This too shall pass

Most of us now are almost nearing 100 days of lockdown. When I first heard the news of Corona in China, like most of the common man in India, I thought this virus will not travel to our country, till that day it had affected only the cold countries. Later I consoled myself that it cannot withstand hot Indian weather. After a few weeks I heard few cases in Kerala, again I thought this is just a small cluster this might not spread big. As the week progressed all my assumptions were becoming false. Seeing the way China contained the Virus I thought this is just a matter of two to three months. Today, we have almost completed a little over three months and I had two cases inside my apartment community too which is just less than 50m from where I live. Thankfully they have recovered but once I heard the news, the reality hit me hard. From what I thought initially that virus was several thousand KM away it came to just a few meters from where I lived. Still, we couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have a firm belief that all good and bad things must end one day. So, this phase too shall pass is the only hope. 

What I have learned in these 100 days of lockdown is that Life is too uncertain and has many last-minute surprises, I had my share of heavy mood swings. One day I felt very positive, the very next day some bad news I felt very sad. Staying close with my family, constant touch with my siblings, relatives, colleagues, and very importantly with my friends helped me to overcome these mood swings. Even though I had some internal conflict in my mind between good and evil, but my character was to stay positive. Think only about good things happening around us. So, I stayed very optimistic and I always tried to rub that off to my fellow humans. 

I always felt that the success of a family solely depends on the happiness of the ladies at home. At my home, I have my wife and my mother. I felt that I should be extra cautious in taking care of them especially during these pandemic days. Like most of the Indian male, I too had the habit of paying less attention to my wife and Mom. Many times, I had multiple threads running in the head and I would have nodded for some of their questions or give irrelevant answers. There are instances while I had food at home either I was hopping TV channels or texting my friends in WhatsApp and pay less attention to the feelings of the ladies. This had led to small fights and arguments. Now I have started developing the habit of paying more attention to them, I have started pausing TV channels or trying to keep the mobile out of the dinning. My wife is also a working professional and during this lockdown, we do not have the cook as well as the maid at home. She had to manage the entire family two kids, my mother, and me. On top of that pressing deadline at the office. My mother in the early 70s helps us in the daily chores like taking care of my kids, drying clothes, vegetable cutting, and dishwashing from the physical aspect while her presence motivated us especially my kids mentally. My wife had to prepare three times a hot meal and during the weekends some special dishes in the evening. I have zero cooking experience all I could do was bring the essentials for my family. I have wondered how ladies could manage all the tasks with a smile. Being a manager, I keep motivating my wife at work when she is stressed. Give her some tips to handle certain situations. Even though she works technically hard in her advanced Java spring program my simple counseling had always kept her going. 

With my mom, I try to spend time with her every night discussing some interesting walkthrough of her memories from the past, especially about an incident or a person. Also, during the early COVID days she had the habit of watching the news and feeling worried about the people suffering around the world and the deaths. As they are growing old this death news has always disturbed them. I stopped discussing this death and kept her away from the media. She had also engaged herself in reading some books, some old movies, and serials on her iPad. Since my growing days, I had the habit of making some weird expression on my face whenever we glanced at each other randomly. This thought has not popped up during my regular office days. Now staying close to her has retriggered this habit. These kinds of little gestures made us happy and stay positive. Also, with my kids, I spend time playing carrom and interacting on some of their curious questions about the world. 

I am sure most of you might agree that by now you would have realized that to be happy in this world what we need is a good human ecosystem rather than the materialistic things around us. In the name of culture and modernization, we had only developed bad habits. Now we have started unlearning our way of living and started making minor adjustments. We always remember the famous quote “Let nature be our teacher”. Today this Corona has taught as many life lessons both personally and professionally. 

My younger one always checks with me when is locked down getting over? and when are we going to kill the corona? He is always in the assumption that every end of lockdown is the end of the corona. Every time I say it is extended he just keeps his hand on the head and move on. Like our kids, at this point, our state of mind should be clear. We should just “Move on”

With love 

Keestu