Nandita Bansal, X C & Vidhi Khurana, X B, AIS Saket

Coronavirus sure did leave the world asunder and hopeless but in a pleas-ant turn of events, various human

acts showcasing humanity and concern have become common sights to behold amid this pandemic. Here’s look-ing at a few of them:

Let there be food!

As the privileged section of the so-ciety panicked and hoarded up food items during the lockdown, many remained blithely oblivious to the fact that due to hoarding at such level, food prices have skyrocketed, making it difficult for the economi-cally weaker sec-tions of the society to sustain. Howev-er, a few NGOs across the coun-tries and common people helped thou-sands to sleep with their bellies full as well as provided them with their daily basic re-quirements of food, sanitisers and masks.

All hail the doctors!People have now realised that healthcare work-ers are angels on earth who are putting their own lives at risk to help save the lives of strangers, and that they deserve all the respect and appre-ciation the world has to offer. Various countries saw people lining up in their balconies and ap-plauding all the workers. Also, in Spain, the po-lice lined up around the local hospitals, flashed their car lights and applauded the hospital staff.

Love them animals!Various pet adoption sites have crashed due to the huge demand in pets. China, on the other hand, permanently banned the consumption of wild animals. The new ban prohibits hunting, trade and transportation of all wild animals (whether captive bred or caught in the wild). Good for our little furry friends, it seems like we could

grasp the true meaning of animal rights after all.

Back to our roots!

Due to being home-bound, and in accor-dance with the neces-sary social distancing, generations of families have come together for a nail biting and rather

suspenseful re-watch of the great Indian ep-ics of Mahabharata and Ramayana. This his-tory lesson might just end up being interesting and illuminating, well, for some of us at least.

Hear the winds laugh!

The sky has never been clearer; the birds have

never been chirpier before than they are now. As the air pollution level now falls amidst this lockdown, people in Pun-jab’s Jalandhar can now see the beautiful snow clad Dhauladhar hills, in the Kangra valley, HP, from their balconies at home. The elderly in the area viewed it as the phenomenon for the many centuries to come and those that went by.

During these peculiar times where hugs and hand-shakes suddenly became weapons and not visit-ing friends and relatives became an act of love, maybe we just became more humane than ever, more considerate of each other and possibly a tiny bit happier than we could have ever been. G T

How are you all doing? I pray that you and your families are happy, safe and healthy. The time we are wit-nessing is very unique some-thing which the humanity has probably not witnessed for

over more than 100 years. Our health-care, sanitation, hospitality and IT professionals, soldiers, and essential services maintenance staff across the globe have emerged as true corona warriors. I am glad to see that my Am-itians too have put up a brave front and decided to beat corona with creativity.Amitians have wielded the power of education and technology to articu-late their feelings and engage their hearts and minds into creative expres-sions. Lockdowns are challenging and restrictive for young and adults alike, but this GT Quarantine special e-newsletter by young Amitians of AIS Saket stands witness to the fact, that lockdowns can be immensely ex-pressive and engaging in spreading positivity and pragmatism. While our corona warriors fight the pandemic outside, these young minds have taken to their pen, peeped inside their hearts and impressed on paper (well word docs) their soulful thoughts about the world as they see it now and about the universe as they want it for future. This e-edition stands testimony to ‘Corona Warriors With Pen & Passion’.

QUARANTINE SPECIAL

MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2020 AIS SAKET | EDITION I www.theglobaltimes.in

Dr Amita ChauhanChairperson

Illustration: Vidhi Khurana, AIS Saket, X B

Creative might Things That Brought Light During Corona

It’s not all DARK

Pratul GuptaAIS Saket, IX B

Dear diary,

Today is day 18 of thelockdown and I just gotto know that it has

been extended for another 15days. I, who always looked for-ward to holidays, detest thisforced vacation. Boredom has hit me hard.I neverliked getting up early in themorning to catch the school bus.It was not that I didn’t likeschool, I just despised the tediousroutine and always looked for-ward to holidays- be it weekends,

pollution break orwinter break.When the 21-daylockdown was de-clared, I was exhilarated. No school, no homework and un-limited time for playing videogames and watching TV. As thelockdown commenced, gaminghad become like breathing forme. From morning to midnight, Iwas playing video games on allpossible platforms, be it PS4, lap-top, mobile. I was addicted. If Iwas not gaming, I would bewatching movies. But then all of a sudden, no gamewas able to retain my interest. I

had lost all enthusiasm to watchTV. I no longer felt engaged byany genre of video games ormovies. I now yearn to go outand play. I wish to cycle in mycolony, along the winding con-crete roads. I long to go back toschool. I miss the morning

assemblies and thechemistry lab classes;however mundanethey might be. I can'tbelieve I'm sayingthis but I miss my oldroutine for sure.I now understandhow zoo animals feel.

