A week in the life of a 14-year-old Indian student during the pandemic

(Courtesy of Samagya)

Samagya writes about what she likes about online classes (no uniforms) and her concerns about recovering from loss.

Monday, 6 April 

Today I woke up at 7:30 a.m. By that time, my mother and Nani (that’s what we call a maternal grandmother in India) were awake. After brushing my teeth and all, my mother asked me to come with her for a morning walk. Initially I refused, but then I reluctantly went with her. Normally we would go to a big park for a walk, however, it has been locked due to the coronavirus. 

After we came home, my mother told my younger sister (who had now woken up) and me to go out in the corridor and stand in the morning sun. We do this almost every day now because in big cities, people have a deficiency of vitamin D in their body. Afterwards, I took a bath and then hurriedly ate my breakfast as the time for my online classes came near. 

Online classes are much better than real classes in many ways, because you don't have to wear a uniform or care for the hairstyle. You don't have to wake up early. My school normally starts at 7:30 a.m., but now I wake up at that time. With online classes, you also don't have to worry about not having or forgetting any book and notebook because you are at home. But nothing can replace the experience of going to school and studying together.  

There is also another big problem that students in India are facing. Most of the exams were going on when suddenly the lockdown was announced, and therefore the students did not get a chance to buy the books for the next grade. However, all the textbooks published by the government are freely available online. 

Tuesday, 7 April 

Today I woke up before 8 a.m. This is quite an early time but it feels good throughout the day when you wake up early. Our balcony is my favourite place in the whole house. I like the fresh air outside. Though sadly I can't be on the balcony for too long due to extremely hot or extremely cold weather. 

The park in front of my house. (Courtesy of Samagya)

I never thought that the coronavirus, which I was reading in newspapers in January and February, would create such havoc around the world and that my life would be affected so much. All I was thinking about then was the fact I would be able to rejoin my karate classes and go outside and play once the exams were over. And sadly, this will not happen as my country is in lockdown. The park in front of my house looks deserted all the time when it could have been full of children playing different games. I was waiting for the school to reopen so I could go to the library and check out some of the books I had planned to read. I had been dreaming about how my birthday would be celebrated and who will make cards for me this year. I was also waiting to meet my friends whom I have not seen since I last went to school. All of this is very bad. It should not have happened. So many people are dying all over the world. One cannot move on for months after the death of a loved one. How will the world be able to go on after suffering so much?

Wednesday, 8 April 

In the midst of all this coronavirus talk, I forgot to tell you about my routine. I wake up at 7:30 a.m. but I lie on the bed till 8 a.m. I always have to make the bed and then I brush my teeth. I eat a little bit before I go skip rope because I can't skip with an empty stomach. After that I mop the floor. Then I rush to the bathroom for a bath and afterwards I eat my food and wait for the invitation email for the online classes. 

We had our classes with Zoom for one week but now we do so through Google Hangouts, though anyone in our class will tell you that Zoom is better. I have three 40-minute classes per day for five days a week. From 10:30 a.m. to 11:10 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 1:40 p.m. In the breaks between the classes, the time flies so fast that it feels like only 5 minutes have passed. After 1:40 p.m., I eat lunch. Until 4:30 p.m., my whole family watched two episodes of “Ramayana,” a very famous television series based on ancient India's very famous book by the same name.

My Nani and my sister play Ludo, a very popular board game. (Courtesy of Samagya)

Afterwards, we go for a light nap or do chores like washing the utensils, washing the clothes or folding dry clothes, and then we study. We all have made a habit of washing the utensils we use ourselves so that one person does not have all the load. After 7 p.m., we go outside and play hopscotch or play any game indoors only. We take our evening milk at around this time only. Around 8 p.m., we help in the kitchen for dinner. After 9 p.m., me, my Nani and my sister play Ludo, a very popular board game. It takes about 45 minutes to play after you have mastered it. Then I study and after that I brush my teeth and go to sleep.

Thursday, 9 April

Today I woke up very early at 6:47 a.m. I could not even sleep properly yesterday. Then I saw that I had got my period. I changed my clothes and slept again till when it was almost 9:30 a.m. That was too late as compared to the days before.

After the online classes I watched Ramayana till 5 p.m. We then played Ludo a few times. In Ludo, there is a rule that no one can do anything to a Ludo piece inside the house area of the game. The same also goes for the virus. If we stay in our house then the coronavirus will not be able to do anything to us. 

In the big park near our house (the same one which is now locked), there are many trees. One of them is a tree of the special type of cotton used for making pillows. These trees are very tall but on windy days the cotton pods fall down and people collect them. We had collected many of them and had kept them safely. These cotton pods sometimes have cracks or we have to break them by a hammer. Then we take out the cotton and put inside a pillow cover along with its small seeds. This might seem an easy task but it is not one. The cotton fibers are tough to handle and can enter your nose and mouth, so we always wear a mask while doing this. Some of the cotton sticks to the pods and it becomes very difficult to remove all of them. Today me, my Nani and my sister did this only. We could make one whole pillow out of it. This was our third pillow in two years. They are very comfy to sleep on too.

(Courtesy of Samagya)

Friday, 10 April 

Today I woke up late at 9 a.m. again. I was still feeling tired. One thought crossing my mind very frequently these days is that I am going to turn 15 in a month. My birthday is on 9 May. My online classes take almost three hours (including the breaks) today. That is a good thing because otherwise I would have been so bored.

I've been in the house since 25 February, when my last exam ended. In between, I went to school only for two days and only for a few hours. When the classes had not yet started but the lockdown was announced, I had spent my days doing some art and crafts, covering my new books and notebooks and writing names on them, washing my school bag, etc. 

Some of my time was also spent in completing the mammoth task of keeping the winter clothes back in the bags and taking out the summer clothes. We always put our clothes out in the sun for disinfection after taking them out from the bags. One thought just came into my mind that this happens only in places with different seasons throughout the year. I remember Malala saying in her book that she could see four different seasons in her native Pakistan but only one in England. One thing I was surprised to find was that my Nani knows about Malala. She also added that she used to follow Malala's news back when she had been shot. This is really a small world!