What does freedom mean in the time of pandemic? | Economic Times

India celebrates its 75th Independence Day at the tail end of a second wave of Covid-19 that has wracked the country. It has been a long year of disease, lockdowns, curfews, graded relaxations. Your freedom of movement has been denied or restricted. Your freedom to assemble has been curtailed as public spaces have been cordoned off. What indeed does freedom mean in the time of a public health emergency like a pandemic? What are the freedoms that you have lost and what have you ended up cherishing all the more? ET asked a cross-section of people, including political leaders, corporate honchos, artists, activists and sportspeople, to weigh in on this fundamental question of our times:“Freedom Means Responsibility” 85333079Naresh Trehan, CMD, Medanta HospitalFreedom in the time of Covid means responsibility because we know how each individual behaves will have a far-reaching impact on the community and the country as a whole. We need to participate responsibly and follow the rules, which we must, because a strong third wave will be devastating for the country. At this time freedom only means participative responsibility. It also means to take the vaccine whenever it is available and not indulge in Covid-irresponsible behaviour. Being at the frontline means you are committed to your work 24/7. I too have undergone a lot more stress than in earlier days; your peace of mind is gone; you are not meeting your own people; you have not travelled in the last two-odd years. But there is no regret in missing family time or travel or leisure as it is a more purposeful life right now. While I cherish the moments we were able to save thousands of lives, I have lost a few of my friends to Covid — but such is life. (As told to Prerna Katiyar)“Virus Put us Under House Arrest” 85333129Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, BioconThe pandemic has been a life-changing event. It denied us the freedom of choice and introduced stringent restrictions on work, education, travel, social activity. All the money in the world could not buy you an air ticket! All the wealth in the world could not ensure that you could combat the virus. All of a sudden we were forced to be homebound. We were made to work from home, study online and get used to online retail. We soon accepted lockdowns and quarantines, masking and social distancing. We learnt to deeply value our freedom which we had simply taken for granted. The virus had put us under house arrest for all the environmental abuse we have indulged in over the decades. I have missed many family events, especially my grandnephew’s birth. Travel restrictions have delayed critical product approvals and hurt our business. Many business deals have been postponed and many sites have had to function with skeletal staff. Vaccination has improved the situation and I am hopeful things will improve for the better.“I realised what is unnecessary” 85333197A Velumani, Founder, ThyrocareThere was no freedom at all to travel, meet, greet, smile, wine and dine. In the beginning, it sounded like it would be impossible to manage like this for more than a couple of weeks. Now it is 20 months, and there is still no reprieve. But thanks to the pandemic, I have learnt what is unnecessary travel, both for business and for life. I used to travel to various events, wasting time. Now, Clubhouse and Zoom are saving me a lot of time, money and energy.“Help each other to see the light again” 85333242PRS Oberoi, Executive Chairman, The Oberoi GroupThe meaning of freedom has not changed. The way we appreciate freedom has. Covid-19 has been a wake-up call for the world. This pandemic has made us realise that the gift of life and all the other good things that have given us joy in the past should not be taken for granted. People around the world have gone through unprecedented problems in the last 18 months. I strongly believe that the pandemic has made us realise that freedom comes with certain responsibilities towards each other and our planet. We should learn valuable lessons from the pandemic. We need more kindness and empathy; we also need to find ways to help each other so that we see the light again. We need to be positive, think beyond ourselves and take care of our fellow beings with heartfelt sincerity. This will help us feel free. I sincerely hope that these difficult times will change soon for the better.“Education is freedom” 85333311Nisaba Godrej, Chairperson & MD, Godrej Consumer ProductsGodrej was founded in a crisis, during India’s freedom movement, and the bubonic plague of 1897. We started out by standing for equal rights. Ardeshir Godrej, our founder and an ardent nationalist, donated a significant share of our profits to the Tilak Swaraj Fund. Trust, integrity and equality are at the heart of Godrej. This was a core idea for me growing up. As we enter our 125th year, my reflections are on how we stand for freedom again to create a more inclusive world. To borrow from Untamed by Glennon Doyle: “The deepest truth is not what we can see, but what we can imagine. Perhaps imagination is not where we go to escape reality, but where we go to remember it.” We must believe in and imagine a better world for our children; and get down to the hard work of flattening curves beyond Covid-19 — on inequity and climate change. It will take all of us doing much more —within companies and ecosystems, and personally — to create these shifts. I’m passionate about education. I believe education is freedom; it transforms us and our opportunities. My seven-year-old son asked me how will we have doctors for the next pandemic if children don’t go to school now. It is critical that India opens schools. Children are our future and we must do whatever is necessary to secure their right to learn and freedom to think.