Going on . . .

Sometimes, I wondered aloud in class that we were a generation which hasn't witnessed any major wars, plagues and life-turning events. I didn't know whether it was good or bad because I have often heard my parents and grandparents discuss events like the Indo-Chinese war, Independence, Emergency and so on. I wondered how it would seem to be living in the midst of crises yet going on with life and living. I should acknowledge the fact that there was no social media to escalate the range of the events but even then, I had imagined the fear in the air which seeped into the minds.

Then 2019 and 2020 came along bringing some traumatic and fearsome events, which perhaps would be my share of anecdotes for future narration.

The anti-CAA agitations across the country

The riots of Delhi

The fear mongering messages across the capital

Corona Virus

These events have not entered my circle of geographical location but it has definitely seeped into my mind and the people's collective unconscious. Being a minority has given me my own fears and having dear ones travelling has triggered a COVID-19 scare. I assume that these kind of fear would have accosted the minds of my people when there were events happening in the country even though they were far removed from the circumference of the danger zone. Of course, for viruses and wars, the fear is a collective one which is evenly spread and quite panic-ridden.

I know that this would pass but living in these times is like the unknown fear which torments and asks one to rise up and act.

2020 Meanderings

2020 began with thoughts of decades, achievements and general goodwill. Social media was ablaze with the Citizenship Amendment Act and its implications - sometimes it felt as if Apocalypse was at the doorstep so much so that it did not feel like one was heralding a brand new year. It is a new decade and year nevertheless. A new year, no matter what, engages one in introspection and a sense of beginnings. If you are of the reflective kind, then the old giving way to new holds the tugs of your heart's strings and coerces you to look back and forward.

I was thankful for 2019 on a personal level while I was in trepidation about the general happenings around me and my country. While my heart was overflowing with the turn of events in my life, I was unable to savour them because my country was reeling under protests of CAA and related issues. The economy of my country worries me in spite of me not being an economist. Can one be happy about something when the country is at a loss for common sense?

But hope is a good thing and I have it flowing in abundance out of the depths of my being and as long as it is present, I could gladly look forward to 2020.

How was it for you?

May we face the coming year, 2020, with the steady serenity of a tree — that supreme lover of light, always reaching both higher and deeper, rooted in a network of kinship and ringed by a more patient view of time.

(Via Brain Pickings)

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