The Lifestyle of 2020 – The COVID -19 age

One vital role that Corona played in my life is helping me recall the basic ethics my kindergarten teacher once told me. Certainly, the corona isn’t issuing fee vouchers to us but it’s costing the most precious asset called human life. A lot of buzzes around and terrible hype about the plethora of do’s and don’t is around. A theory says that human beings have three responses to every crisis. Fight, Flight, or Freeze. Most of us are sadly frozen without realizing the sensitivity of the situation. The lifestyle of 2020 came up as a changed narrative for every human around the globe. Before you get disappointed, I got a ray of hope for you.

Wash Hands! Bash Corona

There is no doubt that there is no vaccine for corona invented so far. Not a big deal, nothing is even invented to make us disciplined either, except the urge for reward. Why not assume ourselves the soldier of a video game fighting against a monster? Let us start with washing hands as nothing gets better with the dirty hands having germs on them.

Ever thought that what if the germs on hand sign a partnership with their friend germs in the outside world and invite them to “stay safe at home” that are your unwashed hands? Will you afford to accommodate all of them? certainly not. So washing hands is just not a “nuclear attack” on coronavirus alone but on many of its “cronies”, you haven’t taken notice of before the outbreak of this pandemic.    

Personally Personal

Hands just do not need washing but cleansing. A mantra in vogue is that 20 seconds with the right moves of hands help wash the germs away. While you make a countdown, busy cleansing your hands, the running tap merely has any role in it. Closing it in the meantime surely is the right move.

Not only the world is fighting the corona crisis but next in the pipeline is a clean water shortage. The privileged ones having running water supply need to limit the water usage in order to leave it enough for the needy. The step next is drying your hands. Your towels, napkins, and tissues no more are a family affair. These items are personally personal now. Hygiene is not only using clean stuff but very much personal too. Avoid that sideline.

Curtailing Virus

Stay focused on the things and places your hand gets in contact with. Gone were the days, when people used to say bless you when they heard someone sneezing. Now they deliver them to the hospital and rest the doctors need to do. Life has totally changed to fit well in the lifestyle of 2020.

This Corona as research goes so far is not an airborne entity but a bit heavy to drop and stay at some sort of surface waiting for somebody to touch to become its carrier and travel companion to another unfortunate destiny. One must be very much careful while sneezing or coughing. Don’t use your hands to cover your mouth as hands are the most exposed part of the body and we use them to pick stuff, shake hands, and rub our eyes.

Keep a handy napkin to cover your nose and mouth or use the inner side of the elbow, or sleeve serving as a napkin. If you are at home, office, or in a place where you have easy and quick access to the washbasin, prefer using water to wash your nose and mouth frequently.

N95 Mask

The front-line soldiers like doctors, police, media reporters, and volunteers must focus on buying an N95 mask. A normal surgical mask is loose and thin. Whereas the N95 mask fits our face covering all the loopholes. It’s a filter-packed respiratory mask and its shape does not let any fluid or particular in. You like it or not but the compulsion is to get attuned to the lifestyle of 2020.

Meet & Greet

We all are the building block of society. We owe it a lot. Take care of your family members. The World is abruptly changed now. Hugging doesn’t define caring but maintaining a distance does. Avoid handshakes. Welcome guests in Sindhi style (A province of Pakistan known for its humble greeting style). This will surely be a cheerful greeting style. A few clicks on youtube and you will find it lovely.

Care 2 Cure

A pinch of salt in a glass of water never hurt. It will be an antiseptic to your throat keeping the path clear from viruses. If you feel a headache, take a painkiller. Isolate yourself if you find any of these symptoms like dry cough, breathing issues, fever, sneezing, body fatigue, or shivering. Wash hands frequently but be careful to avoid wiping out hand lines, perhaps at some time, you may be in need of consulting a palmist.

Stay Calm

Nothing else but a calm mind, hope, and faith can help us get over this pandemic. It’s very rare when the world joins hands with empathy beyond races, boundaries, and economies. Take the privilege of the rarest of the rare consensus and play a vital role in saving the world. Surely you have ONE beyond your own estimates. Stay home, stay safe, and help others the way you find feasible in your situation.

Forget for a while those busy days of meeting with friends, colleagues, and a lot of others everywhere around. The lifestyle of 2020 only permits you to stay alone, stay home, keep quiet wait for the time to revert back to old routines. In the meantime, staying calm will help you to stay home alone.

Photo by Sarah Kilian on Unsplash