First reported on the last days of the year 2019 in China's Wuhan - a port city with 1.1 million population - as an unusual type of Pneumonia, the novel coronavirus infected about 3.9 lakh people & caused 17,000 deaths in less than 3 months.
Here is my story from the time the authorities started taking serious measures to contain the epidemic after listening to the horror stories of countries like Iran, Italy, Spain & lastly the US.
It began with a Janta Curfew on Sunday, 22nd March which was mostly very successful barring few overzealous people celebrating the end of curfew with fireworks & rallies.
I spent the afternoon in successfully finishing the novel 'Inferno' which I had been reading for the past 3 months at least. Ironically the plot of 'Inferno' is virus creation by some mad scientist with the target to reduce the population of earth.
Then there was the issue of how to commute to & from my faraway workplace without using public transport, the solution of which came in the breaking news at 9 pm in the form of the complete lockdown of the state until March 31.
Day 1:
A completely uneventful Monday except for a V shape movement in the Nifty & Sensex. Afternoon was spent closely observing the snake dance of the stock markets of India & evening marked the beginning of writing about the lockdown days.
Day 2:
Tuesday seems to have been erased from my memory as I have nothing to recall about it, maybe because there's nothing to separate it from the previous day.
To compensate for the dull day, there came a frightening declaration of 21 days complete nationwide lockdown.
To compensate for the dull day, there came a frightening declaration of 21 days complete nationwide lockdown.
Day 3:
As the snake dance performed by the markets on Monday continued today, a quarter of my salary washed out for the pleasure of option trading. In other activities, I began reading one more James Hadley Chase novel - 'Come Easy Go Easy'. One notable fact is that I have been so much engaged in my setup since the past 13 years, this whole day idling business doesn't seem to irritate me - at least as of today.
Day 4:
One more uneventful day & many more to come till the 14th of April, hopefully, the last date of lockdown / Self Quarantine. It was pretty exciting at least for the stock traders being the day of the monthly expiry of March series. Its a hell of a thriller until you check the ledger at the end of the day where it turns out to be a tragedy.
Day 5:
The last of the weekdays was spent well with suspense thrillers - online in the stock market & offline with the James Hadley Chase novel. So here is the gloomy evening of the Friday & I am writing this blog as per my new routine of lockdown period.
Day 6:
Today completes one full week of restrictions considering last Sunday's 'Janta Curfew' as an equivalent to lockdown. It's painful even for people like me who have a past experience of staying at home for months. The fear has spread in all the corners of the world, in all the classes of people - a truly once in a century kind of crisis & the very first where almost all humans of the world are trapped in their homes.
Day 7 & 8:
I didn't feel much motivated to write on Sunday so this is being written on Monday. Actually, there's nothing to separate Sunday from Monday as nobody's going anywhere - neither to the malls nor to their offices. So Sunday was spent mostly in planning about the life after the lockdown on realizing that you only live once. The idea is to hurry up & fulfill all the unaccomplished desires which I have been postponing for so many years, never realizing when I entered the forties.
And Monday was the same thrilling journey as it has been since the past few months. It was a neutral kind of day if you ask whether it was good or bad. Now, the corona infections figure worldwide has reached above 700 thousand & almost 35,000 are killed by the pandemic.
Day 9 / 31st March :
Finally today was the day I got to see the locked-down look of the city thanks to the mandatory financial year closing activities. The journey was too smooth & fast as just a small fraction of the usual traffic is seen on roads. Again there's almost no reason for people to go out as no shops or offices except the essential services are open for business.
Day 10:
Now the routine of lockdown days has started to create boredom somewhere deep down my being. After listing out all the options to pass time, I shuffle their schedule here & there to create variety & make one day look different from the other but the fatigue is there.
Day 11:
So today I got the opportunity to capture the city under lockdown. I have picked up the locations with heavy traffic & lots of activities happening on any normal day, all images taken around 11 in the morning. No words need to be said about the images below as we all everyday experience the rush hour scenario.
Day 13:
There's not much to tell about day 13 but the previous day was a personal record-maker for a long drive to my workplace & back to home totaling about 170 km. The lock-down was working almost perfectly even in the small towns & villages which I passed through. No eatery was open to eat, even the roadside tea-stalls have closed business. The only place with a crowd was a bank where needy people might have gone to collect the government monetary help in view of this crisis.
Day 14:
Day 4:
One more uneventful day & many more to come till the 14th of April, hopefully, the last date of lockdown / Self Quarantine. It was pretty exciting at least for the stock traders being the day of the monthly expiry of March series. Its a hell of a thriller until you check the ledger at the end of the day where it turns out to be a tragedy.
Day 5:
The last of the weekdays was spent well with suspense thrillers - online in the stock market & offline with the James Hadley Chase novel. So here is the gloomy evening of the Friday & I am writing this blog as per my new routine of lockdown period.
Day 6:
Today completes one full week of restrictions considering last Sunday's 'Janta Curfew' as an equivalent to lockdown. It's painful even for people like me who have a past experience of staying at home for months. The fear has spread in all the corners of the world, in all the classes of people - a truly once in a century kind of crisis & the very first where almost all humans of the world are trapped in their homes.