I too, have started tofeel like a caged animal, who haslost his freedom. I would giveanything for things to get back tonormal and this dreaded virus todisappear. After all of this is over,I’ll never take anything forgranted ever again and I’ll beglad when school reopens. That’s all for tonight diary.

Good night!G T

Sapriya SharmaAIS Saket, XII F

Istill remember being a seniorin high school, waiting tohear back from my choice of

college and whether I got in ornot. As a student, it is alwayshard to decide which college willtruly make you feel like you arehome, but I think I made the rightchoice by opting for Zoom Uni-versity. After all, their offer lettermade it clear that they were theright choice for me:“Dear applicant,We are thrilled to inform you thatyou have been accepted in theZoom University as the class of2023. The next few never-endingmonths will be a transformativeexperience that will open doors

(that you must not get out of) andgive you exposure to some of thebest and the brightest minds inthe world (on-screen, of course!).We look forward to you embark-ing on this journey, but please besure to maintain a distance of atleast 600 meters. Thank you!”As I wake up at around 9:30,which only left me with half anhour to get ready for college, Iquickly took a shower andchanged into– my new shirt andmy favourite pair of pajamas. Iwalked to the kitchen to fetchmyself a bowl of cereal. Know-ing that I could eat during theclass, I sat down with my bowland my laptop on my lap.I signed in and what trulyhighlighted the differencebetween a school and a

college was the stark process ofroll call. Instead of the professorscalling out our names, the stu-dents marked their presence byheartfelt comments like “Ma’am,you’re on mute again.” and mypersonal favourite “Sir, yourvoice is cracking.” Although, Ihave to say, roll calls have neverbeen so long in school.

After my Econ-Lecture where Iwas the only one participating, itwas finally time for lunch. I re-membered that I had alreadyeaten in class. So, I decided toutilise this time by preparing myto-do list of all the tasks that Iwas not going to do now that wehad no deadlines. Oops! I re-alised that I was late for the next

lecture, again. Honestly, time,what a concept! The rest of theday went by pretty slowly. Iam assuming so will the nexteternity. Now that I am gettingmy degree at my own time, Iwonder who really needs reallife anymore. I was already

going to have to adapt to thisnew way of living life here

at Zoom University: Lifeinside a screen.G T

2 MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2020

Zoom UniversityLiving Through The First Day Of Class At Online College

Forced Fun Is No Fun At AllCorona staycation

Illustration: Tanya Sachdeva, AIS Saket, XII F

Illustration: Muskan Bhola, AIS Saket, XII E

MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2020 3

Vandita SharmaAIS Saket, VI D

An Indian doctor spots thenewly introduced coronavirus under his micro-

scope, while he is busy formulat-ing a cure for the virus. Here areexcerpts from the brief tête-à-tête.

COVID: Hello! I hope I havemade my presence well knownhere (lifts his miniscule palms fora high five!)Doctor (joining his hands): Ibetter settle with a Namaste. Verywell, you have taken no time inmaking yourself a commonhousehold utterance, you see. So,

what brings you here, Corona?COVID: Well, it feels homeshere. So many people, you know.I love to socialise. I am just de-lighted to be here.Doctor (with a reluctant grin):Ah, I see, I see. But you know,most of us would beg to differ.We have forgotten what socialis-ing even means.COVID: It’s quite an expedition

to travel around the earth throughwonderful nations like India. Ihave heard that India treats theirguests like God. I would like agrand welcome, too. Where areall the people, though? I can’t seemost of them these days.Doctor: People are not verypleased with your presence. COVID: Our mission is to usethe mechanism of human cells to

make copies of ourselves. We areintracellular parasites. We wish tomultiply and make settlementhere. Doctor: That’s sounds like agreat plan. But you must knowthat human habitation and yoursettlement won’t go hand inhand.COVID: Hmm, sounds like warto me. You better be prepared!Doctor: Right, but it will only bea matter of time before we comeup with one, before you are gonewith the wind!COVID: Maybe, it will be toolate.Doctor: We’ll see. Till then here,have a taste of hydroxychloro-quine (doctor pours a drop of thechemical)COVID:You just waged a war.See you outside, doc.Doctor: Start counting your dayson this planet, Corona! You’ll begone be a part of history, just likethe bubonic plague and Variola.

