March 7, 2020. The mid-sem recess had just begun and it was the fortnight preceding the much anticipated fest of the year, Techkriti. While many of us left for our homes, a lot of us decided to stay back. The initial mention of the Coronavirus had started to come up in our conversations but little did we know that things would follow suit in such fashion. The following unprecedented lockdown substantially deterred most of us while curtailing the ongoing activities and subduing all of our anticipated plans.
With Techkriti being called off for the year and the mid-semester break extended, it was the start of a new paradigm in our lives- Quarantine 2020. As days stretched to months, the initial confusion was replaced by gradual acceptance. So far, each one of our lives have been impacted in a myriad of ways, and it’s safe to assume that the post-COVID19 society will not be the same as before.
We at Vox Populi conducted a survey to get a response of how the undergrads of the IITK Junta fared in their trying times and what kept all of us occupied. The questions ranged across a variety of topics, from personal routines to prevailing issues and health. The questions weren’t exhaustive by any means but provided a bare-bones structure to gauge the general feelings of our IITK brethren.
Though the adversities of this pandemic have forced most of us to retreat from our regular lives and from our very own IITK campus, it has given us a chance to finally reconnect with our loved ones at home and take some time out for ourselves as well. An important aspect that the survey covered was our routine and homestay. The responses depicted a varied range of lifestyles and have shown the diverse ways in which most of the IITK students seem to be spending their time.
The most sought after way of spending time in the quarantine has been sleeping. Around 58% of people find themselves sleeping for a sound time of 8-12 hours, whereas about 37% sleep around 4-8 hours daily.
The next major chunk of time has been spent on social media: with over half of the junta spending 2-6 hours on it, every single day. Facebook emerged as the most favoured, followed by Instagram and WhatsApp. A number of respondents also used platforms like Reddit, Quora, Medium, Behance, Telegram and even Stack Overflow as their go-to social media sites!
There came a wave of social media challenges in which a number of us participated; the most notable being the WIN_INDIA fitness challenge, which recorded maximum participation from the campus. A lot of our respondents also succumbed to the societal pressure of making the Dalgona Coffee. (We hope that the coffee was worth the effort you put in!). A number of other challenges also floated around social media but had minimal participation from the students. On the question of picking up any hobby/skill, there were some fairly intriguing responses such as astrophotography, blogging, making documentaries and vlogs, and some regular but resourceful ones as well like learning new languages, instruments and various technical skills. Being connected with our friends and family has been important for all of us in the pandemic and thanks to the Internet, it is now a feasible idea too. Everyone seems to still be in touch with their peers via texting, voice calls and even zoom calls for the entire friend circle!
With the availability of Coursera for all of us, over 75% respondents have taken up online courses, with Computer Science being the most sought after subject, followed by courses in Finance/Business and Sciences, and Core Engineering. A good proportion of students took up courses in Economics and Humanities as well.
The quarantine certainly gave us a lot of time to binge watch new shows and tried-and-tested favourites. And as opposed to the usual murmurs, this time Netflix and Amazon Prime Video had more audience than pirated content. With Mystery and Thriller shows being the favourite of the campus junta, a close second are the age-old classic sitcoms. Not to be forgotten, the re-telecast of the (g)old Indian Mythologies kept a majority hooked in the quarantine break. A lot of us also spent time on Youtube following vlogs and other videos as a source of relishing and leveraging leisure. At the same time, a few also disapproved of bingeing shows and pursued other avenues for entertainment. A few of these included learning origami and craft work, production designing and even game development. Over 160 students had a makeshift haircut for themselves in this quarantine and that sure must have been entertaining post the haircut, we hope you get your usual look back soon!
The survey also focussed on the mental health of the junta and the welfare of those around them. However, it comes into notice that over 73% of people have taken this as an opportunity to be productive. While the proportion of people having no qualms about what’s ahead was significantly low, more than half of the respondents were sceptic and stressed about the future. This was attested by almost 70% of people accepting that they found themselves getting angry/frustrated on a frequent basis. The prolonged lockdown has significantly affected our social connections as well, but we seem to have adapted to this new routine.
While half of the people found themselves at an end away from their friends, the other half felt they were doing well enough at their homes with family.
The survey also showed the intricacies of prevailing issues at numerous places. Several cities have faced the brunt of the pandemic and also of the lockdown in effect. Around 47% of our respondents found their city on high alert with a regular upsurge in the intensity of the pandemic. Surprisingly, 67% found no issues so far in their hometowns, the remaining enlisted issues like electricity and connectivity problems (15%), insufficient medical facilities (11%) and even lack of amenities (8%).
Additionally, there were concerns over unreasonable crowding and disobeying of rules in certain areas. Over 52% found that the safety measures weren’t up to the mark to sustain workplaces and offices.
With the closure of the semester now in-order, the relief over cancelled end-sems is tinged with the bitter-sweet feeling of missing the campus. This is brought out by 62% of respondents who preferred to spend the quarantine at the hostels had it been logistically feasible. From having bulla sessions at the mess and canteens, night outs at OAT to the walkthrough to Hall 10 Chowpatty, all of us have a certain sense of nostalgia attached to some part of the campus. As extrapolated from the responses, the nostalgia even extends for the campus wi-fi, the sports routines, the library and our hostel rooms!
All of us miss something that we’ve left at the campus, from the tangible: trimmers, clothes and close belongings, to the intangible: friends, enthusiasm, freedom and most importantly, a part of ourselves on campus. Perhaps, we didn’t realise how the mid-semester recess would grow up to become the longest recess ever.