“Lines between work and personal life blurred” 85333466Nithin Kamath, founder-CEO, ZerodhaIf someone had told me in 2019 that most o us would be working from home full-time, I would have laughed. This also goes to show just how uncertain things are and how hard it is to make predictions. That said, the pandemic era has been a massive adjustment for all of us. We have had to re-evaluate our beliefs about work and personal time completely. I have had to contend with the blurring of lines between work and personal life, and though the general indication seems to be that we have all become more productive, there’s also a heightened risk of increased burnout among people. This has been a personal challenge for me: learning how to switch off and make more personal time. One thing we did this year is to stop all work-related chats and calls post 6 PM, which has helped. I’m lucky to be comfortable even with everything happening around us. It would be tone-deaf to speak about any loss of personal freedoms. In fact, this has been a blessing in disguise because I get to spend more time with the family.“One thing gained: Time” 85333367Chiki Sarkar, founder, Juggernaut BooksIt’s been a bad year. But there’s one thing I have gained. Time. I’ve had two babies, pretty much back to back over the last five years, about the same time I started my own business. What has this meant? Rushing from office to home, from feeds to launches. Doing one-day trips to Mumbai and Bengaluru so I could be there for the kids in the morning, going to parties and waking up in the middle of the night because of a crying child. Add it all up and it means I have had zero me-time. No lying around in bed with a book on a Sunday morning, very little exercise. Not much sleep. The lockdown changed everything. I work from home so can sneak in an afternoon story time. I don’t go out at night and have ample time for a gin and tonic and a good thriller. I’ve started exercising daily and am the fittest I have ever been. For the first time in five years I have something like a work-life balance. So strangely enough, this dark, sad year, has changed the way I see the world a little bit, and opened a door to another way of living. If freedom means feeling like you can do what you want, that there is nothing tying you down, then this year of Covid may have given me a little bit of that, along with all the heartbreak.“We got the freedom to reinvent” 85333429Puneet Chhatwal, MD & CEO, Indian Hotels Company ( IHCL)Global economy, our priorities, and human perceptions – everything changed, including the freedoms we take for granted. We learnt that profound, positive change is possible when you look at challenges as opportunities. Being the hardest hit, hospitality business revenues went down to zero suddenly. We used this crisis as an opportunity — it provided us with the freedom to look at things in a completely new way and reinvent ourselves. Human interaction is the raison d’être of the hospitality industry. With restrictions on our social interactions, we provided our guests with freedom to travel and stay safely across our hotels with the new safety standards. Our values inspired us to stand with our communities with our Meals to Smiles initiative that delivered over 4.5 million meals.“Reminded us of mortality, and friendships” 85333491Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman, NITI AayogDuring the pandemic peaks, we were all looking for freedom from extreme anxiety. Every one of us had to consume some bad news daily. Some of our near and dear ones were infected by the virus. So we looked for a way out to help them and lower our level of anxiety. In that backdrop, a vaccine shot has proved to be a great respite. Jabs bestow upon us some degree of freedom from the virus and anxieties. We missed out on a lot. I had to abandon my meditation programmes and curtail my field visits. But the pandemic has given moments to cherish. The extent to which people have gone out of their way to help each other will find a place in my memory forever. Our medical fraternity did a fantastic job. The pandemic has reminded us of our mortality and the importance of friends. We must not take our relationships for granted and work to sustain and deepen them.“True celebration of I-day means upholding right to life of all Indians”85333723Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister, KeralaWhat does freedom mean in the time of Covid? In the Constitution, Right to Life is a fundamental right of every citizen. We have seen that in the first and the second wave of Covid-19, India as a country has been caught off guard. We saw mass exodus last year, and mass graves this year. Now, we are anticipating a third wave, and the best defence against this pandemic is universal vaccination. Right now, only around 9% of our population has been inoculated. This needs to go up to 60-70%. Only then can we say that our Right to Life, i.e. our freedom to live, is ensured. The true celebration of our 75th Independence Day is to commit ourselves to ensure that the Right to Life of all Indians is upheld. Freedom to live comes first, without that one can’t enjoy any other freedoms. We have lost the freedom to freely move and meet people in this pandemic. Public life as we know it has also changed, but that we should reclaim and treasure.