 2021
One of the worst events I have ever lived through is the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-21. I didn’t appreciate how lucky we were to be able to go out, meet people and breathe freely without wearing a mask prior to this time. Covid 19 changed the world. As the devastating effects of the virus started to be felt around the world, one of the first major changes was in our education system: face-to-face classes were changed to online classes. I remember being excited about seeing my friends on the screen but after a month or two, I realised I couldn’t play games with them or talk to them face to face. Then slowly I became bored. As I came to know laptops and screen time weren’t good for our eyes, I began to wonder why they had chosen to go on educating children through online classes.
Covid was so dreadful and scary that people hardly dared to go outside their houses. When the number of cases of infections and deaths spiralled out of control, the Government decided to declare a lockdown. After that people were not allowed to get out of their houses except for emergencies and with a special permission called e-pass. After about six months, many companies started producing vaccines against the virus. The Indian Government decided that people should be vaccinated using two vaccines: Covishield and Covaxin.
The symptoms of Covid were fever, cold and cough. Some people did not even have symptoms. When symptoms became serious, people had difficulty breathing. The doctors could no longer sleep because they had to treat patients all the time. When the first wave of Covid had emerged, the cases were quite low and there were hardly any deaths. People did not take the virus very seriously. Many people did not even want to get vaccinated. However, as the number of deaths shot up, everyone wanted to get vaccinated. What a queue there was in hospitals, as the people became anxious to get vaccines for themselves!
Colleges and schools were turned into hospitals for there were no beds, no oxygen and people were dying in large numbers from Covid as well as lack of medical supplies to treat the disease. Even before the first wave could die down, the second wave started. In the first wave of Covid 19, mostly people over the age of 45 were affected. But, in the second wave, younger people, even children and babies, were not spared. Soon life became like a ride on a roller coaster between all these waves. Many different variants of the virus started being seen which were deadlier. After a few years, as most people became vaccinated, Covid slowly died down. A good, effective vaccine was invented. By 2024, Covid was treated just like flu.
I survived all the waves and here I am telling you this story. I also don’t want anyone to experience this ever. I lived through a pandemic and I want the world to learn its lesson and not have to live through another one.
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