Learning in a COVID-19 World

Human life is no longer as it was. The ordinary, everyday things are no longer the same as they were.  The COVID-19 pandemic has starkly transformed human lives. As the cases have surged, government directives towards the closure of public spaces to curtail the spread of the virus were made. 

This has included the closure of schools, colleges, and universities, and hence the move towards making learning online. The online mode of education works well in countries that have the necessary infrastructure, but in many countries belonging to the global south, these modes of learning in a COVID-19 world have only widened the gap in education. 

In India as well, where the digital divide is a reality, the online mode of learning has had a non-uniform impact on education. Something which is alarmingly evident is the increasing exclusions from education and their consequences. There are reports of young students committing suicide because of their exclusion from online education. A report published in The Tribune showed us how a villager in Himachal Pradhesh had to sell his cows to buy a smartphone for his children's online classes. This is but one of the many cases across the country. A departure from this is the accounts of teachers learning about technology due to the online classes. 

A different take from above shows us other acts of learning in the COVID-19 world. We find that being locked up in homes is making us do things that we otherwise never had time for or we never considered worth doing. Different YouTube channels are offering us various hacks to clean and cook and organise. In isolation, we have picked up that dusted book we never read beyond the preface or learning to meditate for better mental health. 

Doing Sociology's online exhibition call Learning in a COVID-19 World was devised with this very idea to capture the varied aspects and accounts of learning in the present circumstances. We often learn from each other's experiences and through this exhibition, we hope our readers would learn about Learning in the pandemic. 

- Doing Sociology Team

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● Our first entry is by Kritika Jain. 

            Kritika has completed her LLM from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi.

She writes:

During this torrid time, growing plants in my balcony gave me a purpose, a way to utilise the 'extra' time that I suddenly found. It helped me invest my time and effort in something that was growing and moving forward, especially when everything is at a standstill. I never thought that I would grow plants in my balcony in Ghaziabad. Thus, gardening became my learning during this pandemic.

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● Our second entry is by Astha Agrawal.

Astha is currently leading youth interventions at Pravah.  As a youth development professional, for the last 6 years, Astha has designed and facilitated learning and leadership journeys with diverse sets of young people. She loves to paint and finds that with colours she is able to let go the most.

She writes:

'Never before has life been so uncertain. Never before has there been a reminder of our sheer mortality. How do you learn to embody the lightness of a feather? How do you land gently and lift softly? The last 4 months have nudged me to ask this to myself.' 

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● The third entry is by Hema Kumari. 

        Hema is currently doing her B.A. from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

'I was in the middle of writing my assignments that both COVID-19 and the lockdown made an entry into our lives. As shops were closed, I ran out of papers soon and was constantly worried. It is during this time that I started doodling and drawing to manage my stress. I learned that this is a good way to keep myself busy and distracted. This is my 'learning in the pandemic'. In this picture, I sketch how the coronavirus has affected different people differently.'

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⁕ Our fourth entry is by Tuisha Sircar. 

Tuisha has done her under-graduation in Sociology from Delhi University in 2017 and M.A. in Sociology from the South Asian University (2017-2019). She is currently working as an independent researcher, studying the nexus of 'work, education, and technology'. 

As the world struggles with the fast-changing or transformation of deep-rooted everyday routines, there is a certain change in how we perceive time as well. For starters, there has emerged a certain fluidity in how we discern the nexus of time and work. The linearity of the latter has given way to the fluidity of the former. "Is this going to be the new normal?", I ask. My friend says, "only time will tell". 

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* The fifth entry in this series is by Aafiya Hamid. 

Aafiya is from Kashmir and has completed her MA in English Literature from the University of Kashmir. She is also an educator.

She writes:

This period of lockdown has been challenging for many of us. Most of our activities have become online, and therefore an added challenge has been the slow internet connectivity. As such, this pandemic has taught me to be patient as many a time I am waiting for things to load. This is my learning in the pandemic.

