Page 6 - My Lockdown Diary

The School Comes Home

Amidst the global race for success, where every country was running all the day, there arose a
treacherous creature, from somewhere unknown, not gigantic but minuscule, ripping away all the
reigning nations; causing cessation to their process of evolution.

It wasn’t long, when my school shut down after the final exams and I was merrily passing my days,
waiting eagerly, crossing out the dates, for the new session to begin. It seemed all under control and
everyone was as usual involved in their own life. Suddenly I spotted something flashing on the news
headlines, something that trembled my nerves. The news headline read- “India, gripped by Corona”.
This was something I never anticipated; although news about Covid19 sucking the blood of China and
Europe came up to me, but the seriousness of the matter was never felt. Soon after this, India came
across nation-wide ‘Janata Curfew’ and tier-wise lockdowns.

Now, after being at home for over a month, my busy days are back again. My school, tuitions,
coaching, are all back in full form, letting me hardly any time to free my eyes, even when I am keeping
st
home. Back to School!!! , seems strange, isn’t it? Nothing special, even I felt the same when on the 1 of
April, a message peeped into my Inbox. A Message, message from school. I hurried into my mailbox
searching for the message, that read- “Students to get ready, because the School’s going to reopen”. The
message header shook me up. It felt surprising that the school authority wants to reopen school now,
when we are in…., have they gone crazy or might it be a mere April fool message; were the first few
questions that stroke me. But wait; the school authority must not be kidding, or at least, in this
period, when the Corona virus is sucking every drop of blood from the ones called ‘developed nations’.
I opened the full message, which took some time due to network issues, causing my heart to echo a
thousand times. Finally the long message appeared and scanning through each and every word, my
curiosity grew deeper with eyebrows arching some miles above my eyes; it came to a conclusion that
the school is going to reopen, not physically but virtually. To me, an orthodox lad, who never believed
that education, at least, is possible online; it took some time the excitement to settle. To be very frank,
I had always been a staunch believer of what is called ‘ Gurukul Shiksha’ and had been for some while,
renowned as the best debater at my school especially opposing the fact-‘ Schooling is better online, in a
modern world’. It felt awfully funny and unproductive, but still as the order was from school, I thought
better to give it a try. And from then till present, I have been continuing to be on the virtual platform,
for over a month now. I have my regular classes at fixed time and my computer seems busy always.
Meanwhile all this, something appeared in my hands; a book, book of my junior class and surprisingly
the first chapter- ‘The Fun They Had’ by Isaac Asimov. The story looked somewhat special since by
coincidence its plot revolved around e-learning, where school is just beside bedroom with a robot
replacing a flesh-blooded teacher. Though for many, including myself, the story might seem boring
and lackluster, but on the contrary it perfectly positioned the feelings associated with e-learning. It

might feel strange, what I mean to say through my peculiar essay, I assure you to stay turned since its