Terror loomed the world as the corona virus pandemic created havoc all over the world. The COVID-19 virus is so contagious that the spread is not restricted to any place or country or territory but has taken the whole world under its tentacles. The disease, expanding in exponential series, is mainly targeting the aged choking the lungs after showing signs of running nose with fever and cough. The only way to fight is “Physical distancing” described as “social distancing”. Complete lock down i.e., only home quarantine can save us breaking the chain of the disease spread. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has decided to revise the academic calendar for schools and colleges following the Prime Minister’s announcement of a 21-day lockdown from 24.03.2020 Tuesday midnight to battle the corona virus pandemic.
The HRD ministry on late Tuesday sent a circular to all the states and autonomous bodies such as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), asking them to work on an alternate academic calendar.
So, students have accepted the challenge and taken the issue as experiencing a vacation or recess announced untimely. We have to fight it out and here should exist an exact antithesis of our age-old motto, which goes like this- “united we stand and divided we perish”. Stay at home and the modern world has many things to offer you locking you inside your room. Use the virtual classroom; utilize MOOCS and the Government online learning platform SWAYAM has set up a plethora of free online courses to do its bit for the learners’ community as schools and universities shut down amid the COVID 19 lockdown. The two-and-a-half year old platform has created a repository of 1,900 courses available for students as you grapple with the global pandemic. Students lap it up. Be optimistic in your endeavour and always try to look at the brighter side of things. Who knows whether this is not a way to clean Mother Earth, reduce global warming, deplete the gap in ozone layer and all. Do you know dolphins are returning, Venice canal shines, China’s air clears up, olive ridleys are thronging the shores of Orissa in large numbers to lay eggs – the impact of Corona virus isolation says we need to rethink our ways. So, no depressions students, nothing has gone wrong with exams rescheduled, JEE and NEET withheld the world is still shining as bright as before and as always there is ample room for you all to exuberate. Spend your time in Yoga, meditation and reading lots of story books what you possess in your bookshelves and e-library. Try a hand in your mother’s kitchen and who knows the chef in you may come out with many delicacies.
Believe in yourself and as Swamiji said, “Each soul is potentially divine – the goal is to manifest the divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship or psychic control, or philosophy – by one, or more, or all of these and be free. Never forget the glory of human nature. We are the greatest God…. Christs and Buddhas are but waves on the boundless ocean which I am.”
Cheer up, stay at home and definitely we shall overcome, and we will come out of our quarantine to breathe in a new world soon.