Away from the unfortunate circumstances that necessitated it, the lockdown has spawned several experiences, some good, some bad and some ugly. Thrown into a situation where there is no guidebook to follow, people in confined spaces are devising their own ways to cope. The results are sometimes unintentionally funny, sometimes decidedly worrisome. Here’s a look.
NO LOCKDOWN ON LIBIDO
Bored stiff during the lockdown, guess what many Indians have turned to: porn. Pornhub, the world’s largest adult entertainment site, is doing its bit ‘to help bring the curve down’ and not many are complaining. The site is officially banned in India, but consumers appear to have found a way around it. Whoever said if there’s a will, there’s way, would be smiling non-stop; also the person who thought of high-speed data on mobile phones. He/she wouldn’t have imagined people would get creative and link it to libido with such gusto though.
According to the site, as quoted by newspapers, 91 percent of pornographic content in the country is consumed on mobile phones. That makes India one of the highest mobile traffic generators for the site.
Coming back to the corona lockdown, after the site made its premium content free worldwide countries on March 25 in view of people being forced indoor, there was a 55 percent increase in its subscriber base in India. On March 27, according to data released by the site, traffic shot up beyond 95 percent.
Surely, we are great at finding ways to spice up our lives even in the worst of times. However, according to the site, the spike corresponds to similar trend across the world. Apparently, nothing much to worry here. But when a grown up in the family is spending too much time with his mobile apart from others at home, be warned. It is possible he is not thinking deeply about the world post Covid-19.
HOME, DRY & DESPERATE
Drinkers, separated from their favourite tipple for long, are getting desperate. As mentioned in these columns earlier, some are trying out brave experiments at home, away from the disapproving eyes of family members. Some, according to news reports, are into downright dangerous ones such as consuming sanitizers which have significant alcohol content. Some have been procuring alcohol at exorbitantly inflated prices from bootleggers who offer no guarantee on quality.
Online searches for ‘how to make alcohol at home’, say media reports, was the top Google Trend in the first week of the lockdown. It appears some set about searching ‘yeast’ since without it alcohol cannot be brewed and few had any firsthand even secondhand understanding of it. Those who managed to prepare yeast following instructions from experts on the net, had to dump it since they weren’t sure whether it was yeast in the first place. None had seen the item earlier.
Frustrated at the failed attempts at home brew, some have started lending voice to the liquor lobby’s demand to allow sale of booze. They would camouflage their real intent though while arguing that excise revenue from sale of alcohol would bolster the depleting coffers of states and help them fight the disease better. With most governments adamant on their stand, one can only wish ‘best of luck’ to these hapless souls.
NB: The friend who was trying to prepare handia at home finally got it right after repeated attempts. Then friends put the fear of god in him: What if the final product is toxic? What if you go blind? He looks at the container many times a day, sighs and returns to watch television.
TRAPPED IN HELL
Family time has not turned out to be happy together time for many women. Shocking news of spike in domestic violence during lockdown has started trickling in from across the world, India being no exception. It may become a flood after restrictions on movement are lifted, fear experts. Habitually violent people staying locked with family members for long does not bode well for the mental and physical well-being of the latter, particularly the female members who are more susceptible to torture and harrassment of all kind. In India’s context the presence of hostile in-laws in a confined space may aggravate matters.
According to National Women’s Commission, there is a two-fold rise in cases of domestic violence during the lockdown period. It went up to 257 in the last week of March from 116 in the first. The spike can only be a gross understatement of actual cases, victims rush to the local police first with their complaint. The commission receives only a fraction of it. Again, in India there’s gross underreporting because a vast majority of victims don’t seek redressal, out of fear. So we are looking at the tip of an iceberg.
Left with an angry, violence-prone beast in a cage. This surmises the situation of many women during lockdown. The options to use the phone or flee home don’t exist. The police are too busy with corona duties to intervene. It is a hellish life for them. Of course, we haven’t started discussing children who could be direct or indirect victims yet. We cannot even imagine how many women and children would emerge bruised, battered and psychologically shattered from the lockdown.
