Shhh… Slow Down! Mother Earth Is Rebooting While We Isolate Ourselves And Realise What Really Matters

We’re in the middle of a pandemic, realising how vulnerable we are to a small particle, and how much we have messed with our world. Let’s help it heal.

In moments like these, you realize how small you are in the big schemes of life. How a small particle got the whole world at a standstill – crashed global financial markets, made the business cut back, triggered panic, left a huge gap in demand-supply of commodities, and is leading to a global recession. It’s a way of understanding how HE rolls, and you rock! How chalta hai attitude doesn’t work but these choti-‘moti’ mistakes over a while, made us all come under a dramatic lockdown.

And we had this coming! A man may weigh lighter on Mars, but we have certainly taken our planet Earth very lightly. Coronavirus is just the wake-up call we needed, and with ‘we’, I mean, we – the people, beyond religion, colour and geography!

Nature’s way of restoring balance?

I feel it’s nature’s way of restoring balance, saying “I had enough, I gave you all of this and what did you humans do? Cut and slice me exhausting my resources. You didn’t think twice and kept living your selfish life in denial. You thought no one is keeping a track? Bas. I had enough. Now it’s my turn and think twice before you call me crude because your race has been far worse over the years.”

Who thought this is where we will land in 2020? So many centuries have gone by yet mankind remains the biggest threat to mankind. What we are undergoing happens only in movies or fiction but when HE plays, reality becomes chilling than fiction. It’s real. It’s out there and it puts everything under perspective – relationships, food, air or even a toilet roll! Aaj har us cheez ki keemat pata chal rahi hai jisse apne halke mein liya.

Given my fascination for geography, Siberia more precisely, two weeks back I landed on this documentary of a woman named Agafia. She is a 75-year-old Russian Old Believers who still lives in up a remote mountainside in the Abakan Range, all by herself, 240 kms away from civilization. I was aghast as I could not comprehend how she chose to stay alone, without human interaction. She is at home arrest most of the day as temperature freezes out in the open. And look, where I am? Not in Siberia, but yes, in home arrest.

But – people will still not learn!

But you know the sad part of it? People will still not learn!

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Some will scoff with “Arey, abhi kuch dino ki baat hai, sab theek ho jayega.”  (It’s a matter of a few days, everything will be alright!) Some will get into jantar-mantar and some will keep blaming a country, an ethnicity or a nation.

My concern is – when will we see the bigger picture? It’s same as when people cry with rising heat in summers but close their eyes while installing five air-conditioners in their homes. The vicious cycle for demand of air conditioner – need for power – emissions – hotter temperatures is a loop.

Back in Hyderabad we had an air conditioner and a cooler and trust me, I was the later person. It was more refreshing, consumed less energy, had no effect on Mother Nature and bought back my childhood. Boond boond se saagar banta hai aur thoda thoda kar ke zeher bhi banta hai. (An ocean as well as venom can be created drop by drop). Now you decide where you land?

The same goes for water. I don’t remember how many fights I had with the maids back home yelling on top of my lungs, “Pani band karo Amma. Sabse pehle tum-hi logo ko dikkat hogi.” (Stop that water flowing, Amma – when there’s no water, you’ll be in trouble.) But then humans have a problem learning solutions first hand. Chalta hai attitude has blocked their thinking capacities.

2020 has been harsh so far

Earlier this year, my country was fighting with a virus installed in their heads, color coding every fellow citizen in saffron and green till some were soaked in red.

We may be able to find a vaccine for coronavirus but I don’t know how to handle the earlier bit. Sometimes the believer in me feels the current ordeal was a seething God’s way to intervene, to let humans know “Main hoon aur sabr bhi rakhta hoon, par mera imtehaan lene ki galti mat karna.” (I’m here – I am patient, but don’t try it too far!)

What really matters – our kids, our families

Times like this also bring us to regain focus on things that matter. In our daily rat race, we often forget the importance of living and reason for our living. And then comes a day when you know what is what.

In April 2017 I stood outside the operation theatre as they took my two-and-a-half- year old daughter from my hands to lead to the OT. Mysha had to get a procedure done to get her urine reflux fixed. Till today that moment stays in my head because I remember closing my eyes and saying, “Nothing else matters but this.” I realised how we can’t take life for granted. The same goes for Mother Earth and I think it’s rebooting; so while we isolate from the world by sitting at home, nature enjoys its much-deserved privacy and detox.

A pandemic should be enough for us to meditate, to change our lifestyle. To think – about our wrongdoings, our vulnerability, our fragile environment, our people and civilization – in a holistic manner. Together we can and we will make a difference so let’s look out for each other in these testing times.

And on a lighter note, with every day a new story coming in, when all is changing, one thing remains constant. The way my five-year-old sleeps on me every night, sniffing my neck, thinking “Mummy hai toh sab theek hai.” (everything’s alright while mum is here). And looking in her eyes, I realize that even though I am a small atom in this big galaxy, I may be a world for someone because, for her, it starts with me!

P.S. Like always, I am most scared for future generations. This human drafted derelict planet is not the heritage I want to leave behind. They deserve a better world!

First published here.

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