2020 - The Googly Year

I recently read a tweet - “Hindsight is 2020 was a probably said by a time traveler from the future”. 😁 How true. No one saw such a year coming, including all the astrologers who came on TV on 1st Jan 2020 and predicted a wonderful 2020.

The year had turned the lives of a lot of people beyond recognition - people lost their lives, lost their loved ones, lost jobs, had to walk hundreds of kilometers without food and water back to their homes and many more. These were, as usual, the people who were less fortunate.

On the personal front, I was better off, with just some minor inconveniences. I belong to the more fortunate group of people, having never bothered about a roof over my head, or walls to protect me from natures vagaries, always comfortable to know that my next hot meal will be served when due and nicely clothed. So, while this year, did not affect me much, I had my own ups and downs. Some very positive happenings, time periods to pretty bad periods. 

The first two months, like for most of us, were very good. I was into my fitness routine, clocking 20 km of running every week, reading a fair bit, and in general trying to enjoy lie. A trip to Puri in February was a highlight for this year. I had booked a trip about year ago, and had to cancel it then. May be, Lord Jaganath did not want me to come and see Him then. While this time, I was blessed to spend 5 days in Puri, with close to 10 hours every day inside the temple complex, either at the Darshan, listening to the Bhajans or watching the flag changing ceremony. A few more days at Bhubaneswar and Konark rounded a beautiful trip. This trip made me understand myself a bit more. One, I could travel without knowing the local language or Hindi. Two, I could survive on rice and curd and idly for 10 days and still enjoy my travel. It also threw a couple of surprises - the local bus travel without understanding anything but just buying a ticket to the destination, trying hard to get curd rice which did not contain onion, chillies or mustard seasoning.

Come March, while people were yet to start washing their hands and maintaining social distance, I had a trailer about 10 days before lock down. I contracted the famed “madras eye” or conjunctivitis of the eye, and for a week was washing my hands at least 20 times, and staying away from family. When the lock down was announced and the washing and distancing was mandated, i felt it was more an extension of my previous 10 days. While the early days of lockdown didn’t affect me much, unfortunately, my ulcerative colitis found a good time for flare up. Between mid-may and end-June, things were pretty horrible - my health was not so good, unfortunately none of my doctors were available, therefore no medicinal assistance to treat me. I was just running blind. This was the time, my belief in “karma” strengthened and I just took things one day at a time. Post July, with weekly consultations health improved and by end July I was almost my usual self, the only downside was losing a few kilos of weight.

The year had a couple of more health scares, including testing positive for corona, and forced into isolation for 17 days, plus more medication. As they say, “this too shall pass”, was true. The isolation was a blessing in disguise. I saw many movies that were in pipeline. It also gave me time to think on what next. As the year progressed, a voluntary decision to get off network - no facebook, 2 hours of internet time, no phone calls and many more restrictions helped me a lot. I thought a lot on the past, present and future. Introspection and Reflection makes a person to improve self. I used this period to plan for future as well as to write a a fair number of personal “thank you” notes to people who made an impact on my life. 

Finally, as the new year begins, what did I learn from 2020:

1. Believe in “this too shall pass”, whenever you face difficult situations
2. Be grateful for all the good things that you have in life
3. Once in a while, try to get out of “comfort zone”, as someone sad ‘ Life begins at the end of your comfort zone’
4. Help others, especially people who are less fortunate than you.

The last 6 week also helped me to prepare a plan for myself. More on that later.

Wishing all readers a happy, prosperous, safe and healthy new year.