Moments in time

As days melt into months and as another year is beginning to end, the excitement and palpitations of an upcoming New year are distinctly missing.

 We have learnt to live in the present and finally, some would say, but at a price. If it had not been for the costliness of the method in which mankind has been taught this lesson – which is in terms of human life and mental peace – then possibly learning this lesson would have been worth it after all.

We have seen within a short span how nature and our planet have tried to heal while we scurried to hide indoors in uncertainty. We speak of never imagining we would see such a pandemic in our lifetimes but it has helped us see that with reduced human defacing of the planet even if for a few months, can lead to restoration of natural processes from years ago but which we have seen as children in our lifetimes. Our city saw incessant rains these last few months and then flooding because we have been greedy and apathetic about & towards everything. All catchment areas of rivers and rivulets and small, beautiful lakes throughout the urban scape of our city have been over-run by unscrupulous politicians and builders who are either in collusion or are one and the same person. The malady of the system is the fact that preserving which should be a way of life is never sustained nor given importance to while every disaster and loss of life leads to sanctioning of more public money for restoring what has been plundered.

The pseudo awareness which each of us claim to have derived from this year shall also soon be forgotten once the earlier status quo is restored. The virus was a catastrophe, no doubt, but it has revealed many a two-faced government, politicians and has left human beings red-faced. Those who claimed that slowing down was never and cannot be an option have been grounded. Those who claimed that we were near to God have been shown their place in the scheme of things. Those who thought that living in the today without a thought for the future could be risked have been shown that the future they did not care about some years ago has come to become their reality and today.

Yet as we deal and heal with each day through these tiresome times, the stories of horror and apathy and neglect and disillusionment and misfortune and mental stress and hardship and adversity and poverty and misery are so agonizingly existent that the very awareness leads  to disappointment. Seems like a let-down from what we thought humans were capable of or maybe when it became about survival, it brought out the worst in us.

The stories and instances of concern and responsibility and caring and thoughtfulness are few and far in between. The whole nature of the thought process and psyche as a nation has come full circle. Zero skill sets and vote banks are in vogue while many a those who have spent a fortune and a lifetime to learn something and be proficient at are forced to do menial jobs. Yet the understanding and thankfulness that there is food on our plates still, is a realisation eluding most and many. Not to forget the job.

Grasping the seriousness of the situation and having a consciousness about the same are dexterities which many of us lack. Being appreciative and considerate should be starting points then.

We can only hope that the lessons taught are not forgotten for those learnt we shall see but later.

We can only hope that a whole year wasted behind masks and scares is remembered to keep us grounded hence for those moments helped us reflect, but did we?

2020 is fast sliding towards a close and in spite of all the chaos and hullabaloo and the hate and the scare we have had our moments which shall be remembered in time and frozen in our spirit. Here’s just hoping they make us a better person, individually and a worthier human race, collectively.

Only time shall tell.