The Secret Lock down
Flash back and a year ago, we were just happy go lucky humans going on about our ways, working, chatting, ranting about how bad life was. Not even in our dreams did we imagine that we would one day live like animals we enjoyed watching at the zoos as children, caged and morose. Time flew and we only seem to be living what we used to imagine of as a bad life. Maybe this doesn’t hold entirely true, because as it is said, no one or nothing can really make your life hell unless you allow them to.
Ups and downs in life are the crests and troughs of a wave. That’s how we move on.
What exactly went wrong? Good to ponder. How can we make it right? Good to act upon. Since the last month or so, we have been facing a lock down, a state which I thought would never be possible in my country at least and just let it go, thinking of it as yet another crisis among the many already chewing our heads away. I was wrong and soon realized that this is not a ‘yet another story’. All the news flooded with corona virus, Covid 19 and lock down made me grow more furious at the current state of affairs. At one point of time, I became pretty sure that the end of it would result in a set of completely transformed people.
Yet my earlier belief that a physical lock down would result in a mental one as well was soon replaced by the thought that it would instead help us remove the one which we already have in our lives. Coming straight to the point, how many of us while away our time watching YouTube videos of how cats react to babies or what was so and so’s reaction to a so and so song? How many of us feel emotionally drained because we have the time to do so much yet end up doing nothing? How many of us feel empty and sick inside to a point where we start feeling guilty of no reason? If you feel any or all the above symptoms, congrats for having some company.
We had been so engrossed in our lives that we forget that there are people who love us unconditionally. We get so consumed by work that we forget work was made for us to occupy ourselves with and not that we were born to work. Now that everything is shut down for a while and physical interactions are at a minimum, it quite a good amount of time to introspect. Yes, this sounds selfish when medical healthcare workers are relentlessly serving the mankind but there is little we can do. In fact, if we channelize our interests in the right way, that little can turn out to be a lot. For example, learning the one coding skill you always wanted to and then collaborating online to develop an app to improve life of people or cooking for those who have to sleep with aching stomachs everyday seems productive, doesn’t it?
What is the reason for feeling empty? Our lives were greatly affected by work and daily routine and now that it occupies so less of it, the sudden void that has been created is hard to fill. There is little of interest to post about on all social media. Posting when I watch T.V. or how I sit on a chair is well, too creative for me. This is rather a time when we can improve our health. Making spirituality a part of our life, we can move on to becoming better human beings. Practicing yoga and meditation can help us clean the clutter inside our minds and wash the toxins out of our bodies. This is also the time when we can go into depression, binge eat, get addicted to smartphones and engulf ourselves and those around us in a bubble of negativity. The choice is ours.
During this lock down, even though I did not end up doing what I wanted to, I discovered a lot about my own self. I have started to love cooking and taken a keen interest in helping to prepare delicious cuisines for my family. My opinions about different activities in life have faced a paradigm shift. I have started to enjoy household chores instead of loathing them, it makes me feel more connected to my home. At the same time, I am slowly regaining my passion for writing and reading which I seemed to have lost during my two years of preparation for competitive examinations.
Humans are but a part of this Earth,
On which billions have taken birth.
The urge to conquer has made us a foe,
Of nature for whose greatness we needed to bow.
Indeed, nature knows the best,
Its actions have consequences all around in the north, south, east and west.
Time to come to our senses,
Need to adjust our vision and see the world through different lenses.
This break is nature’s way of getting back in track. The rivers are getting cleaner, the air is getting purer, animals are roaming more freely in a world which we always claimed as ours. Nature is healing and so should we. If blessed with a family to love, home to live, good food to eat and a body to worship, we need to be grateful and stop complaining. This lock down has made us realize the privileges we mistook as our rights. It has forced us to go deep down and try to understand the meaning of life. We are changing and if nothing else, lets’ do it for the better. Let us go on a detox, let us let go of all things we wanted to let go and come back with a purified version of ourselves.
What humans could not have done in years to protect nature, nature itself is making it possible within a few days, with only two aspects, time and patience. In fact, the benefits of lock down seems to be far more than protection from the pandemic and such an initiative for a fortnight annually should be highly encouraged for the well being of mankind and reestablishment of its harmony with nature. This pandemic came with many lessons to teach, which are of course subject to interpretations. Its not only a lesson for a war against nature, but also a realization of the war we unknowingly wage against ourselves.
Next time when we are getting stressed about work, feeling guilty for no reason, let us remember there is a life out there to be lived and cherished. Next time when we feel like watching that one more video which would only waste our time, let us remember that this is a golden opportunity to pursue our secret passion (which of course is subject to exceptions).Next time we feel like checking how many likes we got, let us check for how many minutes we actually talked to our family. Dance to the music while it lasts. Refresh, rejoice, reactivate. Realize about and claim the only thing meant to be yours, your life and be bold to turn this disaster into gold.
