when the world stopped

 Six years have passed since I wrote this essay on June 20, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was still a child then, frightened, curious, hopeful, and trying to understand what the world was becoming. Reading these words today feels emotional. Some fears became true, some never happened, and many wishes only grew stronger with time.Today, masks are mostly gone, lockdowns are memories, and life has moved forward. Yet this piece reminds me how deeply that period changed our thinking about technology, health, work, and human connection. I decided to share this writing exactly as it was written back then, with all its innocence, imperfections, and imagination, because it captures a real moment in history and a younger version of myself that I never want to forget. 

LIFE AFTER THE PANDEMIC

      We all are aware of the fact that the pandemic "Nobel coronavirus" or COVID-19 was first detected in the Wuhan city of China at the end of the year 2019. Covid-19 has spread its wings all over the world. Till today, 213 countries and two international conveyances have been suffered from the pandemic. Sadly, above 7 million people are infected through it and 0.4 million people have lost their precious lives because of the pandemic. Most of the people all over the world are experiencing lockdown or curfews and are staying indoors for a large number of days. Most of the offices, institutions, schools, universities, factories, and organizations are shut down these days because of the lockdown. People are trying to work from their home as much as possible. All students having easy access to the internet and gadgets are attending visual interactive classes.

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   All of us must  have asked ourselves or elders " how will  life be after the pandemic?"

In my opinion, we are sure to see the drastic change in ourselves, our habits, environment and the whole world after the pandemic. The first thing came to my mind is the way of living. All the people, in order to be safe from the pandemic they will give their best in adopting safety measures and sanitation. We would wear a mask, gloves, take sanitizer with us, and go outside. We(people) will develop the habit of joining our own two hands and greet each other instead of hugging or shaking each others hand for greeting. we are likely to maintain social distances with each other outside our house. According to the UN, the COVID-19 will not extinguish completely from the earth so, we would be applying our safety in every field. Also, after the  minimization of the pandemic when we return to our works, it would be satisfactory for the first days because of our active minds. 

There is a saying" Every new day starts with a new beginning." Same, we all are eagerly waiting for the day to start our new beginning with new strength and excitement. I believe that day would start with a ray of bright sunshine calling for us for our works with new rejoice and activeness. 

Life after the pandemic would provide new hope for better start to the people. Bitter truth would be that most of the people would have lost their jobs and left struggling around searching for jobs. 

We all must have seen the robots working in various restaurants in Nepal. These mediums would be the best and most used method after the pandemic to reduce the risk of transmission. In a broader sense, the use of digital media, artificial intelligence(AI)  would take place instead of human resources. It's a positive sign of development in the field of science and technology but most of people would lose their profession.

Nepal being a developing country is certain to face economic crisis, most of the people should live their life in a pang of extreme hunger, we would observe an increase in poverty level and the unemployment rate. Even the people of lower-income will have to struggle a lot to joins their hands to mouth. Their struggles during and after the pandemic cannot be imagined. According to the UN's International Labour Organization, 1.6 million of informal economy workers could suffer 'massive damage' to their livelihood.

Also, according to the world bank Covid-19 is likely to cause the first increase in poverty since 1998. After the pandemic, we could observe greater use of digital materials such as e-banking, mobile money transfer instead of cash transaction. Most of the large seminars and meetings could run online to reduce the risk of transmission. It would bring positive signs in the fields of technology. 

After the pandemic, all work would start but in a safe and technical way, minimizing the transmission of the virus. Life after the pandemic would create both pros and cons in each and every field of a country. In my point of view, my life would be memorable, exciting and hopeful. I would begin that day with new plans and resolutions for the upcoming academic year. Hope this day would arrive fast so that no one could suffer and lost their lives because of the pandemic. Let's support and unite each other in these times of difficulties.

Waiting for your arrival......(days after the pandemic)

Finally the days are here, but feels more heavy and full of chaos. Do share your experiences anonymously below.