Out of nowhere, we had a new topic in our lives in February 2019 - COVID 19. Media was snow-balling the topic daily till it became a part of our everyday conversation.
What followed in March 2019 was unforeseen. We had a pandemic in our lives and the first of the lockdown for our generation. What was meant to last for a day, has transcended into 13 months and we are still where we were same time last year with a respite of few months in between. The pandemic altered our lives enormously.
Today, WE are COVID ravaged - emotionally, physically and financially!
We cannot breathe freely. We had to trade our freedom of breathing in open fresh air to being layered behind the mask. Sanitizers became an essential overnight. Fear occupied a larger compartment in our mind. We became obsessed with sanitizations. Social distancing became the new norm. Warm hugs to loved ones became a distant memory.
Immunity which we took for granted all our life became the focal point. To keep the immunity levels high, we altered all our diet plans. Walled within the house, the confines hounded us.The only trip made outside was to fetch the groceries and medicines with a cluttered mind. Life moved online - a new medium for all of us.
COVID has been the greatest economic calamity we have ever witnessed. The toll on the vulnerable segment is inexplicable. COVID has not spared everyone. It has left all of us poorer.
To add, the virus is now mutating into so many variants that people all over the world are falling prey to it like a pack of cards, shattering so many dependent lives and leaving a void that will never be filled. The departure from this world is also bereft of any family rituals; they are performed by strangers. There is no glimpse of the departed soul etched in our minds anymore. There are only memories left. The kids have lost their innocence. What is transpiring in their minds is hard to decode. They have been unleashed in a world with ever changing paradigms. There is no NORMAL now. Just when we thought we had adapted ourselves to the new NORMAL, the virus reminded us that it was still our master controlling all strings by extinguishing lives all around in gargantuan numbers. Surviving each day is a blessing for us.
Our life has been redefined. We now know what we really need and what we can do without. Everything else remains an indulgence of the past.
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