Never imagined , I would ever write this or rather experince this scenario ,what we are experiencing today because of COVID -19. I am an expat living in a middle eastern country called "Kuwait" where the population is close to 4 millions and even a few cases pose enough stress.Upon the arrival of this pandemic in this country marked the shutting down of schools followed by shutting down of everything else subsequently . Finally the "D" day came making us face a real panic situation called "lock down" where an information from the ministry came that the country is locking down tonight !
"LOCKING DOWN TONIGHT?"
The way people understand the above statement is to their own discretion but with major population of people being expat in this country was certainly "disturbing" for them.The fact adds to the misery that as an expat you always feel a nomad however comfortable you are in a foreign country. Eventually the above statement was clarified and was imposed upon the workplaces and public places to be closed, but people still contemplated whether the supermarkets shall remain open or not ? (That's how the human instinct works to save the livelihood!)
The fear of running out of groceries was more than the fear of pandemic itself it seemed that day...where it felt that the world is coming to an end somehow in light of the chaotic situation and mass herding upon the Cooperative store, supermarkets and small mom and pop stores ! There were long queues on the bill counter and barely any place to move around with so many people and their trolleys ! As a baker by profession I was gladly baking until 5 pm in the evening when my sister called and panicked me about the situation stating that I should buy enough groceries that last a few weeks, so at first I panicked because lock down means I can't fly to my home country India where my parents are...plus this humongous amount of staples and groceries to be taken care of amidst this crisis.
I wonder why we are taught everything and not this " Crisis Management" . We as a citizens of any country don't have any idea or rather any expertise as to what is needed to be done in such a catastrophic situation. As a result the whole world is seeing the empty shelves because people are hoarding and don't know how much to store? Believe me in coming days hoarding and wastage of water will be the prime problems after the rising number of cases, stock markets and declining businesses.Hopefully as soon as it gets over (if at all) the governments from all over the world would reckon this subject of "crisis management" as a directive to all the citizens.
So while on the war front with this sanitization, constant news, lock down, grocery management and most of all the precautions to be taken care of ,I am dealing with two house ridden kids too, who have been the most disoriented ones all this time, they are happy to be home and all but they hardly know what we are facing as a human community! Keeping them creatively busy and resourceful is another challenge most of us are facing as moms as more than half billion kids are off school throughout the world.
Hence I feel we have a lot more weight on our shoulders than we thought , foremost comes the hygiene, filtering the the news with mindfulness, saving as much water, not hoarding up more than two weeks of groceries, social distancing of course( not suiting your own requirements though), spending some quality family time and let kids explore our planet through online platforms and make them understand what measures they can take as a kid to avoid the situation. Conclusively no-one can say if it is just the tip of the iceberg or probably we are half way through, whatever it is we have to be more careful and responsible towards this challenge we are facing in these agitating times.
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