“Pandemic gave us compassion”85333788Namita Thapar, Executive Director, Emcure PharmaceuticalsFreedom to me means the ability to enjoy my life without fear, to live my life with peace and gratitude. But the inexplicable paranoia created by this pandemic has taken away our freedom to live without fear. Common joys like hugging friends, entering crowded restaurants and enjoying the buzz, dropping the kids off to school have all become rare. But for those wise ones who have been able to rise above the fear, the pandemic has gifted us a whole list of joys that we never took out the time for in our quest to be a significant part of this worthless rat race — more time with our family, more time to read. It has also given us the ability to think differently about work — to be more agile and digital, to travel less and to balance our lives better by working from home. It has given us compassion — and we have seen so many beautiful acts of kindness.“World is standing at a unique vantage point”85333821Prasoon Joshi, CEO & CCO, McCann Worldgroup India & Chairman, McCann AsiaFreedom in times of Covid brought into focus a critical aspect — Responsibility. Often, we blank over the fact that freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin. The pandemic made it evident what freedom and responsibility truly meant — be it taking care of our own health or following Covid protocol and curtailing our activities to safeguard our loved ones, colleagues and the community. For, our action or inaction directly impacts the people and the situation around us. From an advertising perspective, we saw this responsibility seep into brands. Brands displayed an overt social voice, mindful that the pandemic world is standing at a unique vantage point — from which there’s a sharper focus on how socially and ethically responsible businesses and brands should be in matters of their workforce, environment or society. In this context, the creative freedom to explore is a bit restrained. The legroom for whacky, fun or dark humour is curtailed when the priority is survival. The silver lining has been the time at hand; for people, businesses and brands to deep-dive, re-evaluate and reboot.“Pandemic had confined us to our rooms. I had to remain positive”85333848Saikhom Mirabai Chanu Weightlifter, Silver Medallist, TokyoWhen Covid-19 spread across the world last year, there were uncertainties about the fate of the Tokyo Olympics. We were all nervous about our career. And when the lockdown started, our training at the Patiala institute (Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports) came to an abrupt halt. We were confined to our rooms. What exercise can you do inside your room and without weight equipment? It was awful. Our training got disrupted for over two months. And when I resumed, my muscles were not responding well. I feared an impending injury. I was then sent to the US for a three-week training in October last year. That immensely helped me in regaining confidence. Throughout the pandemic, there was another challenge — how to keep calm and remain positive. I knew I had to be mentally strong all the time. Ahead of my big game in Tokyo, I was a bit nervous. Expectations were high. And on top of it, I had some not-so-favourable physical conditions which women only suffer. Yes, I was tense, but once I was on the stage, I forgot everything else. I concentrated only on the weight. For me the best lockdown memory was when I tried out cooking eromba (a dish made with vegetables, fermented fish and chillies) in our Patiala institute. Also, sitting in the room, I designed a lot of colourful paper flowers — my leisure pursuit.“Freedom brings with it responsibility”85333909Neeraj Chopra, Javelin Thrower, Gold Medallist, TokyoFreedom to me is the ability of individuals to express themselves in whatever way they choose; it could be through sport as in my case, or through any other pursuit. Today, with the world suffering due to Covid-19, this freedom brings with it an equally important aspect of responsibility — for ourselves, our families and those around us, and for our nation. We must ensure that the freedom we are so lucky to have is used to unite us all, which is one of the greatest positives of sports, too. The freedoms which I’ve lost as an athlete and as a human during the pandemic have been quite a few, be it not being able to meet loved ones or missing out on crucial training periods. On a lighter note, I missed going out to malls and eating out. Shopping is how I love to unwind. The thing I will cherish is being in regular touch with my family and friends during the crisis. The pandemic has really helped me realise the importance of those closest to me. As we enter India’s 75th year of independence, I hope we can all learn from sport and use this time to come back stronger after the pandemic.