Life after Lockdown
What will social life be like once the extended lock-down ends? Will we hug our friends again, shake strangers’ hands? How many times a day will we feel compelled to wash our hands, for 20 seconds each time of course? How will we treat those who commit the crime of coughing or sneezing in public spaces? If you have a fever, should you automatically self-quarantine so as not to be caught out by a thermal scanner? Perhaps we should be prepared for at least an initial period of paranoia, frayed tempers, and the zealous policing of public behaviour.
“There is frustration with other people not following norms of social distancing,” says Kanika K. Ahuja, associate professor in the department of psychology at the Lady Shri Ram College for Women in Delhi. She recently published a study titled, ‘Probing Pandemic Pandemonium: A Real-Time Study of COVID-19 Stress, Coping and Psychological Consequences in India’, including responses from 1,009 people across 10 states which showed that people were “physical distancing even within homes”. Touch, Ahuja says, “releases endorphins. It has a strong healing effect.” She encourages
