In this poem, a young student sheds light on her experience over the past two years and how the lack of spatial mobility molded her experience in ways which cannot be easily characterized as either positive or negative.
Lockdown
A blessing or a curse
Something in which all my thoughts immerse,
online school and no more swimming pools,
everything is not so cool.
Locked in my room,
no sleepovers, no lunches, no going to malls
My birthday meant just me, my new phone and zoom calls.
Everyday was a new trend
Monday Dalgona coffee, Friday butter chicken of Ranveer Brar fame,
Sunday came with new TikToks from Charlie d'Amelio and Khabi Lame.
TikTok is banned, teens are in despair
Thank God for Insta reels
Else things would be beyond repair.
Just when it seems life is back on track,
Deadly Delta comes coughing again.
Second wave.....and here we are locked in again.
But this time, with vaccines on their way
Maybe schools will reopen and we will be out everyday.
Finally, a little normalcy, but here comes Omicron
In the new year, in a new form.
Here we are complacently back in our beds,
Shopping online and learning new hacks.
Two years have passed, I don't want to go back to school
School in bed is just as cool.
Jayati Luthra is a student in Class X at Springdales School Pusa Road in New Delhi.