Scared of corona, children forgot to smile

R K Sinha
When the entire world has been facing the threat of deadly coronavirus, it has also shaken the school and college going students badly. They are confined to their homes like others. Their normal routine has also been completely affected. The schools and colleges are closed with no possibility of their opening in the near future.
In fact, even before the closure of educational institutions towards protective measures from the corona virus, the children were listening to all the discussions at home and outside about this disease. They were hearing such news every day that thousands of people have come in the grip of corona virus which has taken the form of epidemic.
This had obviously troubled their mind. Here the matter is not limited to India, rather the students in the entire world are facing same problem. It should not be difficult to understand their state of mind when the deaths due to its infection have shaken the old-age people.
They are also nervous because they are hearing repeatedly that no medicine or drug or vaccine has so far been invented for this Covid-19.  The other thing that is making the situation more traumatic is that every person, whether it is from their family, the outsider, WHO, or the doctors, all have been advising them not to come in contact with other people and keep their hands clean, wash them properly, use sanitizer, face mask etc.
Because of all these reasons, the smile has disappeared from the faces of the children. Their laughter and grin have to be brought back. They are noticing the streaks of tension on the faces of their parents, grandparents or other elder members of the family. Not only this, all round discussions about the deaths of thousands of people worldwide due to this deadly coronavirus have aggravated the situation further.
Since children are also connected to social media, they are not ignorant from the Corona related news, photos and messages and rumours coming through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp etc. The entire atmosphere is infested with this negativity and they are living in the shadow of fear little knowing when and how they will be able to get respite from this frightful and deadly catastrophe?
How to get these scared kids out of this serious mental crisis? Here, it would be worthwhile for the elders, in each family, to maintain a positive attitude and take every such step as to keep the children diverted so that they do not concentrate much on this. They may engage children in playing with them Antakshri, word building game and also indoor games like chess, ludo, etc. Sitting together in the family, watching movies, serials etc. on TV will also prove to be effective in this direction. The re-broadcast of Ramayana and Mahabharat on TV is a great step to combat the situation. 
Other mythological serials being shown on TV can also be watched, which all convey the triumph of goodness over the evils. All these things, while diverting one’s mind from ugly things, make one a good and a cultured human being.
You can take the situation like this… suppose you are sitting in a moving bus and noticing every obstacle on road, turns etc and distract the driver of the bus too. So the drive would not be able to concentrate on road and his driving resulting in a collision. To be contd