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* The next entry in our visual exhibition is by Sampurna Das. 

Sampurna Das is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics (DSE). She has been working on the issues of water and land governance, and agrarian relations in the wider context of environment and development discourses.

One of the warm up poses in callisthenics embroidered by Sampurna

She writes: 

We are constantly being told that muscle, although, natural is out of place on women. A cursory look into the kind of exercises usually recommended for women will show that they consist only of endurance and flexibility variants. But without the other two components of exercise - strength and balance - the schedule becomes more of aesthetics than fitness. It took years of unlearning before I began my strength and balance training. And the gloom of COVID-19 lockdown to further realise that such training can be successfully practised at ‘home’ with just our bodyweight through callisthenics, minus gym and equipment. Practising callisthenics has allowed me to nudge the ideas of sexed bodies and geographies of exercise.

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* Next in our series is an entry by Srishti Roy. 

Srishti is a class 12th student of Modern High School (MHS) for Girls in Kolkata. 

 

She writes: 

As a student, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us in several ways. One of these is breaking the spirit of freedom - which is an integral part of growing up. This is especially true as I am in my last phase of school life. Yet, it has taught me to be resilient, patient and adaptable - virtues which would give me the confidence to face life in the future.

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* The next entry is by Al Ameen J and Haritha Sanil.

        Both Ameen and Haritha study Social Work in Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai. 

They write: 

The past six months have been a time when the world has witnessed enormous changes. This COVID-19 pandemic has given many of us a chance to sit at home and retrospect about our lives. Some of us have been able to realize the privileges that we hold, while many others got to realize where they are placed in this divided society. As individuals who pursue Social Work, what shook us more is the plight of children who belong to families of migrant labourers. At a tender age, when their peers get the opportunity to stay home, safe and happy, spending quality time with their parents; these children had to walk under the scorching heat for miles, sometimes even barefoot. 

Through a collaboration of dance and music, we have made a humble attempt to depict this divide among the children in our society. We have chosen some portions of two Malayalam (regional language of Kerala) songs from the movie 'Makalkku' (To a daughter), the music of which is composed by Pandit Ramesh Narayan and lyrics penned by Sri Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri. The first song 'Chanjaadi Aadi' has been sung by Mr Adnan Sami and Ms Gayathri Ashokan (female version) and the second song 'Mukilin Makale' has been sung by Ms Manjari Babu.

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* An entry on journaling artwork and the process of letting go by Krittika Bhuiya.

Krittika is a graduate in Sociology from St Edmunds’ College, Shillong, and a post-graduate in Sociology and Social Anthropology from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Guwahati.

 

She writes:

I have always been inclined towards drawing and sketching. However, I have lacked the courage to actively engage in it as a fear of being judged had always gripped me in the past. In the lockdown and COVID-19 pandemic, one of the things I learnt was to let go of my fears and lay bare my emotions through artwork. I have now developed an art journal which is a reminder every day to learn to let go of inner fears.

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* An entry from Kashmir on playing football during the COVID-19 pandemic by Muzamil Mahmood. 

Muzamil Mahmood is an AFC B licensed professional football coach from Kashmir. He has been working for the development and promotion of football since the last 10 years.

He writes: 

The COVID-19 pandemic brought sports to a standstill like most other spheres in our lives. Therefore, I tried to make myself re-familiarize with the sport that I am closely involved with – football. As a football coach, I kept myself busy by attending webinars on various topics related to the game. I am also trying to coach my players through online apps, helping them in staying fit and doing workouts with home-based equipment. From playing with masks to online coaching, learning during the pandemic has all been about adjusting and adapting to new conditions.

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* The next entry is by Harshita Singh. 

She is a BA Honours  1st year student in Sociology from St. Xavier's College, Ranchi.

