Quarantine — Holidays OR Torment?

 

How can anyone equate the two?

Quarantine is forced, imposed. Willy nilly, one has to stay put and they call it a holiday! Quarantine is related to sickness, infection, and contagion. Who enjoys it like a holiday? Quarantine is about fear, doubt, and suspicion. Above all, quarantine demands distance, even from loved ones. In no way it can be a holiday!

One stays home. Home is where the heart is, but when this heart beats 24/7 at home, it can turn into a murmur or explode! It's not a holiday, with the house full and everyone putting up demands on the working men and women—meals and snacks galore, endless cooking, washing, cleaning, grocery, with no help around. 

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Imagine the plight of say, a teacher staring at the screen early in the morning, expecting updates, or waiting for a student to pop up a question or send an assignment. She/he has to devise an interesting lesson to engage the seven out of twenty-five students: two eager, one cheeky, two half asleep, one half-dressed, one munching food.

Holidays denote freedom from work, worry, watch. Yes, watch! One does not have to watch children closely, keep running in and out for this and that, and be anxious about time. However, when you've set an alarm for the morning, it’s work you are waking up to.

Going to work is a blessing. Even getting ready when half the world is in bed is rejuvenating! The workplace environment generates ideas and discussion, sparring and venting, fun, and growth. One can do so much in a disciplined way that can never happen quarantined at home with the whole family—the fatigued women desperately needing a breather, the sulky men pining for man-things, the fiery teens raging to hang out, the noisy children tearing at anything, and the many adults battling it out.

"I'm in an online meeting and the children are banging the door!"

'The whole house is up all night, and they sleep it out in the morning—how can I be up for my work?"

"I'm going crazy! When will this cursed Covid-19 end, dear God?"

Dear people, think overall this and don't ever say that so-and-so was on vacation since God knows when—they were quarantined like the rest of the world, desperate to walk into their offices and classrooms.

Staying home on weekends is bliss; not leaving home for work indefinitely is a curse.

This article is produced by the School of Literature. Join SOL Team here.