An experience called 2020

An experience called 2020.

by

MURALI MURTHY

As our grandparents used to say "I was there when We got our Freedom, and I was witness to the struggles of independence", probably we will be telling our next generation one day "I was witness to the struggles of 2020".

2020 will be remembered for long for the dent it has left in our lives, and will go down in the history books as one of the worst years.

As we come to the fag end of 2020 and just a couple of weeks to roll over to 2021, it has left lot of bad memories. As I see, Covid was just a reason and it took the limelight for otherwise a nasty year overall.

The Covid, the lockdowns, incessant rains, floods, hurricanes, cyclones, wild fires, economic meltdowns and protests...we kept hearing bad news one after the other. 2020 indeed has been rude, with many losing near and dear ones. So many lives lost, probably Covid was just a reason for many deaths. So many good people known to me had untimely departures.

While some of the professions / industries remained unaffected, who were confined to their homes and the only discomfort faced was their inability to go out. For many others it was about losing jobs, hefty salary cuts and losing livelihood...the scenes of scores of people migrating back to their native, gave a picture of India-Pakistan partition.

Many businesses shutting shop...many of my favourite joints - La Casa, Eurasia, Egg Factory closing down was indeed heartbreaking.

For many others, it was traumatic.
I saw my own businesses falling flat, a landslide fall right in front of me, I stood helpless and in pain. The agony of having to go through tough times dealing with payroll and payments when the bank accounts are dry, and personal finances at the rock bottom just adding to the wounds.

These depressing and agonising times highlighted the importance of mental health, with many getting into depression, losing composure.

Many of us experienced Anxiety attacks, extreme stress damaging general health.
The idle mind and joblessness made many act wierd and absurd.

And the war like buildup along the border with our neighbors; imagine if that had turned into a full blown war, it would have made things miserable.

Why did all these happen? Was it the Nature's way to heal itself or did Nature wanted to teach us humans a lesson? Or was it a balancing act?

Amidst all these struggles and sufferings, I believe many life lessons were learnt.
- We evolved and started to adapt new way of life.
- It made us be resilient.
- We learnt the value of money, importance of savings.
- We realized the importance of life.
- We taught ourselves to maintain hygiene, eat healthy, stay fit and boost immunity.
- We started to enjoy time at home, time spent with family, the joy of having lunch and dinner together.
- We learnt the significance of meeting relatives and close friends regularly.
- We learnt to spend only for absolute necessity.

Empty roads, less crowded spaces, birds chirping in the cities, avoiding unnecessary travel were blissful times indeed.

Life had become so mechanical and artificial. 2020 made us realize being conventional, conservative and orthodox are the best ways to lead a quality life.
Afterall, our forefathers who created basic principles of life and lifestyle are proved not to be fools.

The way shopping experience had dramatically changed with supermarkets and Malls Vs the present day shopping experience of hand picked vegetables, fruits and grocery in the corner shops. Imagine the amount of unnecessary things we would buy in those supermarkets, which spoilt us with options, choices and so called "offers".

And the Weekends then...blame it on hectic work through out the week and partying hard over the weekends. Now, weekends are peaceful time at home, sipping on a cup of coffee on the couch watching TV, or go for grocery shopping or just a stroll in the nearby park.

Life was indeed hectic and extremely stressful, no doubt, We all used to slog.

Covid has given us all a glimpse of our retired life. How we conduct ourselves, how prepared are we, what would we do when we retire, it's a trailer of our lifestyle 10-20 years from now.

2020 certainly changed our perspective towards life, it has made us introspective.

With all these life lessons and learnings, we will soon walk cautiously into 2021. Will we?
Or will we forget 2020 as a bad year and move on with our usual old ways?

We might just laugh it out and remember 2020 seeing each other in Pajamas and Shorts most of the time, úmpteen no.of movies, web series we have watched, masked faces, family get-togethers and friends meets on video calls, online meetings and online classes.

IPL was indeed an ice-breaker and a welcome change, it reignited many of us to start living life again.

We don't know what 2021 holds for us, I don't know what to expect in 2021...will the markets revive, will the industry get back to normalcy, will my businesses flourish, will Nature stop testing us and blesses the humanity with good fortunes?

I am optimistic and hopeful that 2021 will be better. I will welcome 2021 with hope, positivity and great energy.

I believe we are all the lucky lot to have survived 2020 and hopefully whatever last bit is remaining.

Hoping and Praying for change of fortune and luck for the Humanity!

Happy 2021!