Lessons learnt from the Lock Down Test

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In my school days, I read this short story in class about a man; 25 years old then, enter into a wager with his friend that he would stay 15 years in solitary confinement if his friend agrees to pay him with half of his property at the end of the period. They strike the wager and the man enters the voluntary solitary confinement of 15 years in the dark high walled cellar at the outhouse of his friend’s house.

Before I tell you the end of this story, let me ask you a few questions. What do you think? Will he be able to stay in voluntary confinement for 15 years without complaint? What will he do during this time? How long will he stay in voluntary confinement, knowing that he can get out at any moment? When will be his breaking point? Will there be one?

The reason why I got reminded of this story is because of the condition that we are living our days, these times, away from our regular work lives, from our family and friends and loved ones. At one point, I started to feel the way this man would have felt in his voluntary solitary confinement, his pride keeping him inside the cellar, knowing that he can get out any moment but eagerly anticipating the greater reward at the end of this grueling road.

Being indoors during quarantine times taught me a lot of lessons. I want to share a few of them, hoping that they resonate with the one who is paying attention to my thoughts at this moment. They say objectivity makes a man more likeable, so let me list down my thoughts for your ease.

1.      You evaluate your priorities: We live in times when we are connected to all sorts of people, the ones who have known us all our lives and the ones who are only a day’s acquaintance. During our time in quarantine, despite having all the time in the world, knowingly or unknowingly, we choose to stay connected regularly with only those people who really matter to us. Sure, we may be texting every random person on the planet for lack of any other form of entertainment, but such trying times open our eyes to really know the people we truly care about. So, if someone is not reverting back to your messages, it might not be because they are busy, it could be that you might not be making a cut in their list of priorities.

2.  Your absolute true nature comes out: If you were given 1440 ten dollar bills for free, to spend as you wish, what will you do with the money? Whatever you think you wish to do may be a link to what you are actually doing during this quarantine time. Confused? Don’t be! Consider the sum of money I just talked about to be the amount of time we have in a day. Yes I did the math; we have 1440 minutes each day. What do we do with the time? I never said be 100% productive, don’t waste a minute of your time, be your best version, so on and so forth. It’s not always about what we choose to do with our time; it’s about what we choose not to. Are we spending our time being anxious about the road ahead, are we frantically analyzing the aftermath of this pandemic? If we are doing all of this, I urge you to stop right there. Reinhold Niebuhr, author of the serenity prayer rightly states, “Father, give me the courage to change the things I can, the patience to not worry about the things I can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference.” What we all can do at this point is adhere religiously to the governmental and medical advisories, not get bogged down by disheartening news and understand the difference between authentic and inauthentic information.

3.  A combination of the above points but from the others’ perspective: They say in your trying times you truly know your friend from your foe. India as a country is so riddled by the malice of dogmatized religion that it took us less than two weeks to turn a global pandemic into a religious onslaught. Add onto this the plethora of nonsensical tips, tricks and hacks to deal with a disease, global scientists can’t find a solution too. As we move forward to discover our own true selves, we also end up being witnesses to the world around us.

4.  Humans seek profit wherever they can find it: I cannot say whether this is an ethically right trend or not, but the level of memes, creative content etc that has been created out of this cause, during this time is mind boggling. Some of them are truly made out of a moral cause but looking at things from a reality perspective, we can’t be surprised if art is being used for profit be it social or financial, harping on the bandwagon of this global pandemic.

5.  Beginning of a new world order: As a political science student back in 2016, I would study about world hegemonies and their impact on this world in ways unimaginable. And now, in 2020, as the entire world moves forward to a globally destroyed economy, we can only imagine the endless possibilities the new world order will have in store for us.

As for me, a final year graduate student stuck at home, my only concern at the moment is if I will be entering my post graduation this year or getting my graduate degree at all. But in all this, what happened to the man stuck in 15 years of voluntary confinement. I believe you should read ‘The Bet’ by Anton Chekov to know. I am sure books will serve you better than any social media can at this point. Happy Quarantine!

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