This year has been unusual to say at the least. The calendar and its components have never been this irrelevant. The subway ride, smiling to random strangers and small talks in between seems bygone now. The rush in those walks for a few blocks down the street after getting off the metro as if everyone has another train to catch and the rush as expected increases during the way back home since everyone literally has a train to catch.
That one dude at the corner seat with headphones on but with so much audio bleed, anyone ten feet around can clearly hear that bass thud or for better or for worse, if not audio bleeding headphone, someone would literally have loudspeaker playing Drake's God's Plan. Despite that audio bleed or loudspeaker, there would be a lady indulged in a book with undivided attention on the same cart.
The reminiscence of often ignored trivial metro events when things were back “normal” is just one of many fragmented parts from the year 2020. We often use ‘gratefulness’ as part of our conversation to the extent that it feels it’s being way too overused. Paradox is we never embraced and lived up to its meaning till the date. Nevertheless this year was able to change that as well. When people saw hundreds of acquaintances dying in their county/city, they started to become grateful for their lives. When there were thousands of mass layoffs and unemployment surged, those who still had it became grateful for their jobs. Our health, of which we often undermine the importance got its place back on the priority list. It was not just health that gots its place back; Human emotions like love, kindness and compassion also paved their way back. We saw and heard stories about bravery and selfless services of health care professionals all over the world. Several humanitarian organizations campaigned to deliver food and shelter for daily wage workers and anyone who needed it. The governments across the world, at least those who were affluent enough, promised and delivered stimulus checks and unemployment benefits to support people in this distressed time.
On a personal note, this year felt like a bad day-dream for me. When 2020 first started, I was really looking forward to the year. It had been a few months since I had started my first job right after college. I had started to adapt to the company, my co-workers and its culture. That transition from a college dude who used to submit his assignments right 5 minutes before midnight deadline, go to bed at 3 and again get late for 9 AM class next day or even escape it if it was of XYZ professor who doesn’t include attendance as part of the grade to a 9 to 5 employee ( thankfully my manager was flexible enough to let me slide my schedule to 10-6) was going slow but smooth and steady. I was almost there; had started going to bed at midnight latest and waking up at 7. My resolution for the year was to become a much healthier and sorted person, read more books and travel to new places ( I guess travelling is everyone’s and every year’s resolution) . I tried making my bed every morning, organizing my closet, cooking every other day, cleaning my apartment and doing laundry once a week and going to the gym on weekends. The journey was not as smooth as it sounds now and I fought a good battle with my laziness and inconsistency but I was pulling my shits together gradually until lockdown happened. Although the virus started to become a talk at the company meetings around December, it was in March they decided to make everything virtual aka “work from home”. Before this pandemic and when I first started around September, I still remember I used to often wonder how it will feel to work from home and when I would be allowed to do so, seeing senior research engineers and developers work remotely twice a week. Fast forward now, I don’t think I like it as much as I expected. Perhaps I would have liked it if it was just twice a week. Anyways, all the progress I made on myself till March was gone just like this. Gyms were closed, I started working at night rather than during the day. Obviously, I still had to stay online during the daytime though) which made my work hours feel like 9 AM - 12 AM and I became a mess once again like I used to be in college.
There were upsides to this year as well. Since i was working remotely and doing most of my work at night, I had more free time during the day. I started calling back to my parents more often and this time it was not them advising me to take care of their health but rather the opposite . Still they used to worry and advise me to stay cautious given the ever increasing cases and deaths in the US and mainstream media all over the world flashing it every day as their headline. Oh Parents , they are strange creatures, aren’t they ? I also reached out to friends from school, high school and college. We talked about the old days, the pandemic, current socio-economic, political phenomena of both back home and of the US and also expressed how weird the things around us has gotten for all of us after being deemed as an “adult”.
Overall, I cannot clearly fathom how soon this year passed by. Given all this distress and probably considering it as one of the worst years in history, this should have felt as the longest year as we often say times move slow when things are bad and vice versa. However, for me, this year felt like it went on in a blink of an eye, probably, because in retrospect I don’t have any memories or events to remember except the pandemic for this year. We probably had never been this ready to say goodbye to any year and hopefully 2021 would be a better year by far. The big pharmas have deployed their best brains ( scientists) to the work and they have delivered as well. Let’s hope the insurgency brought by this pandemic would be placed on rest by these vaccines and 2021 would be about hope,resurgence,faith and more importantly about happiness, togetherness and celebration once again.
Resolution ? I don’t have anything except making myself a little more happier than I was this past year because one thing 2020 has taught us is you don’t know when you can no longer smile :) So as the beatles say “ Life is very short, there is no time for fussing and fighting my friend”. Also remember the roaring 20s brought a big cultural shift in life in America and several parts of the world after the 1918 pandemic. I am curious to see what happens after we all get over from this one . Would the world still remain the same or we will be part of some change that history remembers ? Time will tell I guess !
To hope,faith, health, friends and families and to new beginning
Cheers !
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2021
