A birthday that wasn’t happy, but unforgettable

MY BIRTHDAY WISH WOULD BE TO HAVE A WORLD WITHOUT FEAR, A WORLD OUT OF THIS PANDEMIC

I’ m not a birthday person; I never was. I don’t know why but maybe because my birthday falls in March-end and that usually used to be the final exam time. I guess the stress took over the excitement.

Now, I remember my birthday only a week ago at times. But this year, my birthday was different, and I may never forget the experience. It was the date on which the first phase of the Covid-19 lockdown was announced in the country. It was the day I felt anxious watching the TV news. But I also felt privileged to be at home with food when thousands of people are stuck and thousands are on the roads without food.

The initial days of the lockdown made me sick and depressed, thinking about the pandemic that has engulfed the world. Gradually, I started looking at the positives to keep my spirits high.

First and foremost, I resumed cooking and tried new recipes with fewer ingredients. Earlier, I had left cooking, as I was privileged to have a good cook. Secondly, the lockdown reiterated a fundamental lesson in life: Money never makes you happy, and it can’t keep you alive.

The third lesson was on the amount of resources we waste and how little we need to live. Since the lockdown started, we are cooking two times a day. Initially, it was because of the lack of resources as rations were not available but slowly because that is what our body needs. Every time I wash the dishes in the kitchen, I’m ashamed to think how much we take our house helps for granted. We used to put so many dishes to wash because someone else was doing it.

Another positive is that I live on the third floor, and I don’t remember taking the stairs in all these years except when the elevator is out of order. Thanks to the coronavirus fear, it’s always the stairs now.

The pure air and clear skies prove nature is trying to rejuvenate itself. It is time we humans stopped taking everything for granted. Think about the world we are living in right now where humans are scared to touch humans, but still, our bond with our families is only growing stronger.

Yes, this year, my birthday wasn’t happy, but if I could ask for a gift or a birthday wish, that would be to have a world without fear, a world out of this pandemic where people value and appreciate life and Mother Nature’s blessings. A world where peace prevails. Amen.