CORONA - THE PANDEMIC INSIDE US

There is a plethora of emotions running across my head. Emotions of angst, gratefulness, and a void of the unknown. I’m eternally grateful to be born in such a time as this, when people are working selflessly towards the betterment of others, risking their own lives in turn of saving somebody. To see how humanity can work in wonderful ways, in these dire circumstances of panic and confusion among the pandemonium, we find this refreshing take on the real meaning of our existence. That there isn’t much to know than to know that we live because of a mutual unseen thread of trust that binds us, unbeknownst to our rather ignorant and frail mind, that we are vulnerable to being randomly exterminated, by a virus, an accident or the actions of our fellow humans. To understand that we live on the constant mercy of the external factors. And that if the guy on the subway doesn’t pull out a gun on you is because of this miniscule stand of cotton interwoven to make the string that very string that binds us together - all of humanity. 

This pandemic unleashes an assortment of dormant human conditions that we are trying to suppress or are oblivious to its existence. This pandemic tethers the underlying state of affairs of our lives. The part of our lives that run on autopilot, where we constantly do not know what force is guiding us to finish our history assignment it is anything but the conscious will to actually do it willingly. This supposed break from the real word gives us time to look into our inner worlds. To ask questions - Am I doing what I want to do? Am I living in the present? Am I Doing things that are meaningful to me consciously? And most importantly, am I severing or strengthening the white cotton thread? Am I acknowledging relationships with full honour and not taking them for granted? 

This virus in a way acts like a big red rectangular stop button for our extremely mindless and fast-paced lives running a marathon that never ceases. This red button makes us realize the highly unpredictable nature of the future and laughs hysterically at our foolish nature of taking tomorrow for granted. There we sit with a list of all the things we’d do when a said date arrives on the calendar, but deeply unaware of its large certainty of us never waking up tomorrow. We are almost always sure that “this too shall pass” in this statement we don’t hold confidence in ourselves of having the ability to tide over the unfavorable condition, but rather this sense of entitlement that things are suppose to help us and that we will get good days with sunshine and rainbow simply because we deserve it. This entitlement, of course, is a major and a malignant cause of human suffering. We take all the wonderful and blissful moments of our lives as a long overdue privilege, rather than being grateful for the mercy of the universe. 

And by and large in the grand scheme of things, this would have been a small pandemic that was amongst the many pandemics and wars this world had ever witnessed. But for each of us living through this time, it essentially forms the fulcrum of our life that if we survive, this fight lies ahead of us. 

I quote one of my favourite philosopher Albert Camus’s lines from ‘La Peste’ - 

“Everyone has inside it himself this plague, because no one in the world, no one, can ever be immune.”