Isolation

There are two subtle facets to this forced isolation due to lockdown which I would like elaborate on.

Loneliness

We all know there is a big difference between being alone and feeling lonely. In the pre-COVID world, each doctor would interact with a hundred or more people on a daily basis – colleagues, nurses, patients and their relatives. All these interactions were based on relationships which were mutually beneficial. This is especially true of a doctor-patient association, a type of non-zero sum
game. If at any point in time, one of the party feels not benefitted, the unwritten agreement breaks down. These, are, therefore, very superficial connections. Hence, a doctor tends to feel lonely in the midst of plenty. Which doctor has not felt lonesome while driving back at eleven p.m. after seeing the last patient, worrying about some unstable patient?

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Till he reaches home. Here the relationships are deep, not based on mutual benefits only. Here his loneliness melts away. Here, he may be sitting alone in his room, reading, writing, but he will not feel lonesome. This lockdown has decreased people’s loneliness, their depersonalization, in a manner of speaking. Throughout this isolation, I have felt a number of unforgotten emotions, but never lonely.

Guile

Humans are social animals. Our society is based on the stories we tell each other and the lies contained within.

The moment you set foot outside your home, you start lying. Let me give you an example. You meet your neighbour in the elevator and ask each other, “How are you?” Either of you can start talking truthfully. The litany of lamentations would be limitless. But no. Both smile and say, “All is well”.

Amongst all professions, after politicians, doctors are probably the ones called upon to consciously lie maximally. All sessions of counselling with patients and their relatives are laced with half-truths, untruths and occasionally blatant lies. This is a professional requirement. Otherwise, how do you convince somebody to continue a treatment which “probably” will benefit him, knowing full well what this “probably” means?

This isolation has obviated the need for constant lying and storytelling.

Now, in the four walls of my home, I interact only with people with whom I have a deeper connection. The lies are less, the storytelling almost absent.

I believe, these two strands of sapiens society, the exhausting effort of maintaining scores of superficial relationships and the deception we practice in act and word, do take a toll on the human soul. This isolation will have some cleansing effect.

This is the view of an introvert. Extroverts may have a different take.