Its Saturday. Well, everyday seems the same nowadays. Just the date on the calendar keeps changing. But life is no longer the same. A pandemic has taken over the world. It is creating a new world order. The polarity of powers in the world is changing. Maybe, we asked for this change.
But there is another change too. The Earth is healing. Nature is once again dominating the game. Maybe this pandemic is part of Earth’s anti-virus system. Animals are rejoicing because human interference in their lives has reduced significantly. Maybe, their prayers have been answered.
People were busy with their lives, earning money, going to school, attending various ceremonies. Nobody saw it coming, or maybe we just ignored all the warning signs.
Although we are all with our families, we are still away. Our homes have now also become an office, a school and a college. And now working hours have extended to become indefinite.
Students were preparing for examinations and planning their future. But the future had something else in store for them as life threw a tougher examination in their direction. This was a test for which they were certainly not prepared.
Hundreds of thousands have already died from the virus. Millions of people have lost their jobs. Hundreds and thousands of people are slipping into depression. Families are parting. Suicide rates are increasing. Maybe we were taking a lot of things for granted.
The pandemic highlighted shortcomings and defects of various institutions of countries around the world. It exposed how fragile and unprepared everyone was in the face of such challenges. Well, some saw this as an opportunity to improve, while others were busy in finding someone to blame.
Well at least this virus doesn’t look at the bank balance or the status of a person before infecting them. However, the vaccine certainly will. Life will be put on one side of the scale and money on the other. Just hope that our lives do not weigh too lightly on this scale.
Not much will have changed for apex ‘predators’, who are at the top of the economic food chain. However, there are many at the base of the pyramid, whose lives have changed forever. Maybe, people put too many expectations on the government and other public institutions.
Only the poor know how expensive it is to be poor. Sometimes it’s not about being without money, but being without hope. The people that they considered as their saviours have only emerged to play politics over their dead bodies.
We were given more than we needed. But nothing is enough for those who always want more.
They say, times change. But no one expected that it will change in such a manner. Well, it’s our expectations that caused us the misery. Those of us who were ungrateful and used to complain about how bad our lives were have had their complaints addressed.
If we are keenly listening to what nature has to say, then we would agree that these hard times have taught us many things that a lifetime could not. We must remember that ‘sweet’ can only make sense when ‘bitter’ exists and that light can only make sense when darkness exists.
By Zeshan Ali
Zeshan Ali is from Kargil and is currently pursuing a BA programme in Delhi with Political Science and Geography as his core subjects.