I remember, a year before, I was lying down on the cool 31st night in my quilt, waiting for midnight to creep in.
I was actually waiting for the last minutes of 2019 to end, having an unusual feeling that the security I had from the year was being ripped away and I was going to enter a year which was of course, new and one that I had not known before.
I stayed there for some considerable amount of time, bidding 2019 a calm adieu, but I was nonchalant, neither did I feel like holding back the leaving year nor did I have any objection of welcoming the new year and was ready to embrace it with open arms.
Then it was, while I was dissolved in my own shell of thoughts, the huge clock in my lobby chimed 12 times indicating it was midnight, it was new year!
I wished myself a happy new year, and finally, the relief-filled year, the one which had casted an invisible shadow of security upon me, had evaporated in thin air and it was immediately replaced by the year 2020.
Now comes the real example of what we were about to face ahead of that joyous occasion of new year: We had been dragged from our comfortable homes into an open ground in front of the blinding sun, where we were vulnerable from all directions.
Actually, I would count it as a foresight I had been too privileged to be blessed with, keeping in mind the pandemic situation.
Actually, the whole year has been associated with the novel corona virus. While this year was already a noteworthy one as it marked the entry into a new decade, little did we know that it was destined to be a historic one.
It was a very testing year which nearly examined us on those aspects which were probably previously not a part of our thoughts and actions, the lockdown being one of them.
The lockdown in itself had set the backdrop for the stage where the key roles were played by masks, sanitizers and social distancing. Furthermore, it has been branded in different ways by different people: while it meant extra devoted time for fitness freaks, the travel lovers had to suffice with their bedroom window view. As the teaching methods underwent a metamorphosis, it seems we have forgotten how the physical question papers and their red-inked answer sheets felt like. Homes are the new offices for the working crowd; and the rooms in their houses, their cabins.
Not only did we undergo changes in the physical environment, but the emotional and social well-being were also greatly affected. While a time came where hopelessness and despair became commonplace and our enclosure in the walls of the house became as suffocating as one feels while wearing a mask, we were greatly supported, I feel, by technology: It proved as one of the few sources of our connectivity with each other in times when physical meetings were greatly avoided. Furthermore, social media witnessed a spike in the number of users; it became our go-to place to hang out. While the clouds of depression pressed upon us terrestrial beings, we sought refuge in our comfort zones; we pursued hobbies and honed our latent talents. Cooking, music, dancing, reading, gardening, writing, yoga, we can even include eating and sleeping and the list goes on of the activities we channelized our energy into this year.
This year has been marked with fear, anxiety and uncertainty due to the pandemic, but we should not forget the good which has been done to the environment whose care, I suppose had taken a backseat in our otherwise busy lives. While our homes became our havens, the lanes and roads outside became a mobile heaven for animals.
This pandemic has also been classified as nature’s revenge on humans and truly, we who used to be the gaolers ourselves became the prisoners.
All in all, our imprisonment was maybe was for the greater good. While the fauna enjoyed unprecedented freedom and the Air Quality Index improved as there was a drop in a pollution level such that the people of Jalandhar saw the Dhaula Dhar mountain range from their house rooftops after probably decades, we also got time for some introspection, meditation, prayers, family and to declutter our minds for efficiency of working.
We took on a minimalistic way of living. Coming out of the materialistic approach of luxury, we returned back to our basics. Cooking with minimum ingredients, not only was a healthy and ‘satvik’ manner but it also roused our creativity. We got to rack our brains to get the most out of the least. We made all attempts to muster the best out of the waste and congratulations if you succeeded in your endeavours.
Moving further, we should halt, look back and pay our deepest gratitude to the doctors, nurses and other medical support staff, who were the real warriors in these tension-filled times. They were the torch bearers in the darkness filled hours. They, disregarding the danger to their lives from the novel coronavirus, treated the sick and helped them win the corona battle.
When we come to showing our emotions and respect, we should not forget our policemen and the civil servants who are the real-life heroes, the volunteers who came forward to help in their best possible ways despite having an easier choice to retreat and be a spectator.
While 2020 was different in many aspects, it also had a detrimental impact on the whole of the world, each particular nation, even each household and every single individual. While you see the planet through a telescope, you witness a race to the making of the vaccine; if you reduce the telescope’s power and focus on the continents which are home to the countries, you witness the pressing problem of downfall of economy and unemployment; try and peep in each and every house, you will encounter a variety of problems from being sick to losing of a job, family quarrels or minor ones like the irritating boredom of children; and finally use a microscope and look into yourself, what do you see?
“Whether the pandemic has changed the world for good or bad” is, therefore, a heated debate topic and yet its answer remains ambiguous. But in the quest of finding answers to all questions, stand back and face the obstacles with fierce determination.
It is well said by Charles Dickens, “The sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on” and so it holds very true as we were novice when the pandemic made a dramatic entry into our lives, but now our biggest weapon is our experience; we have burnt ourselves like the sun for a year and now comes the time to shine…