Written by: Yunish Shrestha - 25044, Grade XI
Posted on: 13 March, 2024
It was the time when I was at the end of the session of my grade seven. My final terminal examinations were going on, and I frequently heard about the coronavirus. As my exams were going on, only two of the subjects were left, and suddenly in the morning a phone call from school came announcing that all the schools in Nepal were being closed because of the danger of the coronavirus pandemic. I was shocked because of that news. At first, I felt okay for the virus but later on, slowly people started getting affected by it, and many of them died. Since that was my first time experiencing something dangerous like that, I got panicked and afraid.
My dad was out of the valley for his work, and I was all alone in the home with my mom. The two of us were the only ones living in the house. Since we were alone, we got afraid and panicked more. In the beginning, the lockdown was going really well for me because I never had such a long holiday from my school and studies. But later on, after months of staying at home like that, it started to get boring. Many people in the city were affected by the virus. So there was no probability of the schools to open soon and all other sectors began to get normal like before. My school started taking online classes. This thing was new for me because I was just a grade 7 student and I was not that much familiar with the technologies. Since virtual school and virtual classes were new for me I began to enjoy that. For several months I passed my days getting engaged into the online classes which were of no use and they were taken by the schools just for making the students get engaged.
The virtual classes weren’t going like they go in the physical classes because many issues of internet, electricity, and interaction came day by day which were very irritating and frustrating. Slowly the days, weeks and months passed, and finally after several months the government announced the schools to be open again though precautions were compulsory. Taking precautions, I again started to go to school but with another closure again, things started to get worse. The government announced all of the things to be stopped and announced lockdown once again.
I felt weird during the lockdown because I was not allowed to get out of my house. I felt really suffocated and irritated. I realized how the caged animals in the zoo feel being trapped inside their bars. I understood how important is freedom for the human beings. However, I also felt happy for the environment and the compensation to the mother earth. The natural environment looked fresher and the mother earth got some relief. To tell you the truth, I could see the snow-capped mountains from my house in the clear atmosphere. There was no movement of the vehicles and no operation of the factories.
The second phase of lockdown was not a new thing because it was something I had already experienced before. So just like the first lockdown, my second lockdown went on. Again after several months, I was in the last trimester of the grade 9. Things started to get normal and people started to get to their work again. The scientists said that the virus was still not gone. We managed to live with the virus normally which we thought wouldn't affect us anymore. All in all, my experience during the lockdown offered a distinct feeling which the world had never thought.
