Many of the workers in the cities chose to walk hundreds of miles to reach their villages despite knowing difficulties in organizing food for their families in their home villages due to difficult times of deteriorating economy. They did not want to receive contagious infection or even be instrument for passing to others due to their lack of facilities. Their walk for hundreds of miles with their kids in toes reflected in a part their human considerations. Many, old among them, were perhaps motivated to ensure their ashes merge into soils of the ancestors.

For the Middle class with the economic comforts, the lockdown came as a boon as everyone was thrown back to the era that had prevailed eons ago and had directed easy life and with enough leisure. Now fright of infection through mere passing the path of infected person made them to stay behind closed doors. Payal Kapoor, interior decorator with a poetic bend of mind put it beautifully in verse, ‘muddat se thi arzoo fursat ki, aur mili to aise ke kisise na milo’. (Yearning for leisure was for eons. Now leisure came in a way to say meet no one.)

In last seven decades in post independence era, life of middle class was engrossed in busy vocations. They could afford to bring several gadgets and products home for adding comforts to life. But they also became slaves of new technology and lost leisure. The dread of potential infection forced them to stay in their homes with their families. The imposed curfew and restricted movement either on feet or in vehicles without the valid permit made impossible even to visit immediate families or married kin, living away.

Their children got three weeks of close attention and company of their both parents unable to go outside. Their mothers got back to kitchen to make eatables for them as their household staff could justify their stay away from work by pointing to restrictions on movements due to lockdown and unavailability of means for travel. In most middle class families, women were out of their kitchen occupations for three decades. Many would have missed dazzle of markets, malls or their work places, but fear was more overpowering than lure of normal vocational pleasures.

The lockdown had converted their evenings with a whisky glass in hand and snacks on table and long meaningless arguments with other companion into evenings with glass of water in hand and face of wife staring with kids dragging to the games table. It was leisure though forced one. Many may not have enjoyed as they missed the opportunity to add few millions to their fortunes.

Least attention was given to severe impact on life of 22 per cent Indian population that eked out survival below poverty line. The bread went farther away from their reach as they could not move out even for begging. Feeding them was most hazardous task; the government depended on services of people moved by their liberal and humanitarian nature as neither the ruling party cadres nor other party workers volunteered to lend hand. The Prime Minister also could not put to use the huge fan club as members were engaged to arousing and instigating passions by forwarding the alarming messages and video clips that spread terror.

The government also came under heavy flack over the shortage of medical facilities. Availability of doctors and nurses as well as paramedics was less to meet the anticipated need. Yet no one commented that medicos of India did a better job than most advanced nations with better availability of numbers. May be advantage of geographical location of India helped India to keep her casualty rate to the minimum less than six thousand affected in two months though Indian living style and conditions enforced heavier density of population.

Most states, consulted by the Prime Minister wanted extension of the lockdown period as they did not want to lose advantages and improvements they gained in their rules. Crime rate came down to the lowest. The closed markets, cinema halls and roads made potential victims scarce for pickpockets. Road accidents were least as only permitted vehicles were allowed movements. Policemen were relieved of their duties of forming cordons to protect political personalities or rather form girdles around political personalities to indicate political importance of leader under the protection.

As vehicles stayed away, most streets were empty to clear air of polluting emissions and also scale down need for traffic police to regulate. It may not have regaled the corrupt minds as they had lost the lucrative business of demanding bribes for not booking them for violations. The lockdown had forced most to be honest. Not only legitimate dealings were down but false indications of health of economy as reflected in upward or downward movements of the stock market indices were also out of gear as stock exchanges were forced to close down.

The polluting emissions from factories and small scale production units in homes and cottages ceased but the consequence was loss in productivity. India was back to the preindustrial revolution era with limited economic activities. Many had even begun to seek relief from the ordeal through prayers or through observation of religious routines. Only few were motivated by concern for 600 million poor who had difficulty in accessing food to fill bellies of their kids. The ordeal has changed people and India to provide relief to governments so as to attend only to fight the pandemic virus. The fright made the difference for the present.