The worst of times and the best of times
Divisive class policies demarcate a clear line between the Have and the Have Nots and this pandemic has been a key event in underscoring the disparities. Medical healthcare systems are dealing with neglect and financial struggles, while people deal with facing their own selves. How long has it been since you’ve been completely on your own, without a word from even the house help or the neighbourhood uncle? Everyone has one thought in mind : how will this pandemic end? A world surrealist and movie like, seems to surround us with unpardonable abominations. We rely now more than ever than the unsung heroes, the superheroes devoid of capes to save us. Science.
It seems to difficult to comprehend, but the world will continue, as it always does, even after this ends. China has been regaining some aspects of normalcy again, after all. The economy? Well it seems to be in recession. The death counts are shocking. What then indeed can become the silver lining of this pandemic?
We are a race that is inherently social. We survive in packs and social conversations and satisfactions, probably why we are unable to cope with the idea of being with ourselves. We have become a version we probably don’t recognize, working jobs we hate to achieve things that are meaningless and avoidable. But this quarantine has proved beneficial in the field of introspection, for those who can afford it. Privilege has been announced to be of utmost importance, for those who lack it, deal with physical and mental toils that are unimaginable. It is difficult to think of positivity in times as dire as these but think we must in order to survive and sustain our mental health. We will come out, as a more empathetic species, probably never taking for granted the loved ones or the little pleasures of life. We will turn to art and to the familiarity of a beloved person’s hug, the conversations that don’t really mean anything and at the same time mean everything. We will evolve.