by Dr. Sanjogita Tiwari, Department of English
Before you arrived, we lived complacently in our worlds, each spinning his/her dreams of a tomorrow, which shall be in sync with our dreams. You arrived and had your own way, making us pause and reflect on the plausibility, longevity, validity and even the utility of our dreams!
Before your arrival, we felt we could not live a single day without venturing out of our homes, not only for our necessaries and accessories, but for the sheer joy of watching things of the world outside our homes. You came and locked us within the confines of our thresholds. It was then we learnt that our home is a world in itself and people in our homes, the loveliest people to be with!
Corona, it was you who turned our extraverted vision to introvert. And lo and behold! What a wonderful inner world awaited us, when we turned inwards! A treasure house of happiness and an unfathomable peace was ours for the taking. A deeper probe into the treasure house of our minds allowed us access to the most awesome and extraordinary person we had ever met! Yes, it was our own self seen in a new and grander light. We rushed to the mirror to confirm whether whom we met was our very self and to our great amazement, we saw no one else but our own image. Can there be a greater blessing than this?!?
Corona, you drove us against the wall towards isolation, which felt akin to imprisonment but the fear of non-existence in this marvellous world was anyhow more alarming than feeling being ‘caged’ for a while. You tried your best to add to our miseries by consuming our fellow -beings one by one, but our ‘never say die' attitude and spirit of service dwarfed the gigantic expanse of yours, that you were so very proud of!
We were forced by you to be economical in our habits. With the disruption of the seemingly never ending cycle of production and consumption, we ultimately realised that as human beings, our needs are in reality very few and these needs, can be fulfilled without harming our environment.
“Corona, you made us halt in our mad pursuit of power and pelf, for you made the mighty bow down, proving what a great leveller death is!”
You prevented us from using motor vehicles, which made our earth greener, our streams clearer and our sky bluer than ever! You spread your fatal wings and fluttered over almost every nation of the world with each passing day, but unknowingly you brought humanity together! We came closer as people of the world for we now knew what it meant to suffer together! This common suffering prompted us to fight together towards inventing a remedy against your ‘red tooth and claws’.
Through you, we learnt that the human fighting spirit is unconquerable. You showed us the difference between ‘living’ and merely ‘existing’. You are a tyrant, it’s true, but we are Human Beings with an invincible spirit dwelling within us, which never says die! Thou art tough but we are tougher!