Pandemic..Inside-Out

By Shruthi

The year of glory

The year to be thankful for...

Primarily, for having a life,

For having a roof over our head,

For the food we eat,

For being able to breathe,

For the people around us,

Family, friends and most importantly, YOU!

For a well functioning body and mind,

For your soul, one of a kind.

Keeping solace with heart, mind and soul with external and internal impediments is a skill to be developed in these times, right now, this very moment!The year 2020 has opened doors to multiple dimension of crisis and adversity. The world wars, the global financial crisis and the COVID 19, all having striking similarities which boils down to abysmal loss,

uncertainty and agony, of different magnitudes. At the same time, they differ in the aspects of cause and effect relationship, nature of the threat, techniques of recovery; for change is the only constant and evolution is inevitable. Even emotions evolve. Darwinism has it. Although living creatures are the witnesses of change, evolution is not uniform, say the emotion of loss which is widespread in these times, and each has a different coping mechanism.

If person's life is glorified after death, then what's the purpose of "living a life". Maybe this is what the actual "afterlife" is- The glorification of presence and embracing the void of absence. It's eerie how a tangible become intangible: a memory in our mind, a silent tragedy of the dear departed. Anne Frank rightly said, “dead people get more flowers than the living one because regret is greater than gratitude”.

Every time something becomes a new normal, what would the old normal be called when that becomes the new normal? Does new negate the old and become "normal"? Let’s hope it does!In the world of demand and supply, COVID 19 has awakened us to the "need and supply" dynamics. With a growing imbalance between want and need, speculative cognisance is the need of the hour from our side. In the generation of "rules are made to break", the current situation has given an impulse to minimise this offset of rules and laws, abiding each citizen with grave consequences, if abused.

When one is equipped with education, values and the luxury of being safe, it's time for a paradigm shift in the approach to existence. What, when and how? I'll leave it for you to ponder upon.I would like to conclude with the following lines. From me, to you…

The storm hit the chaos

Only then did the crisis arise

Oh! Devastated and shattered!

But there's still hope for clear skies

The doors were shut, the mind was conscious,

Absolving from the suzerainty of your own.

Let there be austerity,

Let there be catharsis.

The epiphanies of a docile YOU

Shall effervescent with flamboyance.

The doomsday shall pass by.

Let your mind and soul connive.

Go marie kondo, be no more naive.

For when the menace turns into a solace,

You see the rainbow thrive.

By Shruthi