“Kashmiri pandits have nothing to lose”Dileep K Pandita, retd school principal, JammuIn 1989, I was working as a science teacher for about two years in the Valley. I was single then and, with some savings, I started the construction of my house. Soon the unimaginable happened. I was forced to leave my house for refugee camps in Jammu. There were thousands like me. I was on refugee pay in Jammu. Only for four years before retirement did I again have a full-time job and salary. What do we have to lose in Covid in terms of freedom? We have been under restrictions for the last 32 years. What does freedom mean when you are forced to flee your own home overnight? I am not sure if there is anything to treasure since the pandemic wrecked our lives further. On the one hand, complete strangers were coming to the help of the needy in terms of food and provisioning and, on the other, I saw one’s own children abandoning the body of their father who died of Covid-19. Finally, an ambulance came and carried the body as none of the children agreed to perform the last rites. A perfect stranger did it. This is what Covid has done to relationships. (As told to Prerna Katiyar)“Realisation of oneness that exists among humans is what I treasure”85334025Syed Ahmed Bukhari, Shahi Imam, Jama Masjid, DelhiIndia celebrates its 75th Independence Day in a unique and challenging environment this year. The past one and a half years have been a testing time for all of us. Nerves, emotional stability, selfconfidence and self-reliance were tested. I am glad that during this turbulent period, in spite of unexpected risks, we, as a nation, could stand like a rock in facing the worst with great moral and material strength. We were confined to the four walls. The combination of mental and financial stress made life hell. But the exceptional manifestation of our management skills under the guidance of our national leadership could make us win over the crisis. I am glad that in spite of many limitations, impediments, hurdles and bullies, we will be gradually coming out of all this and, Insha’Allah sooner than later, India shall get back to the path of growth and development. The most cherished moment during this period has been the realisation of the bond of oneness that exists among all humans.“Public spaces to protest have completely vanished”85334070Bezwada Wilson, National Convener, Safai Karmachari AndolanWhen there is a crisis, there should be humanity. During the pandemic, the term social distancing was unfortunate. Certain communities have been socially distanced from the mainstream for centuries. For them, the phrase itself was a blow to their freedom. The pandemic has been particularly difficult for firstgeneration students from the marginalised communities. When these children go to school, they are breaking down barriers. At home, they can’t move from their colony to the colony of the other castes. Before the pandemic, when something was not working well, we could at least come out and voice our grievances. Those public spaces to protest have completely vanished. It’s as if we are living in a kind of undeclared curfew. If we absorb this internally, I fear we will not raise our voices against anything. The other day, a minister said there were no deaths due to manual scavenging in the last five years. Where can I protest that statement? Slowly, the state is becoming more anti-people. It is distancing from the citizen. That’s not good for the growth of democracy. (As told to Indulekha Aravind)“Covid has imprisoned death row prisoners within their thoughts”Anup Surendranath, Executive Director, Project 39A, National Law University, DelhiA significant part of my work is with death row prisoners and the pandemic has made death row in Indian prisons darker and lonelier. Before the pandemic, the dark and terrifying reality of death row would momentarily be interrupted by prison mulaqats with family members. For those whose daily lives are all about anticipating their death, those fleeting moments every few months signify hope, courage and warmth. The pandemic-induced restrictions in prisons have snatched that away. For death row prisoners it has also meant far less interaction with other prisoners and fewer activities. It has meant more time with their own thoughts. Irrespective of whether death row prisoners are coming to terms with what they have done or are struggling to comprehend being on the brink of death despite being innocent, being left alone with their own thoughts can be a dangerous thing on death row. The pandemic and all that has only imprisoned death row prisoners even more within their own thoughts. For those of us outside, isolation and distancing are words/practices that help us preserve our lives. It is not so straightforward when you are on death row.“Individual freedoms depend irrevocably on collective actions”TR Shankar Raman, Ecologist with the Nature Conservation Foundation & AuthorWild and free: in one sense of each word, to be wild is to be free. In nature, each life form is free to grow and flourish, free to confront every peril, with the wisdom of survival encoded in genes, volitions guided by intelligence, thwarting vagaries of contingence. But to an ecologist, such freedom remains axiomatically entangled in a web of relationships. “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe,” wrote John Muir famously. The pandemic brought this home: humans are a part of nature, even if as people — imbued with culture, cloaked by modernity, amped by technology — we imagine we rise apart from nature. It just took a tiny virion, 100 nanometres in diameter, a hundredth the size of a pollen grain, to shake the planet. No Trump, no Bolsonaro, no Modi, no Putin comes even close—in a tenebrous way that is strangely reassuring, too. Our freedoms remain vulnerable to intersecting crises worldwide: the climate emergency, the Covid-19 pandemic, the sixth extinction, and the assault on democracy. Each breath we take is our own, but the air we breathe is from a shared atmosphere. Individual freedoms depend irrevocably on collective actions. For me, the forced distancing from parents, relatives and friends, and inability to travel have been the most unbearable curbs on freedom. It deepened how I valued my relationships and my travel. Being alive, I also realised I am among the fortunate ones.