Its June and monsoon has already knocked at the door of Indian Peninsula. But its not a news anymore, because we have other news, many other news. Year 2020 which was supposed to be year of dreams, has turned into a year of nightmares for humanity and specially for India. It started with corona, paused at Amphan and series of earthquakes in Delhi and Gujarat, and then took a poignant and deja-vu turn with treacherous killing of our twenty brave soldiers by China. So many things to discuss with you, but you have your own priorities. dis-interested as you always were in all these news, you have found a new cartoon series “PJ-Mask”, on your own and have assimilated its characters. Notwithstanding your dis-interest, I will discuss few of these issues with you.

There are so many theories doing round regarding Corona. China did it knowingly to become super power; it is a leaked biological weapon of china; and it was unintentionally spread from China Wuhan district Animal market. Whichever theory is true, one thing is common in all and that is China. Corona spread to the world like wild fire and even before world could make sense of it, it turned into a pandemic. USA, UK, Germany, France; all the powers to reckon with, are as helpless as an oblivious African country. Although initially Corona appeared as a healthcare challenge, soon it metamorphosed into multi-pronged crisis. Economic slowdown, physiological stress, Law and order condition are few of the visible off-shoot of this crisis.

Hundreds of lives lost due to reasons born out of corona and not directly due to disease. But in spite of all this Corona gave us crash-courses of value of relations and life, it proved that nothing can be taken for granted in life. Life is the biggest gift in itself and it is much more than fat bank accounts, big hospitals and large followings. Life is as fragile for a poor homeless man as it is for a business tycoon. Not much can be left on tomorrow in life, because life has its own plan and you are here to execute them honestly and prudently. Life is about treasuring sweet memories, keeping relations warm and alive, staying in touch with who matter for us and not getting bogged down by problems easily.

As if we were not already frightened enough, God tested our resilience in another way, earthquakes and tropical cyclone Amphaan. Cyclone Amphaan hit eastern par of India in May month and reduced a large part it to rubble. Although it was a great financial loss for country, lives were saved by prompt action by state and central government. Between all this, tremors of earthquakes were felt across North India and Gujarat. Almost 10-12 tremors have been felt in less than one month. Scientists are worried considering this frequent occurring of tremors and are asking for a preparation at government end to be ready for a big earthquake.

Country was somehow coming to term with these natural calamities, when we are caught off guard at our border by treacherous Chinese. As i write this article tension with China remains high and all our forces are kept in high alert. Indians are calling to boycott Chinese items which is flooded in our country. I don’t know, or rather don’t want to know, if this laptop on which i am writing this blog was actually assembled in China. Our boisterous media is all set to fight a war, even if our armed forces don’t do so. But while continuously running rhetoric war cry from the safety of news studio, they forget that the cost of war is never evenly distributed, it devastates some families and it hardly matters for few other. Benjamin Franklin said : There never was a good war, or a bad peace, which is true to the core. I, like most of the Indians, wish war never happens.

Corona taught us although “Fear of loss is much stronger than pain of loss” and we as human constantly live in fear of loss, we shall not allow the fear to overtake us. In doing so, perhaps, we miss the golden moments which pass by us daily. We forget or simply ignore to record these golden moments in our memory. Fear makes us vulnerable and weak.

But then fear itself is not bad and its good to be afraid. But to get crippled by fear is not us, is not human. Fear made us evolve, fear made us outrace every species in this planet, fear made us to be always on our toes. So, Fear is good when we constructively design our paths to assay that fear. Fear is good when we let it not make us panic-stricken. Its our survival instinct.

With all that said, remember fear in itself has seldom solved any problem. If our actions which are born out of fear are panic driven, they leave a bitter taste. Fear is a problem, which if addressed tactfully give rise to beautiful constructive results.

In this era, when fear is all around, may be we are at a juncture where all the chaos will lead to a better world. We as humans are being tested to the core, our values, our relations, our emotions all are under severe stress. When you grow up and finally agree to have a discussion with me on all these topics, seeing the images of lakhs of Indians moving bare-feet for hundreds kilometer without any guaranteed food and shelter support, i wish you find it hard to believe. I wish your India is much different from mine. The fear of my India makes the way for your rugged, strong, capable, sensible and powerful India. I wish fear does it again, fear leads our beloved country on the path of becoming a beautiful place; where lakhs need not suffer to make pollution level come down; where 3 years old need not walk bare feet in scorching sun to skip the wrath of pandemic. All this pain, suffering becomes a “things of past” for future generations.

Wish all this will be things of past for your generation. wishing you and your generation a Smiling life always.

-With Love your Mummy and Papa