Osama Malick
Come the year 2020 and nobody knew that it would bring in its wake a disastrous pandemic—namely coronavirus—, leaving the people with no option but to remain indoors and avoid mass gatherings.To a great extent it was feasible for the bourgeoisie and creme de la creme to adapt themselves to such conditions but it was the poor who had to bear the brunt of the havoc caused by this merciless contagion.The major concern for the latter was as to where to eat from,unless the bread winners would go out to eke out their livings.
In this whole scenario , the students were also no exception, for they had to stay home and study via online classes. Study is a process through which a person evolves gradually.Yet this process requires undivided attention,so it was improbable for a large number of students to have desirable conditions during these unprecedented times,mainly owing to the presence of all family members all the time . For some students,absence of proper room to study,dearth of resources to fund their education were the mind-boggling problems whereas others have had unavailability of Internet services like issues in their respective regions.On the flip side , there have been a number of students too who had to grapple with these predicaments all together to turn this online education into a reality. Much to our sadness despite agitations in miscellaneous parts of the country, government did nothing to redress the students’ grievances and so universities went on to hold online classes. Eventually in the first some months of this virus, more than 1.5 billion students and around 65 million teachers from 180 countries of the world had shifted to online classes leaving the institutes unoccupied.
Online learning has never been an optimal option ,yet after so many ifs and buts students have become inured to it in the fullness of time as they know that this pandemic’s total termination from this world is nowhere on the horizon.
We are already experiencing the second wave of this death-dealing virus and this time it’s been more aggressive and lethal in wreaking havoc as far as exterminating human lives is concerned. Reports of Covid-19’s variant being found ,first in England and now in different parts of the world including Pakistan, further consolidate this view that this contagion is not going to leave humanity anytime soon. Therefore “transition” is the only alternative we as students and other human beings are left with. The sooner we adapt ourselves to this new normal , the better.
It has been rightly put that there are always two sides to every story.Ergo the other side of this pandemic has been that it gave students like me—whose more than four hours of a day were spent in commutation in order to reach university and come back home— the opportunity to spend more time with their family members and friends to know and create a stronger bond with them.We had had never before such a good amount of time for ourselves too since the start of our degree education . Covid-19 compelled me to renew my views on life , success and other worldly matters and after that period of contemplations , I feel myself a better person now. I have come to know that compassion for humanity , charity for the destitute , tolerance to accept people with different views are such commendable traits that benefit the person who practices them the most and help make this world a better place for everyone to live in. With the arrival of 2021 , it really seems like we —who have been lucky enough to survive the pandemic—are now living a second life with the first one being left in the turbulent 2020.Though the second wave of this pandemic is still in it’s full swing , everyone is advised to enjoy this “second” life responsibly.