COVID goes unconscious due tothe effects of the chemical. Lookslike it locked horns with thewrong species.G T

Candid COVID

Illustration: Abhilasha Kuba, AIS Saket, X A

They Came, They Saw, They Conquered

The method in this madnessResham TalwarAIS Saket, XII C

In an era where medical ad-vancements are at its peak, itwas never expected that a

virus merely 0.06 microns in sizewould change the world. Andevery country is experimentingwith innovative mitigation ideasto control the situation. When thebest healthcare systems in theworld start collapsing, it is time toanalyse how we are dealing withthe herculean problem at hand.

Hammer: The act of getting it done

Countries like Spain and Francetook measures to stall the spreadof virus. India too, followed in

their footsteps by imposing alockdown well within the earlystages. This measure of suppres-sion prevents the healthcare sys-tems from being overwhelmedand reduces the fatality rate sub-stantially. Case in point being thatof - South Korea, which haslargely contained the spread ofthe disease by implementingthese drastic measures.If this is the case, then why arecountries shying away fromusing this approach? The answeris pretty simple. A long lock-down would have an adverse im-pact on the economy, and thusthe lives of people. However, thismeasure would help us developour capacity to deal with an in-flux in cases.

Dance: The not-so-usual drillThe US and the UK had a delayedresponse to the problem, by ini-tially only giving out recommen-dations and not being able tomandate them. However, it didnot take too long for these coun-tries to switch to the hammer ap-proach, when they realised a rise

in fatality rate. At the core of thisstrategy is the idea of herd immu-nity, wherein a person once in-fected becomes immune to thevirus. This assumption in itself iswrong as RNA-based viruses likeCorona have a tendency to mutate100 times faster than DNA ones.Instead of causing immunity, thedance strategy would infect mil-lions of people and make it moredifficult to contain the virus.

At the end of the day, there are notried and tested regulations that canbe imposed to alleviate the prob-lem. However, only stricter meas-ures, along with adequate testingand arrangements to keep health-care workers safe, are a vital aspectin this fight against coronavirus. G T

A Glance At The Strategies To Tackle COVID-19

IllustrationSanya Bhohi, AIS Saket, XII F

with

MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2020 4

Role reversal: Earth edition

Vidhi Khurana & Tanya Ganguly

AIS Saket, X B

Yesternight, I chanced upon a portal

A narrow road leading me to Thor

He groaned and grumbled in old fury

“I’ll wipe out anyone coming this door”

And then I woke up with a start

In a solid moment of realization

My nightmare had come true

A novel virus destroys the nation

Oh yes, this is the reality

Not the year two thousand twelve

It is the starting of Kalyug

The abuse of the revered mother

We mercilessly killed her offspring

We tore apart their helpless arms

In gluttony and pure greed

Against her we took up firearms

Now the turn is ours, the humans

To taste the true bitter medicine

To salvage, atone and repent

For the long list of atrocious sins

Shreya Gupta, AIS Saket, VI A

Hey Corona, thank you

For bringing us the world

Where the birds joyfully sing

The mornings are peaceful

There are no wrongdoings

Thank you for a world

Where the air is not unsafe

And silence glorifies starry evenings

Where the water runs clear

Down the canals and springs

Animals are happier now

No trees have been cut

No weapons have been made

No one is tortured or poisoned

The earth has been saved

Hey Corona, thank you

For shutting down our actions

For balancing the death curves

And showing the definite face

Of the ‘real virus’ in the world.G T

Shubhankar Sarangi, AIS Saket, X BCamera Capers

Shailain Bose

AIS Saket, V C

Look around, what do you see?

Clear skies and the green trees

Action in factories has stopped

The pollution level has dropped

We’re observing social distancing

While peacocks are gaily dancing

Air we breathe has become pure

The nature is healing for sure

Using patience and not weapons

We fight this war against novel virus

While the world is in lockdown

Natural habitat is ruling the town

When you see seas and oceans

Fish have resumed their positions

Dolphins and whales can be seen

With ozone healing, the air is clean

With God’s control, man’s ego burnt

It is a lesson indeed well learnt

Man is a mere puppet, there is no cure

The nature is now healing for sure. G T

Nature is healing

The real virus

Pic: Vidushi Bhardwaj, AIS Saket, XII E

Illustration: Arshiya Dhaiya, AIS Saket, X C

( The photographer has clicked the above pictures from his balcony during quarantine period)

Poetic Expressions