Day 7 & 8:
I didn't feel much motivated to write on Sunday so this is being written on Monday. Actually, there's nothing to separate Sunday from Monday as nobody's going anywhere - neither to the malls nor to their offices. So Sunday was spent mostly in planning about the life after the lockdown on realizing that you only live once. The idea is to hurry up & fulfill all the unaccomplished desires which I have been postponing for so many years, never realizing when I entered the forties.
And Monday was the same thrilling journey as it has been since the past few months. It was a neutral kind of day if you ask whether it was good or bad. Now, the corona infections figure worldwide has reached above 700 thousand & almost 35,000 are killed by the pandemic.
Day 9 / 31st March :
Finally today was the day I got to see the locked-down look of the city thanks to the mandatory financial year closing activities. The journey was too smooth & fast as just a small fraction of the usual traffic is seen on roads. Again there's almost no reason for people to go out as no shops or offices except the essential services are open for business.
Day 10:
Now the routine of lockdown days has started to create boredom somewhere deep down my being. After listing out all the options to pass time, I shuffle their schedule here & there to create variety & make one day look different from the other but the fatigue is there.
Day 11:
So today I got the opportunity to capture the city under lockdown. I have picked up the locations with heavy traffic & lots of activities happening on any normal day, all images taken around 11 in the morning. No words need to be said about the images below as we all everyday experience the rush hour scenario.
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| Rock star circle |
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| Malhar Point |
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| Chakli (Bird) circle |
 |
| Racecourse circle |
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| Ambedkar Circle |
 |
| Inorbit circle |
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| Fatehgunj circle |
Day 13:
There's not much to tell about day 13 but the previous day was a personal record-maker for a long drive to my workplace & back to home totaling about 170 km. The lock-down was working almost perfectly even in the small towns & villages which I passed through. No eatery was open to eat, even the roadside tea-stalls have closed business. The only place with a crowd was a bank where needy people might have gone to collect the government monetary help in view of this crisis.
Day 14:
The fatigue has started to escalate now, the options that helped to pass time in the first 2 weeks have started to lose their edge. So there's a need for new ideas preferably involving outdoor activities. The curve of coronavirus infections around the world is almost peaked out at almost 13 lakh infections & 70,000 casualties.
Day 16:
Yesterday again was a day of tiring bike journey to Tilakwada & back for the task that was left unfinished on Friday. It took about 3 hours of trial & error kind of troubleshooting work to restore the fault in Tilakwada exchange. This Monday was lucky on the trading front also as I made some good gains.
Today was no event day except the trading was pursued in full force and as usual was overdone after the long weekend. In other news, another James Hadley Chase novel 'I hold the four aces' was finished in last week.
Day 20:
The miserable situation seems to continue beyond the 21 days as per the grapevine around social media and also, highly probable looking at the steady rise in infections around the country. The routine is so monotonous that I have skipped last 3 days in this lockdown diary & I actually can't recall much specifics about how I passed through Wednesday to Friday.
To compensate for the totally dull days I have began reading one more thriller by James Hadley Chase - Mission to Sienna.
Day 21 / April 12
This is the third Sunday without a visit to mall or multiplex & is happening first time in past 10-12 years for me. Strangely the idleness & staying home all day doesn't seem to affect my mind & soul as if doing nothing & going nowhere is not at all new for me. Its a shocking revelation, especially as I am about to finish 4 decades of my life.
Day 22/23:
It doesn't matter at all if I call it day 22,23 or 24, all are almost identical except for the few hours spent for online trading. As expected, extension of lockdown up to May 3rd has been announced today, so the war against the invisible enemy continues for further 19 days. The infections have yet not reached alarming level for a country with above 1 billion population but looking at the situation of European countries & then US will make any government think twice before lifting restrictions.
Day 16:
Yesterday again was a day of tiring bike journey to Tilakwada & back for the task that was left unfinished on Friday. It took about 3 hours of trial & error kind of troubleshooting work to restore the fault in Tilakwada exchange. This Monday was lucky on the trading front also as I made some good gains.
Today was no event day except the trading was pursued in full force and as usual was overdone after the long weekend. In other news, another James Hadley Chase novel 'I hold the four aces' was finished in last week.
Day 20:
The miserable situation seems to continue beyond the 21 days as per the grapevine around social media and also, highly probable looking at the steady rise in infections around the country. The routine is so monotonous that I have skipped last 3 days in this lockdown diary & I actually can't recall much specifics about how I passed through Wednesday to Friday.
To compensate for the totally dull days I have began reading one more thriller by James Hadley Chase - Mission to Sienna.
Day 21 / April 12
This is the third Sunday without a visit to mall or multiplex & is happening first time in past 10-12 years for me. Strangely the idleness & staying home all day doesn't seem to affect my mind & soul as if doing nothing & going nowhere is not at all new for me. Its a shocking revelation, especially as I am about to finish 4 decades of my life.
Day 22/23:
It doesn't matter at all if I call it day 22,23 or 24, all are almost identical except for the few hours spent for online trading. As expected, extension of lockdown up to May 3rd has been announced today, so the war against the invisible enemy continues for further 19 days. The infections have yet not reached alarming level for a country with above 1 billion population but looking at the situation of European countries & then US will make any government think twice before lifting restrictions.
