For almost a year now, the Covid-19 has pushed many people to relocate in their social spheres without the remedy of a habitual pace of life. There are fewer gatherings and stricter schedules.

Life in a Pakistani society takes many forms and is expected to reflect a diversity of habits, values and attitudes. When the Covid-19 pandemic first hit us, the weakness of an individual was perhaps his or her certainty in the continuity of the world. Derived from a life of comfort and defiance in the face of a crisis, the generality of our people didn’t realise what would happen to them. This was largely on account of our incapacity to imagine what was unimaginable. We had no access to an alternative, apocalyptic realm – at least not like New York or London, where restrictions were imposed even on venturing out for a walk. Over here, there was no such thing.

While many of the usual activities, like dining out and large gatherings, were spared, the experience of living in a bubble didn’t last very long. Even when the virus was raging around them, people could always go into a garden, the local park, or the market; they could have a conversation with a neighbour, somebody on the street or at the local mosque. Takeaways and home deliveries were almost a daily engagement. The disappearance of a social contact wasn’t felt the way it was elsewhere, as there were always avenues where one could seek and meet people.

The lockdown and the restrictions did not last long, and upon their removal, people resumed their normal lives almost immediately.

If anything has truly been affected by quarantine thus far, it is the way people interact with one another – particularly with whom, by what means, and at what distance. On a similar breeze, it is incorrect to suggest that Covid-19 didn’t bring about an opportunity for reinvention or readjustment. At the very least, it has curbed the expanse of a Pakistani wedding. The sentiment was seen to be echoed by a number of families otherwise validating their pockets towards larger celebrations. Surprisingly enough, the internet proved just as fertile for the formation of crowds under such conditions. People looked into other avenues to deliver – namely, a Zoom wedding.

Sara Ahmed recently got married over Zoom. She describes how her wedding wasn’t exactly forged on the anvil of an everyday wedding experience. “There were three cameras, one showing us (the bride and groom) and the other two showing our two families. We could hear everything and there were many screens with people all dressed up. They attended the entire ceremony; and together made a video congratulating us newlyweds since they couldn’t be there in person. Of course, there’s no denying that the whole thing was like replacing an ocean with an aquarium.”

In some of Pakistan’s metropolitan societies, the absence of a nocturnal rhythm turned out to be more agitating for many. Restaurants flipped their typical dine-time and operations – not to mention a restriction on mass gatherings, which held off open air concerts and family food festivals until only recently. However, the previous year did end well with some substitute outlets.

Ali Sethi, one of Pakistan’s celebrated musicians, was also the first artist in Pakistan to have initiated virtual concerts during his time in self-isolation in March. In hope of making quarantine slightly bearable, Love Stories – a special edition virtual session – not only entailed some of his best pieces but also an interactive escape for his audience. Some users even found the session relaxing and therapeutic.

The halt on large-scale gatherings helped music franchises to envision virtual concerts. Pakistan’s first digital music festival, Coke Fest 2020, curated unique virtual experiences with music performances from the best artist line-up. However, it can’t be denied that by emptying auditoriums and concert venues, Covid-19 broadly unplugged the live music experience for both the audience and the artists.

In December, Islamabad’s first drive-in cinema in F-9 Park, given the circumstances, received a very good response as well. In collaboration with Jazz and ActiveMedia, the CDA set up the entertainment facility for a month for frequent cinemagoers to enjoy, with hopes of exploring more projects in the future.

As the pandemic rips people out of the fabric of life they were previously woven into, the temptation of reverting to “normalcy” is great. That is the only feeling that helps people make sense of their helplessness in social affairs – driving them into open spaces, parks, libraries, movie nights, day trips and similar recreational escapes; all in an effort to redirect themselves towards a new social sphere.

The writer is a student at the National University of Sciences and Technology