Life Under A Pandemic.

Hi!

I am alive.

Mostly. Thankfully.

I know I have been MIA (missing in action, obviously) since quite a lot while. Guess, I had to just pop in to refresh my existence and let the world know that I still have a blog page. Ha ha.

So.

Where do I start?

2020?

Well well, that's quite an atypical chapter to speak about. But since we still have some days until a new year, we might as well have a detailed recap of this deep, dark, engraving, metamorphic and highly transforming year of 2020.

For starters, the first 3 months of 2020 were highly occupying.

Hospital postings, college, a truck full of assignments, tired travelling, tiny escapes to comfort food joints & besides that, a whole lot of physical, mental and self exploration. Let's just say that the year started off okay.

But.

The onset of March was brusquely struck with something highly unforeseen, highly oblivious and highly poignant.

Corona Virus, also nicknamed as Covid-19 since it evolved in India by the end of 2019, I suppose is an unnecessarily self-invited guest who won't let the world have it's peace.

Not gonna let my rising bottled-up infuriated self ruin the quarter bit of this blog, so let's cut to the chase.

As far as my fading memory could recollect, a lock-down was imposed from the mid-week of March or April wherein the entire city of dreams and sea was submerged into a mind-dwindling, mind-exhausting, enormously boring life boat.

Basically, we had to stay in. That's all.

For safeguarding ourselves, the people, the country?

For what feels like an eternity? Oh, boy! (sigh)

 

 

To summarize my lock-down phase, I just have a sentence to blurt here which has been my significant patent phrase for expressing and amalgamating every thought, behaviour, mood, and action of mine throughout this period.

I'm sure you guys would relate to it too.

Are we ready? Yeah? And 3 2 1 ...

"WHEN WILL I HAVE MY LIFE BACK?"

There you go.

I said it.

I did. (ugh)

The government asked for social distancing and here, my mind was distancing & messing with my systemic life form, no joke. To simplify and justify this, I was just having a terrible time thinking that life has suddenly paused itself out of nowhere.

I mean, I would wake up every day and wouldn’t know what day or which month it would be on the calendars. Like for say, think about a day you wake up with a functional block and that unknowingly becomes a thing, which slowly hampers your lifestyle to extremities and you barely can do anything about it. Yeah? Do you get me now?

If you did, you will understand that when you look at it just like that, it is scary, staggering and twitching.

The sense of non-productiveness is overwhelming.

I am an impulsive, impatient soul. You can’t blame someone like me who’s asked to follow the law and just sit and do nothing. See, I don’t mind being my natural sloth self, but that is a voluntary act of indolence. And that is, will & always solely be in my charge. (sigh)

Months passed on couches and beds, gaining pounds with all those grilled cheese sandwiches, spicy noodles, developing a zillion new k-drama crushes, jamming to my BTS boys and their music, getting creative with new food recipes and budding like a 2.0 master chef. And also, recognizing my unspoken underrated culinary skill of Biryani making. I am a pro Biryani culinarian, now that I know. *flips hair*

DALGONA EFFING COFFEE. HELLO!!

(side note : I couldn’t get creative about that, sorry) *nervous laugh*

So basically, the initial bit of lockdown was all about munching, binging and lazing.

With the awakening of July and Monsoons, a new segment of education was introduced.

ONLINE CLASSES OR LECTURES OR PERIODS.

(call it as you please) *eye roll*

At first, it sounded pretty fancy and exciting.

Clearly different from what life had been offering so far. (hmm)

And eventually, my bored ass got used to getting bored with laptops and phones too.

That being said, let me just be nice to all these devices that have literally been so gracious towards mankind.

I mean, literally.

I honestly don’t think I would have made it through this quarantine without listening to music and eyeballing movies. That, I am sure about.

Also, all the teachers, professors, college authorities out there, I’m deeply sorry for being true in this moment of mine right now.

The concept of online lectures was amazing. No doubt about that.

