During lockdown many incidents which
rocked the nation, few were pleasant while others were not pleasant. Then there
were few instances which surprised people as they were rare gestures,
unthinkable of normally. Few things which caught my attention are listed below
Repeat telecast of shows
Corona pandemic forced producers
to halt shooting of TV shows and movies midway to ensure the safety of crew. This
affected the daily shows, as they ran out episodes in few days’ time, hence all
TV channels came up with the idea of repeat telecast of their popular shows.
This clicked with masses too, as they got an opportunity to revisit their
favorite show and were able to stay at home, as instructed by the government. This
phenomenal lead to the return of the few most iconic shows back to the
television screens, some garnered good TRPs also for the channels.
Doordarshan topped TRP charts
Before pandemic and lockdown, TRP
charts were dominated by channels like StarPLus, Zee TV, Color TV and Sony TV.
But pandemic brought in a pleasant surprise for Doordarshan, which ruled the
chart decades ago, was once again in top league as it broke all TRP records
till date. This happened due to the
telecast of their most iconic shows “ Ramayan and Mahabharat”. Viewership of
these decade old shows was at all-time high and this gave new lease of life to
all artists of the show too. Most actors from these iconic are now more active
on social media platforms than before.
Switch from Private to Government
hospitals
Given to chance to select between
government and private hospital, people will prefer private hospital over the
latter. But corona pandemic has forced people to prefer government hospital
over private, as they are well equipped to handle covid positive patients and the
treatment is also free. For the first time private hospitals, are wary of
admitting people to their hospitals especially covid positive. This has forced
people to take refuge in government hospital, where doctors and nurses welcome
them with smiles on their faces.
Movie screening shift from cinema
halls to OTT platforms
Pleasure of watching movies on
big screen with snacks at a movie theater is phenomenal but with corona
pandemic in place, no movies will be released in theater or multiplexes anytime
soon. Taking stock of the current situation, producers are now releasing their
movies in OTT platforms like Amazon prime, Netflix and Hotstar. This has been
done to reduce the loss incurred by producers due to non-release of movies in
theatres. It even led to huge hue and cry amongst theater and multiplexes but
they were forced to abide by the decision of the producers.
Neighborhood shops over
supermarkets
Lockdown restricted movement of
people to their favorite supermarket and they were forced to depend on their
neighborhood shops for their grocery shopping. I am a big fan of supermarket but during lockdown,
I was forced to visit my neighborhood shop for my groceries and veggies
purchase. Even now I prefer to buy few things from neighborhood shops only, for
the rest visit supermarket.
Lockdown friends
It may sound weird but Yes, I
made few friends during lockdown phase. They aren’t new people, I had their contact
details all this while in my phonebook but never got the opportunity to talk to
them at peace. During lockdown, I reached out to most people in my phonebook
with whom I almost lost touch and I was able to connect well with few of them. Sometimes
all it takes, is just a “Hi” to connect someone and I am happy, I did that.
These friends will always be special to me, as they were with me during my most
horrific times.
Now we are in unlock phase and I
hope we continue this way only. I don’t want to witness a situation like “Lockdown”
ever again in my lifetime.
