Realising the value of life and the upcoming changes in the foreseeable future.
Its been 3 weeks since I have been sitting at home now. Last time I sat home for so long was in October 2010, after suffering from an Asthma Attack. It was almost 10 years back my life changed, and its today that the life is changing again.
The first time we heard the news about coronavirus was in December 2019 from Wuhan situated in Hubei District of China. This was the first time I heard about Wuhan. :/ Did you know about this place? I still remember reading a story about some of the early cases of COVID-19, which mentioned about a family of 6–7 people who were tested positive after sharing a meal at their home in Wuhan. That caught my attention, as being an Indian thats what we do on a daily basis. Share a common meal bowl from where the family takes its portions. I was just praying for that Chinese family and wondering what if it happens in India. Who knew, that would become true.
Over the last one year, I have spent quite alot of time exploring my city i.e. New Delhi, primarily to expand one of my business lines. In order to do so, I found Delhi Metro to be one of the most convenient mode of transport. Thankfully all of my offices have been either at a walking distance or a 5 min cab / rickshaw ride from the metro stations. Life was going well, we were expanding all across and there were surely no complaints.
Fast foward to 5th March 2020, we started hearing more about COVID-19. It had started spreading in India and we were hearing cases in New Delhi too. The first thing was to control the spread and hence one had to start restricting their movements. As the Holi week passed, the cases started rising and all of a sudden the first restriction was on limiting the usage of Public Transportation. Life started changing and all of it seemed to be getting closer to you. On 16th March 2020 when I reached my office, I was surprised to find only 5 people. Thats a space where on a average I would see close to 80 people at around 12pm. COVID-19 was reaching closer.
Since that day, I decided to work from home and restrict movement of even my family members, considering parents are over the age of 60. The first week was fine, as there would be regular movements, work-outs and evening walks. Market places were all open, though life was getting disrupted, but nothing unusual. 19th March 2020, Prime Minister of India appeared on the television announcing a nationwide Janta Curfew on Sunday 22nd March 2020, for the people and by the people of India. It was surely a dry run and before the curfew could end, states started imposing a complete lockdown till end of March 2020 and finally on 24th March 2020, PM appeared once again announcing a 21 day lockdown until 14th April 2020. Life changed again.
We are already in the second week of our official lockdown, and it has given me sometime to do an introspection about things around us. First and the foremost is the importance of your well being and the need to focus on your basics.
Today it doesn’t matter how rich or powerful you are, it doesn’t matter how social you are, it doesn’t matter what you do in life. All it matters is your survival. Life will surely not be same from this point forward and its gonna take us some time to recover both mentally, physically and economically
Everything has changed overnight, the work as well as other priorities. This is the first time I do not know much about my life except one thing i.e. “we are back to basics”. Nothing is gonna be the same again and nothing is constant in your life. So spend this time knowing where you want things to head in your life, what can you do to make your life more meaningful and what are you doing to make yourself happy?
