Corona Virus has invaded our lives and turned it topsy turvy. The life we are leading now is a nightmare which we would never have imagined even in our wildest dreams…even if prophesied. World over, people are living in fear and counting each day as a blessing…thinking, thank God for today.
But this unprecedented pandemic has brought to the fore many deep and interesting observations. Firstly, we have realised the value of our lives. We are being careful with our food, exercise. etc., fearing and hoping nothing goes wrong in these trying times. Then we have realised the value of relationships…be it any relation. Everyone is now isolated..at home…no social contact…even working from home. One now realises the importance of the people who you are with daily or even sometimes. Maybe, you have now started caring and loving your parents a little more than before…missing your colleagues at work even though you had arguments and tiffs with them..your weekend get-togethers with friends and relatives…your cousins…everyone for that matter. You realise the importance of family. These are all bonds which are difficult to break. You even realise the importance of domestic helpers who unfortunately maybe confined to their homes…people you took for granted. So, in a way these are lessons, well learnt from these unfortunate times.
But most important lesson that God is teaching us in these trying times is that basically what we need from life at any time…good times and bad times. We all love living the good life…no harm in that, but if you sit and introspect you will realise that now when we are confined to just our homes we are happy we are safe…we have food…simple day to day casual clothes and a roof over our head. These are our basic necessities in life…roti…kapda aur makaan. We should count our blessing that we are all blessed to have good homes…food and clothing, but not all are so lucky. There is so much poverty the world over…when we are sleeping comfortably in our air-conditioned rooms, there are people staying in slums, pavements, etc, even without a fan…they have no clothing…hardly anything to eat. It is really sad that the world is divided into these segments where some have lakhs to waste on parties in hotels and others are craving for even a meal a day. But this will not change…that’s life…but it is heartening to read that there are good Samaritans in this world who go out of the way to help the poor. I just received a WhatsApp message about one man who has started giving food for just Rupee1 for a meal and you can eat as much as you want and even pack and take for anyone else. He said he charges Rupee 1 so that people feel they are not eating for free but paying for it. Imagine the greatness of this man. Hats off to him. He says people can donate only Rupee 1 towards this cause if they want. Really kudos to him.
This teaches us one very big lesson…life is uncertain. One never knows how long we will live…so be open and large hearted…try and help people in these trying times…ultimately, we are all going to go empty handed from this world. So better to help people now with our own hands and see the happiness on their faces even with the little that we can spare. I know this is easier said than done as I have seen people who are so careful about their money and worldly possessions that they would never like to part with anything…but there are others who are large hearted…as they say, God has created both good and bad…goodness and evilness…intelligent and unintelligent…wealthy and poor…and He has done this definitely with a purpose. Otherwise how else would we know the difference between people.
So ultimately to sum it up…we have to remember that in this very unfortunate phase of our life we have all learnt a lot of lessons. Perhaps this is God’s way of teaching his children I know it is a tough lesson but then when we give an exam, we get easy questions and tough ones…we can’t ignore the tough ones as then we will fail…and no one wants to fail in an exam, right? So in life also we have this tough lesson to learn and I hope we pass through this phase successfully scoring full marks and in that process we will be proud of ourselves when we look back at this period of time and relate these memories to our grandchildren hopefully.
So just remember life is just about three basic needs that is ROTI, KAPDA AUR MAKAAN…and everyone doesn’t have to have a sprawling house…wardrobes full of clothes and abundant food on the dining table…we can manage even with less.
Very well expressed Dearest Laji