However, I don’t particularly like the fact that every college/school kid wasn’t into it, completely.

And that, dear fellow teachers, you know it too.

If you ask me to be honest here I’ll say, I had fun attending my lectures. But, I would not say that, that’s exactly how my views would have been if that class was in a class. You get me? Hmm?

The point being here, teachers and their methods are perfect.

But, the circumstances aren’t.

And in that moment, it hit me that it’s normal to alter ourselves according to and what’s supposedly the abnormal.

So after long, consuming sessions of knowledge and some more months after, September blessed me graciously.

I mean, it obviously would. That’s the whole point of Birthday Months! :)

Birthdays for me are always, like ALWAYS, are accompanied with so much exhilaration.

This year I turned 22.

Yep, I completed 22 years of aging.

22 goofy years of still being goofy and a hell lotta clumsy.

As Taylor Swift’s song titled 22 rightfully says,

“We’re happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time.

It’s miserable and magical, oh yeah.

Tonight’s the night when we forget about the deadlines.

It’s time, oh-oh.”

And well, we all know what the chorus is all about.

Feeling 22 :)

This year being unusual yet, different like the others has made me emerge and ponder over my own self in all it’s positivity and goodness and glory.

Like I said before, birthdays are celebrations of one’s existence.

364 days of awaiting, for that one day where you get to be the apple of the eye, the universe’s center of prime importance.

That one day where your existence is not just celebrated by you, but by all the people who actually feel the love and care towards you.

Birthdays are uplifting in the best way.

Birthday is that one day where you rejoice, praise, applaud, exalt, honour and acknowledge all those remarkable days of your one of a kind, rare and truly magnificent self.

Birthday is a yearly occasion which duly reminds us that everything about us is celebrated and memorialized forever and ever, as we grow.

And hence, birthdays are ethereal.

And so was mine, ha ha.

Quarantine Birthdays were new and weird, but they had their own way of making people feel loved and mattered and wished for. Like I said, Birthdays are too special with the right ones and I think I’m gonna cry in a corner recollecting my birthday now ah ah ah.

Also, to everyone who had their birthdays while under quarantine, this is me widening and wrapping my arms around each one of you. Hope you had the time of your lives. Peace x

 

Speaking of individuality and identity, 2019 and 2020 together struck me with some things that I’m guessing most of us might have experienced or witnessed or crossed paths with situations  like these in our lives, at some point of time.

Honestly, I have faced and lived through such episodes during my entire journey of adulthood.

I won’t even know how do I start this, but this has been lingering and irritating and impacting my mental and physical self that I have to let this get off my chest.

Boldly & Clearly.

Once and for all.

We all have been a part of numerous sets of people that we just stumble upon as we are getting on with our lives.

We are introduced to a variety of masses who are far more different than us.

Sometimes, we find people who we could instantly connect with on every individual aspect possible.

And then, there are times when you don’t particularly get on with people, even on the most basic things.

The reason for me to blurt these specific thoughts suddenly is that in both the scenarios that I just mentioned, there is a crystalline contrast.

A difference that is vivid enough for us to differentiate and understand the significance of every individual’s unique personality.

Each one of us are distinctive in terms of nature, character, intelligence, intellectualism, expression, spirituality, sensitivity and numerous other parameters, that makes each and every one of us peculiar & diverse in our own harmonious ways.

There are some in the many, who tend to forget and lose track of this precious thought.

There are some in the many, who aggressively choose to live their lives on somebody else’s terms.

There are some in the many, who adapt themselves to the people in their surrounding to appear fancier, to upgrade their image, in their respective peer or professional groups.

There are some in the many, who snatch the authenticity and significance of the people they engage with and try to frame it as theirs, because they are too foolish to recognize and figure out their own potentials.