One barely gets time as a college student to pursue her hobbies. Life, as we know, is hectic and busy. But the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown meant that colleges were shut. Suddenly I felt like I have some 'extra' time in my hand. It gave me the chance to pursue painting - as I love to play with colours. I am learning different forms of painting to spend my time fruitfully during this pandemic. 

  

Note: This image is a humble recreation of legendary artist Jamini Roy's famous painting. 

Note: This image is influenced by the Warli form of painting.

 

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* A very interesting entry by Geetanjali Gurlhosur

Geetanjali is an independent journalist and social researcher with prior experience in reporting and writing on culture, governance, environment, and gender in urban India. You can find her published articles here and here. She has recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati, and written a thesis on ‘Choice, Agency and Resistance: Lives of Sex Workers in Pune’s Budhwar Peth’.

Geetanjali writes: 

Almost two-and-a-half decades went by without probing, prizing, queering and loving the self and the family until I came upon ancient Kannada feminist literature a couple of months ago. The sketches of me, my mother, my aunt and my grandmother are juxtaposed with hand-picked vacanas (oral poetry) of 12th-century saint-poet Akka Mahadevi. The vacanas have been picked from Vinaya Chaitanya's translation work 'Songs for Siva'.

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* An entry by Shaoni Gupta. 

Shaoni is currently pursuing an MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Guwahati. 

She writes: 

I cannot recall the last day that I had spent stress-free. As we live in an uncertain world, stress and anxiety are our constant companions. The pandemic and the lockdown have only added to them, making our lives similar to the world that is portrayed in Dystopian artwork like films and novels. I quit social media to protect myself from further pain and started focusing on creating life through art.  I started learning to sketch portraits and I am finding inspiration in the works of other young artists.

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*This entry is by Stuti Bandana Borkakati.

Stuti is an MA student in the Department of Sociology, Gauhati University.

Stuti writes:

Our fast city lives often detach us from the country-side. We get so caught up in the web of the internet that we often are unaware of rural life. As the world stood still in the COVID-19 lockdown I went back to my roots and tried to learn and observe the rural ways of life. Through my visual entry, I have tried to give a glimpse of this life by capturing paddy cultivation.

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* The next entry is by Prerana Saharia.

She is currently pursuing a PhD from the Centre for the Study of Social Systems (CSSS), School of Social Sciences (SSS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.

I have made a sketch of my mother sitting by the window and reading. Being a bank employee and also having to manage the household, she hardly gets time for herself to pursue her hobbies. The lockdown, therefore, gave her the opportunity to sit down, relax and read. She has also learnt some functions on her smartphone that she had did not have the time to explore earlier. This sketch is an attempt to highlight the fact that many women are deprived of spending some 'me time' - while they juggle both outside work and domestic lives. 

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* Our next entry is by Sneha Baldeo Makkad.

Sneha has an MPhil in Women and Gender Studies from Ambedkar University, New Delhi in collaboration with the Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS). Her araes of interest are  Mental Health, Knowledge and Episteme of Traditional Midwives, Informalization of Nursing Workforce in the health sector, Sexuality, Maternal Health and Adolescent Health. 

Sneha writes: 

During the current crisis of COVID-19 and exacerbated social inequalities, the sense of freedom for self and others are shrinking. The inner spirits are flooded with emotions and waves of thoughts every day. We need to revive our inner strength and courage. Curves, colours and conscious and unconscious imagination can contribute to that revival through its magic. These curves and drawings lead me to reach the core strength of the self and see the world with new hope. I am happy to share these drawings with everyone. One curve of Zentangle has taken me to the beautiful world of visual art. This space does not judge you or your emotions in any form. It gives you a space to reflect your expressions in real sense and spirit. 

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* Our next entry is by Moureen Kalita. 

Moureen Kalita is a Doctoral candidate at Centre for the Study of Social Systems (CSSS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). She has earlier worked as a guest faculty in the Department of Sociology, Gauhati University and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati. 

