26.03.2020, 10.34 pm

Mumbai, India

Hi! My morning started with a lot of information. Like, I saw a tweet where our Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitaraman, announced Rs. 1.7 lakh crore relief package for the poor, insurance cover worth Rs. 50L for everyone working on the frontlines of the corona battle, and so on and so forth. I don’t know how easily accessible these relief funds would be for everyone but one thing is clear, it eased out my frown a little bit (that appeared out of nowhere after the PM’s speech the day before). I wanted numbers then and all we got then were sweet nothings, literally. So, this is good. From where we stand or sit (at home), we can just be happy about the government throwing some facts at us finally. But my sister, who’s a doctor, tells me that the government may be calling out doctors all across the country to volunteer for the times to come. That made me shift a little bit in my seat, but I guess these are challenging times for many of us. Or all of us.

Some of us have old parents or infants to worry about, others are government servants who are working day and night right now, putting their lives at risk. Then there are startup founders who are witnessing the slow death of their companies, the politicians and bureaucrats probably scared for their own lives since they are all at the age where the immunity from this virus is low. From where I see it, this is going to be an honest battle. Something we’ll have to fight together without corruption, loopholes and whatnot. We are the lucky ones who have to just sit at home, do our own things, survive and watch the show. 

Okay, here’s a funny story from today. I received a video on WhatsApp and unlike the many funny coronavirus memes, it was about a Japanese film called My Secret Terrius to confirm some of the random conspiracy theories to make people freak out a little more. You can maybe go see the trailer.

But before that, listen to me.

There have been many coronaviruses in the past. Coronavirus means “a group of RNA viruses that cause a variety of diseases in humans and other animals”, that’s why the one we are fighting right now is called “Covid19”. So, let’s not compare our real-life pandemic to a foreign film and create a World War III scare in our heads. 

Yes, what we’re going through today is dramatic but this is not the most dramatic event in the history of mankind - ‘let’s pick the right hints and avoid rumours’ is a piece of unwarranted advice I want to casually drop here in front of you today. You can take it or leave it. What’s important is you should read it.

Moving on to lighter conversations now- have you thought about the future? The time we’re about to witness after these 21 days or more? It’ll be a changed world, we’ll probably be more used to working remotely, we’d probably get more used to doing our home chores ourselves and stop depending upon the luxury of various domestic helpers in our homes, we’ll take virtual classes for everything.

My mind is thinking of the various startups that are going to come up and the ones that unfortunately won’t survive the battle of the pandemic. I do really hope that the government has a plan for them too, after all, it was a year for startups. I have one of my own in fact. Weirdly though, I’m not freaking out. Not yet at least. 

What’s freaking out going to even get us? All we can do at this point is build our immunity by eating right and staying fit, keep ourselves busy, have positive thoughts and pray that by the time we wake up from this nightmare, the world is a better place to live in.

Remember, that we are survivors, the human race. We’ve survived so many evolutions, so many battles, so many wars. If we can’t survive this battle with a virus, who else will? 

Rest in tomorrow’s journal entry. I hope these are making your lockdown days slightly better. 

With lots and lots of love, safety and immunity 

Diksha

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