Lockdown Love Stories

As Sri Lanka nears the end of its first week of recommended physical distancing, and the first day of a national curfew, Working From Home and self isolation is taking a toll on the people; at least on the millennials. Netflix watch parties have become a thing, video calls are rampant, and friends and family have started playing games online. While stories of dating and love in the times of Corona (I will not rest til this title is a thing) are not as common yet, the extended lockdown in Milan has led to a different form of love being born.

Even if you’re on your couch, isolated from the outside world, what happens out there affects you. And if you can share the burden with someone, well, that’s a small relief.” The mindset informed her choice of date. “I didn’t choose the prettiest, but the most reassuring guy,” she says. “That’s what I need at a time like this.”

The idea that in times of trouble, one would want the most reassuring person around makes me wonder the value of the criteria we use at other times. Does it take a pandemic that has killed thousands of people for us to drive home the idea that life is not going to be a walk in the park? Is it only when the whole world is in crisis that we realize the type of people we want around us – the sort we can have a conversation with, the sort that can reassure us? In the absence of the ability to meet like we are used to, I wonder if a new way of life, a new form of dating will emerge. One that is strangely similar to the romances we read, where the courting happens mostly through conversation; physical connection is not just secondary at the moment, but impossible in certain places. Under such circumstances, is the whole world engaged in LDRs with their near and dear ones?

Thankfully, we can still go for a walk or run in the vicinity of our home. For all these trips we have to bring an auto-certification form with us, checking the “reasons of necessity” box. We live in a time where we have to carry a certificate when we step out of the house. The fact that we need to engage with the outside world, that we need to take a walk, go for a run, is a “necessity”. Once, it would have been a medical emergency or missing a flight. The world is changing rapidly, and what we took for granted are fast becoming luxuries. The simple ability to have a connection with another human is becoming one of them. I do not know the world we are walking into.