She writes: 

During this lockdown, I accidentally broke a handle of my spectacles. However, it was not possible to go the market to purchase a new pair. COVID-19 has bestowed upon us so many new problems that require novel solutions. Well in my case, kudos to a doting father, who would not let any obstacle come in the way of his daughter's PhD thesis writing progress! This optimism made him come up with a very innovative solution of fixing the glasses with a thick thread, thus putting a temporary end to my broken specs conundrum. This pandemic has taught us to be more patient and self-reliant as this incident once again highlighted.

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* This is an entry by Deijee Kakati.

Deijee Kakati is pursuing her Masters in Sociology from Guwahati University. 

She writes: 

As soon as the lockdown had been announced, many of our lives were halted. As students we are used to living busy lives. Therefore it was not easy being quarantined. I started questioning my productivity, and frustration took over. It is during these moments that learning to create different kinds of craft work came to my rescue. I felt like I had learnt something new during the pandemic. 

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* 'Sunset' is an entry by Eva Das.

Eva is currently a PhD research scholar in the Department of Psychology at Delhi University. She has previously worked as a Counseling Psychologist at Aakash Institute and as a Guest Faculty in Keshav Mahavidyalaya and SPM college of the University of Delhi.

She writes:

I never thought that watching a simple cosmic event like a sunset could be this rewarding. Every once in a while when I catch a glimpse of the different hues in the sky at dawn, it assures a certain kind of stability along with a dose of my nostalgic past, when respite was neither called out nor taken for granted. That space to pause and reflect fosters inner growth and I would definitely recommend it for a richer lived experience. I rediscovered it during this lock down and that has been my learning in a COVID-19 world. 

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*  The latest entry in the series is by Mahashweta Bhattacharya. 

Mahashewta Bhattacharya is an MPhil research scholar in the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). 

She writes: 

The COVID-19 has enforced unprecedented distances between human beings that have in turn rekindled the art of writing letters. Below is a letter that I wrote to my professors who have had to wait woefully long for my submissions.

Dear Professor

There are things a student isn't supposed to say to their teacher, and this is one of them. But there is no similar negative sanction on writing such things, and hence I proceed. Good things take time, and like most things that we believe in for no apparent good reason, I believe the paper I had been holding back for the longest eternity, much to your wrath and irritation, is a good thing. Besides, paper writing is an art, one of the subtle yet potent kinds that is slowly getting depleted from the face of this planet only to be replaced by other loud, obscenely expressive and advertising modes of expression. If you have ever had the misfortune of bestowing upon an artist the responsibility of delivering a product by a stipulated time, I am sympathetic to the harrowing harassment you have had to go through, past their arrogance, audacity and absolute disregard for time - lines or frames. 

Artists, unlike mechanical producers, undergo swings in their moods and dispositions, to the point of being completely paralyzed to do the needful. On the other hand, scientists are way more efficient. So much so that they go to unbelievable extents unknown to man, woman and child to procure the perfect ingredients required for an experiment. Dear, professor, as a practitioner of a discipline that is in perpetual limbo between the arts and sciences, I suffer from both moody proficiency and uncompromising efficiency. Thus the paper took more time than you had wanted and I had hoped. Apologies are due and I shall not flinch from apologizing with utter sincerity.

Now that in my understanding I have completed all academic requirements of the semester, I shall take the liberty to work on some thoughts I had collected over the courses and stored for later, and might bombard you with the same through the vacation, while simultaneously working on my deplorable work ethic that I am so embarrassed of.

Best regards,

Mahashewta Bhattacharya

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* The last entry in our series is by Surbhi Chaudhary. 

She is a final year law student of Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Sonepat Haryana. 

Surbhi writes:

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequality in every sphere. As a woman, I am expected not only to attend online classes, but also do  household work. The burden is real and many a times I am unable to cope up with it. Thus, what this pandemic has taught me is to be empathetic towards other human beings and try to understand their social realities better. This is my learning in a pandemic.