“Freedom means ensuring every citizen live a life with dignity”Vrinda Bhandari, Lawyer working on digital rights and privacy issuesOur Constitution guarantees the freedom to think and speak freely, the freedom to move and associate freely, and recognises our right to privacy. While these rights are not absolute — and certainly can be restricted during a public health emergency — the Covid crisis has exacerbated the consequences of the loss of these freedoms. The burden, unfortunately, has disproportionately fallen on the marginalised and vulnerable sections of society.The loss of freedoms has manifested in different ways. We witnessed a migrant crisis, with entire families walking thousands of kilometres to escape the food and job insecurities in cities. The move to remote teaching meant that children, especially from lower income families, missed out on years of learning and social development. The public health crisis in our midst spilled over to overcrowded prisons, where the virus often spread with impunity. Finally, the use of government tech-surveillance measures led to a loss of civil liberties and privacy. The pandemic has justified the expansion of government power, which, once created, rarely goes away. So for me, freedom in the time of Covid, would mean ensuring that we can create the enabling conditions that allow every Indian citizen to live a life with dignity.On a personal note, I have felt the loss of the freedom to meet people, to eat at restaurants, and to travel freely. At the same time, my relative privilege has allowed me to enjoy time at home with my family, and most of all, I will treasure the time I have spent with my young daughter.“Freedom is more than simply doing what we want”85334206Harshil Mathur, Cofounder, RazorpayThis world is unlike anything most of us have ever experienced. And in all these 15+ months, the word “freedom” has been viewed with new eyes and in new perspectives. In the early months of the pandemic, many of us found the endless restrictions and regulations as an infringement on our freedom. But soon we realised freedom is more than simply being able to do what we want. It’s not been easy to steer your team through the exigencies of the moment while also laying the groundwork for the organisation to thrive after the crisis. But these new perspectives have helped me sail through tough times and I’ve perceived freedom in a new light. There’s been a lot that I’ve learnt from what I’ve lost in the last 500 days. And I badly miss going to the office and working with the team. Nothing replaces the energy you get when working with your team and meeting your customers, in person. And I hope that happens soon. In the meantime, I’m really fortunate to have witnessed significant growth in our payment business as buying patterns and spending behaviours have changed drastically. I’m happy that we were available to solve problems small businesses faced around payments and banking, so that they have one less thing to worry about. I’m also grateful to have been drawn closer to my team and their families and to be able to have fun-time with my friends and family, be it cooking or a game of poker. All this is pure joy and freedom to me.“We got our independence in 2020”Parshotam Kumar Prajapati, a West Pakistani Refugee*, who runs a restaurant in JammuMy grandfather was forced to move to Jammu from his hometown of Khoje Chak in Pakistan during Partition. He was stamped as a refugee and died as one. So did my father. Despite being settled in Jammu for seven-odd decades, they had no right to own land and were not entitled to vote in local elections nor could they apply for government jobs. 2020 was the first time West Pakistani Refugees like me in J&K got Permanent Resident certificates and we could vote in DDC elections. Amid the pandemic, this has been a watershed moment for us. For this reason, this Independence Day means a lot to us. It is true that Covid had ruined my business but the idea of freedom, right to ownership and vote is something that outweighs the losses. We have now got Independence.(*WPRs, and their families, migrated from erstwhile West Pakistan in 1947)“This is not the time to run away from one’s duties”Shefali Malik, Senior Nursing Officer, Ward 5, RML Hospital, DelhiI am a single parent of two children. Being on Covid duty since the first case was reported at RML Hospital has been a long, difficult and yet meaningful journey. My daughter is a low-immunity child and despite knowing that she needs me even more, I am forced to stay away from her for her own safety. What hurts more is that people around me who could have offered some support to my children, have turned away thinking that I work in a Covid ward and must be a carrier. It could be true but the lack of warmth has been hurtful at a time when my family could have done with some love and compassion. Since I am a diabetic, my family, including my parents who live with me, have been nudging me to leave the job. But I keep telling them that if all the medical staff think this way, who will take care of the patients? Surely, this is not the time to run away from our duties. What I have really missed these days is the simple yet most powerful means of getting de-stressed: taking long walks, meeting friends over tea, being with relatives and my own kids. The stress sometimes gets the better of me and I feel enough is enough. This Covid demon should really go away! If only all our wishes could come true.