As the country went into lockdown, children found themselves with an indefinite holiday. A few days later, many schools started online classes and sent study packs, but still the children faced an unusual situation. They had much free time with the added bonus of having parents and the whole family at home, but were restricted and could not hang out with friends or visit them and relatives. But children are resilient and resourceful, and they found their own creative solutions to the lockdown. We feature here how some of these children spent lockdown creatively and fruitfully.
My experience with lockdown
Currently, the world is grappling with a deadly enemy, trying to understand the threat by a virus called Covid-19. It turned the whole world upside down as 99 per cent of the countries were locked down. Then all the people started quarantine in their homes. This lockdown has brought unexpected advantages and disadvantages.
If we study the disadvantages, we come across different types.
Looking at my personal life, I felt tired living like this as I couldn't go out. I miss going to school and my classes and seeing my friends. But I could do these things through the Internet, but there are internet connection problems and distance. From this lockdown we had some unexpected advantages too.These days I am healthy and feel comfortable at home. Having lunch with my whole family was a new experience as it was not a daily habit before. I have more time now. I can write more, workout everyday, read and work on personal projects. Apart from online classes, I mostly video chat with my friends. I have learned that life and habits can change in a second. I never thought about this before. I also learnt to wash my hands very well !
Pesandu Nethmitha.
Life during lockdown
Recently I wrote a poem titled Sri Lanka, home to headless chickens. This got me thinking; why is everyone panicking? What’s the use of doing so? Will it change this situation? After a few moments of pondering I came to the conclusion that all my questions could be dismissed with one answer. The answer is, we are human. We do not have the godly intelligence to reason out how we should react or control our emotions. Nor do we own the luxury of controlling our future and its many surprises. After spending our lives in a world which imprisons us, with people who control us, in a society full of greedy ideals and having busy schedules that sometimes overwhelm us both mentally and emotionally, we forgot to live in the moment.
The world stopped still. Schools shut down. Workplaces were abandoned. Streets dwell in loneliness while the sighing trees whisper in confusion, bearing witness to this new way of life. And now we witness a period of time in which the clock doesn’t tick as fast. We may feel restricted, but the old sense of unity which was long gone has finally emerged once more.
The raging force of the insensitive nation has been destroyed as we now experience friendship. We feel the love. We taste the sweetness life has to offer. We appreciate what we’ve got for finally realisation has dawned upon us. As Mother Nature entraps us in our homes, she strives to teach us a lesson. A lesson long overdue. And now, we try new things we have never tried before.
We prepare new dishes, we engage in new found hobbies, children play all day and organise puppet shows. In short, we are free. This is the life we were supposed to live in the first place. This is what we missed due to our greed and now, Mother Nature came to our rescue before it was too late. She taught us the value of life and how impractical human ideals entrap us. She let us taste the freedom and let us know that there is a world beyond our goals and our ambitions. A world where freedom and love prospers. A sweet land where all our wishes can be fulfilled.
And so, I call on the nation to experience this new life and live in the moment, instead of chasing behind the narrow vision our eyes may see. Let’s live in the moment. Let’s make Mother Nature proud.
Aanya Shaheni Ganemulla,
15 years, Holy Family Convent,
Bambalapitiya.
The seemingly undying world crisis
The Coronavirus, commonly known as Covid-19, is world crisis that has hit us all. The details are too appalling to mention, but at present, it seems this is an endless crunch. We’re all experiencing a series of strict limitations and sets of rules and regulations and a dozen other things we usually didn’t have before a deadly virus started to originate in China. We’ve lost the freedom we used to have, and it’s probably our fault, only we realised it too late.
Being an Earthling has not been much fun lately, and all those times we had fun, we were doing so while waiting for the bomb to blast. We most likely would have had no clue that everything humans were doing to the planet we lived in would later affect us in the largest way possible that would cause worldwide deaths and destruction. Now that bomb’s are being detonated, we all realise our mistake.
That’s what it takes for human beings to accept wrongdoing: something has to happen to us. As you read this, millions of people are dying and suffering from the lethal Coronavirus all over the globe - the way that we are punished for the things we never stopped doing that harmed Mother Earth gravely. We children have harmed our own mother, so it is only right we suffer like this. As much as this virus is steadily killing almost half a million people, there is also a bright side to this, as there is nearly always.
Because of this pandemic, the world’s ongoing activities have come to a halt or at least, they have reduced it considerably. Factories and other workplaces are mostly still and lifeless, streets are void of vehicles and smoke; pollution has decreased beyond any point we would have imagined. There are actual reports of healthy green grass growing in places where it used to be yellow and dead, and of the environment seeming more bright and cheerful. Nature has punished us, but she has also given us a very clear insight into how much more beautiful and exotic the Earth could be with humans staying away from their place of work.
But of course, that is impossible. Humans need to work to live. On the other hand, we should also take measures to give priority to the leaves and trees around us, after this ends, because if we do that then this could be prevented once and for all. If we work in a more eco-friendly way hereafter - really do so, not just say it for the sake of saying it - we’ll actually be able to sit down and enjoy being on Earth completely without any worries of any more attacks from an angry Nature.
I know we’re all waiting wistfully for the day this all ends and we can breathe a little more freely than at present. But it’ll end with all of us. What we do is what will make all the downs in all our lives turn into ups. Consequently, it rests on our shoulders.
So, what are you going to do next?
Binadie Ratnayake,
Grade 9,
Lyceum International School, Nugegoda.