I had a wonderful NYE party in 2019. Almost all of my favourite people minus a few who couldn’t be in town, celebrated the end of an eventful decade that we spent together, laughing and crying through ups and downs. 2020 was the beginning of fresh starts. 2 months into what was supposed to be MY year, the world hit pause.
I remember quite vividly of course, March 18th was the last day I spent outdoors, riding the bus, meeting people, having coffee in the office pantry and wearing jeans! The worst part? I didn’t know it was going to be a long time from then that I’d be doing these things again. You know those little games we play for fun – “what would you do if this was the last time you’d ever meet me” and alike? Yeah, totally relatable. The novel Corona Virus or Covid -19 was declared as a global emergency and a pandemic. Highly infectious, it began spreading like wildfire and it was best that we stayed in. The next couple of days were quite chaotic with the Govt announcing Janta Curfew on 22nd and when that wasn’t effective, a national lockdown for 21 days was declared. People panicked. Never had they experienced such a situation where the entire nation was asked to stay in. People queued up at general stores and stocks started depleting. Schools, colleges, malls, theatres, public parks, hotels, cafes, gyms and salons pulled down their shutters. Social Media was having a gala time, throwing around views on whether this was a good decision or should’ve been thought over wisely. There was absolute chaos because not even the highest authority in the world knew what it was and how this situation was to be dealt with. Laborers and daily wage workers were stuck with nowhere to go, a friend of mine was locked up alone at home while another was trapped in the mountains with friends. Though a praiseworthy, rather bold decision, none of us were prepared. Mentally, mostly.
Living each day as it comes, we began feeling anxious as numbers rose from single digits to double and then triple and then we stopped counting. We watched and shared videos from Italy that asked for prayers and noticed how the Invisible shifted its base from the East to the West. Where there is bad, there’s an element of good too or so we believe. New age jesters in the form of meme-makers made us smile once in a while. No, we didn’t imagine our apocalypse outfits to be pyjamas! When the Gods shut their homes to humans, the men in white, blue and khakhi stepped out in the form of messiahs and for them, we clapped and lit lamps. We celebrated them. Miscreants who hurt them were punished. Those safely tucked indoors, resorted to hobbies that we relied on in the summer of ’99. We drew, we painted, we danced, we sang, we cooked and baked, we talked… we talked and had real conversations with people we love. In person or over calls, we talked. Our phone galleries, once filled with images of fancy food, restaurants, faces with make-up, concerts, mirror selfies at the gym were now replaced with people in pyjamas, eating dal khichdi, playing the guitar, screenshots of video calls with friends and family. India is home to 1.3 billion people which could easily turn into 1.3 billion sick people with a still-developing health care system but hope and spirit of the same 1.3 billion never died.
However, with no signs of improvement though our Covid-Warriors were doing their best, the lockdown in India was extended to 40 days. The lifeline of Mumbai – The Local Trains, stood in their sheds not knowing when they would operate again, perhaps for the first time in history. Planes didn’t fly and the fish could now swim closer to shores. We sighed in exasperation but began to notice how Mother Earth was transforming. The ozone layer over the Arctic circle healed. Animals took over cities, deer pranced on the pavements and elephants came to greet us. Species deemed extinct were being spotted again after decades. The air turned breathable, rivers and oceans were clearer. Without human intervention of only a couple of weeks, Earth began thriving again. What we damaged over centuries, healed in two months. The Invisible Enemy was a friend to nature. Eventually, everyone realized that there was no point in fretting over what was happening on the outside. Without a vaccination, social distancing was the only cure. Children began engaging in academics online whereas adults faced the fear of pay cuts and job losses. Anxiety spread faster than the Invisible. It wasn’t just a pandemic, it was war. Only this time, the enemy was invisible and all countries were one army.
