The "Corona" Curfew - 22nd March 2020

22nd March 2020, India went into a self-imposed day long lock down - the "JANTA" CURFEW. A full dress rehearsal for things to come, except that nobody had a clue of scope & extent of the drama going to unfold in coming days.

On March 18th, PMO twitter handle released a tweet late in the night, mentioning PM would address the nation tomorrow at 8 PM.

PM Shri @narendramodi will address the nation on 19th March 2020 at 8 PM, during which he will talk about issues relating to COVID-19 and the efforts to combat it.

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) March 18, 2020

Indians know, what happens when PM addresses nation at 8 PM. Last time when it happened on a mild winter November 8, 2016 evening, we really had a hard time. The 500 and 1000 rupee currency notes were banned overnight and literally brought everyone on road - standing in queues for withdrawing money, exchanging outgoing currency and what not.

Since the declaration of Covid-19 as pandemic a week ago, people were apprehensive. There were advisories being issued everyday, lock downs being ordered, guidelines being issued to provincial governments and high level meetings happening every day. And then came the announcement - India would observe  self-imposed "Janta Curfew" from 7 AM to 9 PM and would put a public display of gratitude through clapping and jingle of bells, conch shells - gratitude towards people involved in medical care and other emergency services.

On 22nd March 2020, let us observe a Janata Curfew and add strength to the fight against COVID-19. #IndiaFightsCorona. pic.twitter.com/qOqhQaJES5

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 19, 2020

Some naysayers had a grievance - what good is a self-imposed curfew on sunday, a holiday. Human life is so self-centered, individually first and then collectively. Look what we have done to the ecology of this planet.

The response was huge. PM appealed and everyone obliged. In a country known for its average civic sense of responsibility and jugaad technology, such a level of mass compliance was never seen. The "corona" challenge before us was huge and unprecedented and the collective display of mass home quarantine for a day - the response had matched the challenge. By the way, if interested for official guidelines for home quarantine, click here. 

The entire country of 1.3 billion plus people had shut itself inside their homes. So much so that people started appreciating low pollution levels, many of them saw clear blue skies in cities after long long time, just in matter of few hours. Media people however could not contain their excitement again, they were out on the road to report the empty streets.

Real magic happened at 5 PM in the evening. I still could not fathom what hit the collective conscience of nation that evening - was it the appeal made by  PM, a sense of gratitude or the euphoria of having followed the janta curfew with such military-like discipline. The entire nation, more than a billion people, once again come out, this time on their rooftops, balconies, windows and gates and put up a public display of applause for those rendering their services for public at large specially the doctors, nurses, paramedics, support staff. I had goosebumps when I was clapping on rooftop - every single house coming together for the cause. See how it looked like.

I had never seen anything like this before. No, not just the celebration but also the bondage, the sense of gratitude. Do you want to see more.

While people were united in spirit in their resolve to fight the chinese corona virus (yes, because it originated in china and that is how pandemics had been named previously as well), the pandemic was already wreaking havoc in Europe and America. Images of Italy's Prime Minister crying in face of the rising deaths in his country were being forwarded on watsapp (which later was found to be fake). Even in India cases of corona virus infection were on the rise. Surprisingly, the state of Bihar had not reported any positive case till date. However the relief did not last long. 

A controversial death was reported in Bihar. A patient admitted at AIIMS Patna, who had a travel history to middle east, was confirmed infected with corona virus after he had died and his body handed over to relatives. The hospital did not wait for report, relatives of the deceased saying there were not informed anything in this regard by the hospital, media and authorities rushed to cover. Till now, no case had been reported in Bihar. Now, the first reported case started with a death and the way it was handled had created panic.

On the same day, Chief Minister of state of Bihar, Mr. Nitish Kumar, announced complete lock down in state of Bihar till 31st March. All private enterprises, private offices and public transport was shut down. Our office watsapp group went live with discussion whether our office would get closed. Everybody went about defining "complete lock down" to suit their perspectives.

In another development, services of Indian Railways were shut down across the nation till 31st March. Many other states like Maharastra and Delhi had already announced lock downs. Almost entire country was under a partial lock down as many restrictions on movement of people and goods had been imposed. The developing nation of 1.3 billion plus people, which otherwise is buzzing with busy street life, crowded market places, packed to the capacity public transport and hustle bustle of office goers, had "almost" stopped in its tracks.