Life in the Time of Corona!


“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”

― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

I thought I was done with my rebirth in Vietnam, when I felt all my senses come alive once again…I felt light and untethered. But now that we are in lockdowns, and some of us dry of motivation and ideas, it dawned on me again that rebirth is a process and it needs to happen continually. We need to find inspiration in the routine, and most importantly document and realise our ideas and thoughts through a medium most comfortable to us.

Times like these, everything comes to a standstill, the mundane takes over and all of us line up to carry out our tasks like bots.  Few things however knocked on my gates…

First, national prejudices; times like these also bring out national prejudices where we indulge in branding countries and people and impose our own pre-conceived notions of various nationalities. Let us realise one thing; “You know nothing, Jon Snow!” People are people…they are the same everywhere. We have different traditions, ways of expression and culture, etc., however, beneath the skin and all the external paraphernalia, we are the same bundle of differences and uniqueness.

Second, Carpe Diem! A reminder that our lives are transient in nature (and even if it is not and we continue to live for centuries); why don’t we ‘let’ [i] all love freely in the time we have here. Love is something that doesn’t come easy. Blessed are those who find love and realise what they have! Let us go beyond social taboos and let consenting adults find their happiness in each other regardless of gender[ii].

Third, love thyself; Rebirth, regeneration, rejuvenation, detoxification, call it whatever you want, without love for self, nothing matters, nothing makes sense.

And now, I want to thank our Indian government for prompt and decisive actions in the face of such an invasion. Many people are ready with spears to poke and criticise and find loopholes, but I believe that this time, it was our own irresponsible and selfish citizens who were irreverent to government directives and broke the quarantine and spread the malaise( individuals who were stamped for home quarantine and who went ahead and travelled in the train and attended weddings and social events and what not!). If only they had followed the directions given at the airport, we wouldn’t have been under lockdown today. The entire country is standing at the edge of a crisis because of a few selfish ignoramuses. There were of course a few who can be absolved as they were genuinely unaware of the seriousness of the situation and unwittingly infected all who came in contact.

People out there, please act responsible! PLEASE! Let us bring this ill to a standstill!

  

  





[i] (it should not be up to us to have a say, but as a society, we unfortunately evolved like that. It is time to change that now)
[ii] Recommended Watch this week: Korean Movie: The King and the Clown

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