Covid Awareness

Love in the Lockdown

It’s said that a good relationship is the one that can endure the good, the bad and all that comes in between. But these thoughts, however romantic they may sound, were put to the test in this pandemic. Some of us had the misfortune of being away from our significant others and were ultimately stay put wherever we were for almost 6 months. A seemingly close, intimate relationship turned into a long-distance one and people had to come up with creative ideas on how to make their love not feel neglected.

People's professional-life took a turn they weren’t expecting and thousands, if not millions, got stuck doing their work from their homes. The added pressure of work due to risk of unemployment only made a seemingly bad situation worse.

If not for the internet, I dare say that a lot of relationships would not have been doing so well. With the advent of fast internet connection and almost endless data packs to use up, people could video call their significant other and their own families however much they wanted. It became a rather bland yet necessary substitute for the intimacy that most crave. But even in the presence of this connectivity it’s still worth mentioning, the frustration and loneliness that was felt. Not being able to meet one’s better half , not being able to spend time with them or send them gifts did hurt. This understandably led to a lot of fights because all that pent up frustration just had to go somewhere. People tried to sometimes release these feelings by either exercising or engaging in house chores or doing their office work but in the end, the fact is that we just really missed them a lot.

There was also the issue of personal space. While being apart, we didn’t have a window in the life of our partner. It was easy to feel insecure because most of us just aren’t used to spending this much time apart and with presence of extra work, parents and siblings made it even more difficult to connect. While playing virtual Ludo or Carom or any endless number of multi-player games available on the play store did help, they didn’t prove to be enough. We have become so used to getting everything almost instantaneously that this pandemic only either ended up teaching us a great deal of patience or it ended those relationships which were extremely co-dependent. It’s not a bad thing to want to meet and spend time together but every relationship needs some time apart and a high degree of freedom given to each party.

Now that the public transport is opening bit by bit, people have prioritized meeting others before doing their work and we don’t blame them. The effects of this lockdown haven’t been just political, economic or social but also interpersonal and spiritual.

The ones who were near their companion or living with them weren’t as unfortunate as the former but their relationships weren’t exactly unaffected either. Not everybody has a loving, fulfilling relationship. Some might be in a neglectful, abusive or even a life threatening one. The lockdown only made their situation worse.

Another interesting thing to note would be infidelity. There was, understandably, a fairly good amount of doubting and privacy invasion in the lockdown. With no way to fulfil one’s emotional or physical needs, it’s not completely unthinkable as to what might have happened. We have seen dating sites taking advantage of this situation. They came with new, rowdy ways of connecting people. Some even made their premium features free and up for grabs. There was a noticeable surge in the number of people using dating sites in the lockdown. While infidelity isn’t appreciated in almost every culture, It’s still certainly a very real phenomenon that has become the occasional end of relationships here and there.

Not every good thing ends badly but not every bad thing has a silver lining either. People have understood the value of boundaries, freedom, privacy and the importance of time apart or together and so much of it was learned not from the good but the bad, painful aspects of the lockdown. The results are mixed but this could have just been the blessing in disguise that we weren’t expecting.