It has been long since I took out time to sit with my laptop to put up something here. Long as in three months long I see to my last post. But, the last three months have been no short of roller coaster for all of us. We almost saw the pandemic ending (and hence started celebrating in our own little ways of meeting people, not wearing masks, hugging them freely, travelling a bit, organizing big lavish functions or taking international tours) and then it was boom- the second wave, which shattered a lot of dreams. The dreams that we all have been holding onto for a year now.
Last one year of this pandemic has seen a lot of dreams been dreamt and even more dreams been shattered, than in anyone's entire lifetime. We humans have this tendency, the moment we are restricted to do something, that very time, we crave to do it more. Because we don't like to stay in clutches.
In the pre-corona times, if we ourselves didn't wish to step out of home or go for a party or for that Goa trip, then that was totally fine with us. But, now, when we are asked to not to step out, we desire to travel, move, hug, fly, party, and most importantly, not wear masks. In the past one year, from March 2020 to this month, I have heard innumerous stories of dreams shattering, people compromising, parents waiting, children wailing, relationships breaking, VISAs rejecting, countries red-listing, people dying at blink of an eye, marriages postponing, travel plans shattering, companies realizing, and a lot more. Reason for all of this? Oh! the pandemic is on and we can't really do anything about it.
We humans, especially we Indians take pride in shifting blame to others/ other things. It makes us feel less guilty of our faulty planning, wrong assumptions and idiotic judgements of others. And were we up for letting pandemic go without taking the blame? No!!!! Not obviously!!! We happily and successfully shifted all blames of our sorrow to this pandemic.
But the question to ponder is, how many of us were ready for taking up life before this pandemic? Before this pandemic too, all these fails used to happen, marriages used to break, travel plans used to get cancelled, VISAs used to get rejected, companies used to lay off people, parents used to wait for children, and children used to lose parents at the blink of an eye, but, all this was happening for a completely different set of reasons and causes. And we all were not fine but accepting about all of that. But now when a pandemic has struck his chords pathetically in our country, we are not able to digest. We are not able to digest that how can a mere virus dominate us so strongly and for so long. We are not able to digest the uncertainty in the air. We are not able to come to terms with the reality that today or tomorrow we had to let go off the elderlies of our families. We are not able to digest that probably, we were not good enough and hence we got targeted in the Covid affected layoff programs of our companies. We are not able to digest that now every time, we need to be prepared with fail/flop/fault of our plans and be ready with the Plan Bs. We are not able to digest the truth, the reality, the surrounding, the current environment.
And that is where our dreams are coming to bit of rescue. We are dreaming of a dream where we will be able to walk freely without the masks, where again we will be able to make travel plans six months in advance, (though we take it or not, that's to be decided later). We are dreaming of a dream where our children won't have to grow up in such rotten environment. Today morning, I saw a video on one of the social media platforms where a mum was recording a video for her two year old son, on his birthday and telling him about the current situation of the pandemic. She was praying that her son, and her grandchildren, don't grow up in such a mocked environment. She was sounding helpless and broken, yet, happy to celebrate her son's birthday in good health condition. Many of us are doing this. We are waiting for the right time to finally be able to take that trip, finally be able to get the salary raise, finally be able to meet that friend and finally be able to move freely as we did before.
But all this is a dream. Today was a dream for the last year and last year we all dreamt that today will be better. Are we any better than the last year? I suppose no. So will our dreams of today be accomplishable for tomorrow? That is a question left for the future to answer. There are surely certain things that we as messengers of mankind can do to de-pressurize this sequence of dreaming dreams in the current times:
1. Enjoy your today: Are you sure you wont contract the virus ever? Or are you sure that if you contracted once, then it will never ever happy again? Are you sure your vaccine will work out? No right? So live in today. In one of Dale Carnegie's book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, he says, "What I urge is that you so learn to control the machinery as to live with 'day-tight compartments' as the most certain way to ensure safety on the voyage". Read, cook, watch, sleep, rejuvenate, relax, meditate, exercise, enjoy, love - there is so much to do. I suggest, read some classical English authors, they have written extensively about the world in their novels and stories. This way, you will be able to pass your time and gain some knowledge too.
2. Solitude and self isolation is time for deep thinking: Are you aware that Isaac Newton discovered gravity during quarantine? Or that the bubonic plague was the time when Shakespeare came up with his most famous plays like King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra? There are few more names of Edward Munach, Thomas Nashe, Giovanni Boccaccio who have achieved wonders during their self quarantine periods in various pandemic eras. You can be as ambitious as them or else you can always do what I am currently doing in my quarantine, pursuing my passion of writing, reading and Netflix! These hobbies give me introspection and lot of self reflection.
These two things are the most prominent time occupying and result yielding activities that can be done successfully staying at home, when quarantining or when even not. With that, signing off for now,
"With a hope for a free, better, colorful, travel-worthy and wait worthy future! Hope of a world that we can happily transfer to the next generations!"
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