Curled up inside our holes, we were closer to acceptance. We simply had to wait it out. There were times when I accompanied my father to buy essentials and Milo was a breath of fresh air. Mum did not step out for nearly two months since she is asthmatic and so kept herself busy by whipping up a delicious meal almost every day. There were good days like these where we also played board games, had movie nights, resorted to art and turned to artists for pleasure. We, as a family, perhaps never did any of these things together and I felt extremely grateful. But then, there were bad days too. Media was a major source of sadness followed by information about a friend’s neighbour testing positive and then the extension of India’s lockdown for another fortnight, making it the world’s longest lockdown – 54 days, till May 17th. This news didn’t hit as hard as the previous announcement, we were mentally prepared to spend birthdays, graduation ceremonies, festivals and even weddings in recluse. This year was a nightmare and we signed up for it to be removed from history!
2020 did not stop at that. We witnessed various calamities, social and natural and wondered how everyone and everything – people and the environment, unanimously decided to put their foot down. Enough is enough, they said, for a plethora of negativities that have been occurring in the past. For decades, rather centuries. We saw a revolution, felt empathy, noticed changes, 2020 was a year which no one will forget, it was a snippet of a dystopia that was successfully bringing about much needed alternations in the world and with that, India extended it’s final nation-wide lockdown till May 30th.
Aviation and Railways slowly, started limping back to life… people stuck in different cities, started leaving for their homes. Everyone prayed for normalcy to return but innately knew, that normalcy had to be re-defined. We had taken for granted what we thought was comfortable but was rather, selfish. Covid-19 count did not dip, in fact, cases grew each day and we were supposedly to reach the peak by June.
Rains came pouring in and by September, India was among the top 3 worst-infected countries in the world. The virus was no longer in spotlight because now the media was worried about the death of a superstar, keeping an entire nation glued to the screen. Children, once happy about getting to enjoy the longest summer vacation in history, craved to go to school. Work-from-home was no longer blissful and masks were just another part of the #ootd. What we thought would last only for a couple of weeks, saw no horizon of improvement. This was how life was going to be. This was reality. News about a vaccination was doing rounds yet remained unconfirmed. Each state in the country devised their own set of rules and regulations which was quite chaotic as mobility was unclear. Taking vacations was a far cry, a lot of research had to be done to even take a road trip of a couple of hundred kilometres due to several legalities involved, imposed by districts which varied from one another. Social media was once again a battleground for reasons other than the virus now and people in India especially, struggled to keep up with the West holiday culture despite the constant rise in cases in those countries.
The continent of Europe that was seemingly out of danger for a couple weeks, saw a rise in cases again. It was confirmed that a second wave of coronavirus hit those nations and it was pretty bad. It was clear – complacency led to infections and we did not have the liberty to become complacent because India was far from the end of its first wave. With monsoon receding in October and finally leaving the Indian sub-continent, infections slowly started dipping. Mortality rate was 1.5% visa-vis a world average of 2.7%. We started breathing better, though, all of us had a friend or a neighbour or an acquaintance at least who had gotten infected or in less likely cases, passed away due to the virus. On a more positive front, we also knew people who had started taking vacations to nearby picnic spots, scheduling their weddings with relatives and friends and not how it was being done till earlier – indoors and guests present on FaceTime.
The pandemic might just become an endemic – a viral infection that’s here to stay like the common cold. A vaccine is deemed to be available by 2021 however, by the time every person on the globe receives it, the year will be 2023 to say the least.
This year, hopefully only this one, has been mentally exhausting for everybody. Although I noticed many who made life-altering decisions in the past few months, finally achieved their dreams, started valuing their family much more, learnt a new skill… who are happy despite what this year aimed to be. Maybe 2020 was nothing but a wake-up call, an eye opener. The West of the world isn’t as flowery as it seems, our parents aren’t as nagging as we think they are, learning a new skill isn’t as difficult as we imagined. What we learnt from the year 2020 is to never ever take our lives for granted. Love someone? Tell them. Want that job? Apply for it. Need to change something about yourselves? Go, do it. What are you waiting for? End of the world to arrive? Well, it almost did! Anything is possible with a mask on your face, your hands in gloves, a sanitizer in your bag and hope in your heart 😊
Life in a nutshell 