“More than my own, I’m concerned about the freedom of citizens”85334267Fali Nariman, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of IndiaAs far as personal freedom is concerned, it means very little to me (in times of Covid). I am more concerned about the citizens of the country. Man is a social animal but he can no longer be (due to Covid) and is forced to totally dissociate with others. That is why one is seeing all sorts of protests against lockdowns and restrictions. Are we used to such restrictions? We are not. However, we can’t do a thing about it as the disease is much smarter than those who attempt to cure it. It is continuously evolving and keeping us on our toes. What have I missed during the pandemic? I miss seeing my own family members. However, what I feel great about is the way people are coming together to help each other. So many people have lost their jobs and loved ones. Except for some of the fortunate ones, the condition is miserable for many people. I really appreciate the way people are standing with each other — a remarkable gesture that only shows that humans are truly humans. (As told to Prerna Katiyar)“I value the time I spend with my team”85334315Nitin Saluja, Founder, ChaayosThe biggest leverage I, as an entrepreneur, can exercise is to have a team that is aligned to the vision of the company. Once the team is aligned, they may need bouts of motivation to navigate situations and eliminate bottlenecks. So I spend a lot of time with my team. That said, until Covid, I did not view the opportunity to be with my team as my freedom. Covid completely changed that. Now every time I am with my team, I make sure to leave them with more than what they expected of me, because who knows if my freedom might be lost in a subsequent Covid wave. I have also strengthened my bond with my daughter Brinda. I have started working out with my better half Yosha. Thanks to Covid, I am possibly my fittest self. In today’s world, being fit is akin to being free.“We have lost the freedom of the mind”85334132TM Krishna, Carnatic Vocalist & AuthorWe often speak of freedom as something that is granted or denied. But freedom lies as much in our mind. During this pandemic we have felt freedom-less not merely because we have been unable to move about and do the things that we do, but because the fear that has engulfed us has made us lose the freedom of the mind. Freedom is also always linked with privilege. Even during the pandemic it remained the same. Let me give you an example. When lockdown was relaxed, all those who had no choice but to go out and work just did it and those who could work from home remained secure in the comfort of their homes. I was extremely uncomfortable with the fact that those who could afford to remain in their homes did not even make an effort to get back to normal life. I did not expect them to take chances but just do the things that they could. They told me, there was no necessity! All the while, they used the services of those who had no choice but to be out there. Many people think that the pandemic would have been a great period for art and writing. They presumed that I had all the time in the world and could just let my mind fly. I too believed that to be true. But I learnt that leisure lies in the mind. Even if I have a hundred things to do in a day, as long as my mind is free, creativity flows. During the pandemic the mind has become inactive, burdened and tense and it is indeed an effort to find the space to create something genuine.“I am more aware of the value of freedom”85334344Sachin Tendulkar, Former CricketerWe celebrate our 75th Independence Day at a time when we are facing a global pandemic. Covid has impacted the very fabric of our existence. But to our credit, we showed resilience, we adapted, took precautions, and fought back with vaccines and Covid-appropriate behaviour. Today as we slowly try to come out of the shadow of the pandemic, I, for one, am more aware of the value of the freedom we enjoy in our lives. I have been concerned about how the pandemic has affected the freedom of our children and youth to go outside to play and be active. With schools and colleges shifting online, sports and physical education have come to a standstill. It is not just about the impact on the fitness of children. Sports play a critical part in building self-esteem and leadership skills while teaching discipline and perseverance, and we will have to work to ensure that this gap period is made up for with appropriate measures when we emerge from the pandemic.“Covid has taught me that one can’t take anything for granted in life”Shubha Sarma, IAS officer and AuthorWe read that a strange disease in Wuhan was claiming lives, but we remained smug. Till one day, Covid-19 was ringing our doorbell. Ever since, life has not been the same. My hair has grown to its maximum length, thanks to the questionable expertise of my family for haircuts. Draping a sari over pyjamas has become the norm as women morph from Mom-at-Home to Professional-at-Work. My family and I have realised it is pointless to plan for anything. One may decide to have chicken for lunch but the meat market will be sealed. Covid-19 taught me that one cannot take anything for granted. All of it is hanging by a slim thread that might snap at any moment. So take out those saris, eat that chocolate and call up loved ones while you can.