There are some in the many, who you share great telepathy with, who try and appear as they are the nicest and helpful beings on the planet, who always puts you and your conscience into questionable dilemmas as to what’s the right and what’s the wrong, who constantly wishes negativity for you, but switches and portrays their bad desires and wishes into so called friendly gestures, who never ever is the slightest bit of real with you, but displays the act of fake affection and fake friendship to cores when you are around them.

There are some in the many, who feel strong hatred towards you and create chaotic environments and make innumerable amends to put you down, for you to not succeed, for you to give up, for you to fail.

There are some in the many, who envy your growth, your progression, your high scales, your persona.

And guess what? These some in the many, are cancerous.

These some in the many keep existing.

These some in the many don’t change.

So what was the point of me elaborating this rant? I’ll tell you ha ha.

Human beings are complex creatures.

The creation of the human mind and the indefinite thoughts that thrive in it are ambiguous.

People existing with bleak & pessimistic mindsets are reminders of the immensely talented living souls that live and triumph over their muddy motives and their failed attempts of producing obstacles.

Sometimes there are people who you have known all of your life, who are supposed to be relatives, who are supposed to not be biased towards your successes, who are supposed to not bring you down, who are supposed to not create differences and imbibe jealousy and other negative thoughts in the younger ones of the family, who are not supposed to encourage the idea of competition over emotions and people.

Instead, they should be the ones who are supposed to guide you in the right directions, who are supposed to love you like their own, who are supposed to inculcate values and affection and respect for & towards each member of the family, who are supposed to be trusted, who are supposed to be happy in our blooming days, who are supposed to grieve with us on our gloomy days.

They, who are bonded by relations.

They, who are supposed to be family.

Every relationship that we are a part of has its fair share of agreements and disagreements.

It’s up to us to do our level best to be our natural positive and good selves to safeguard and mend things which could otherwise be broken and shattered by words or actions of the people we deal with, in those circumstances.

It is up to us to keep healing the underlying scars, the misunderstandings that are buried deep down in some corner of somewhere which could hamper the consonance of several relationships.

We should keep doing these miniature acts of empathy to nurture and instil the peace within us.

And when it comes down to cancerous mentalities, we all know that cancer can’t be eradicated medically, so what do we do?

Chemotherapy? Nah. That is not gonna help root out the cancer that stays in people’s thoughts and actions right?

So, like all, we must learn to live & cherish the life that are we blessed with, regardless of time without letting the medical condition of cancer or the cancer of the mind to take control over us and just live and live and love it to our heart’s fullest.

Because, in the end, there is no pain, no hard feelings, but extreme tranquility and calmness in what we call, heaven.

2020 is coming to an end, but while it lasts, take a moment to appreciate and reward yourself for your constant igniting passion, your constant love for the things you do, your constant prospering evergreen life and for your constant faith in you.

The biggest life lesson that 2020 gave us and simultaneously made us realize was that, with the flames of hope and belief burning and coursing through our veins, the victory of mankind, the victory of humanity, the victory of the human-race, the victory of goodness will sore over and over every epidemics or pandemics.

With love and strength and togetherness, every calamity, every barrier, every block, every obstacle can and will be banished for the good.

Hence, believe in yourself.

Let hope and faith and love be your friends.

Let people around you see the good in the world through you.

Foster the kids and youth of this world with warmth and cultivate morals of care, independence, and self-worth in them.

Teach them to acknowledge their talents ; teach them to accept and get comfortable with making mistakes.

Let them know that they are their finest selves and that they should embrace themselves just how exquisitely, exceptionally beautiful they are.

Do good every day.

Be nice every day.

Be well every day. 

Love more everyday.

With that being said, 2020, after all the nerve-racking moments that you gave me, I am still thankful for you being the year of eye-openers, massive boredom, impeccable creativeness, and above all different in your own distinct way.

Thank you 2020. You gave us too much to discover and a lot more to learn.

And and, you were a hell lotta crazy.

This crazy ride ends with you.

It’s time to bid you away.

Adios 2020.

You might not be missed.

Love, light & hugs to 2021 and all of you!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

Regards, Parita.