My Learnings from Pandemic
The pandemic has hit all of us in ways unimagined. People struggled for hospital beds, oxygen, medicines, and worst of all, lost their loved ones. There are those who are stranded at places away from their partners and families. Some are not affected physically, but their mental health has taken a toll looking at the series of events around. The stories of the pandemic are going to go down in history and describing it a number of years later is going to give shivers for sure.
Past almost 1.5 years of experience living through the pandemic has made me realise things that I never gave much thought to. This blog is going to talk about few things that I realised during the pandemic.
Help each other — we together can do it
A couple of days back, I got an email looking for volunteers who can help covid affected families find resources that they are struggling for. Without even giving a second thought I signed up and so did a lot of my co-workers. Together, we formed a warriors group who did just one thing — for every request that we get to treat a covid patient — hospital beds, oxygen cylinder, oxygen concentrator, medicines, food supply, injections — we make calls on their behalf using all the leads available on various online platforms and pass on the contacts who are verified and have the resource available. All we were doing was spend a couple of hours, sitting in the comfort of our homes, placing some calls, and trying to verify the availability of the resource. This is the minimal help that we could provide, and that itself helped a lot of people.
Number of volunteer groups came forward to help the affected in whatever capacity they could. Some by staying indoors, while some helping people on the ground selflessly. Some started providing tiffin services to those affected, some helped in taking patients to the hospitals, some helped source medicines, some helped source oxygen, some helped economically, some helped take care of mental wellbeing. My heartfelt gratitude towards all of them who helped and are still helping all those facing the wrath of this pandemic. The second wave of covid, as devastating as it is, is an all hands on the deck situation and a large number of individuals have come forward to help each other and to save our sailing ship. This reality was humbling. Every time I helped someone, I felt peaceful knowing that someone else would help me too if need be. It also reminded me that every drop counts. Even the smallest help, even if it affects a single person is very important. Helping each other is going to be the biggest tool to survive a crisis of this scale.
Don’t wait for the next time
When the covid situation started spreading across the country, I packed my bag to go back home for a week and then return assuming things would have settled. It has been more than a year now and I haven’t been able to go back to Bangalore. I wouldn’t have postponed my dinner plans to next weekend if I knew next weekend would be more than 1.5 years away. I wouldn’t have said no to the night out with my friends if I knew we would be in different cities and states for more than 1.5 years. I wouldn’t have skipped the movie plan if I knew I would not even be able to see movies on the big screen for this long.
If anything, the pandemic has made me realise to live in the moment. Before everything turned upside down, a lot of such pleasures were highly underrated. The ease of ordering food in the middle of the night, the possibility of taking a trip with no planning really (let alone tests and wait for the results), going out for dinner and dining whenever and wherever, window shopping, late night ice cream — all of this was highly underrated, they could have been postponed to any day, if not today — then tomorrow. Sometimes I delayed these events not necessarily because I was super busy, but I knew that this can be done some other time as well. Lying on the bed and binge watching Netflix seemed easier than driving in Bangalore traffic so I pushed meeting with my friend to the ‘next time’. I was just too lazy to change into nice clothes, so ordered online today and pushed the dinner date to the ‘next time’. I did want to roam around a lot, covering all the beautiful places around, but I have a lot of time and I can do it even later. I preferred sleeping off that weekend and pushed the trip to the ‘next time’.
Pandemic made me realise that the ‘next time’ might be too too far away and in some cases, it might never come. I regret procrastinating the things I really wanted to do and have been waiting to do that for 1.5 years now. The realisation and the fear of not getting this ‘next time’ again is so strong now, that once I am out of this pandemic — I am going to do all that I want to, on the very first chance that I get.
Health is the top priority
Poor and rich, elder and younger, men and women, common men and influencers — all of them have faced the wrath of covid equally, no money was able to buy oxygen and medicines, no influence was able to get a bed in the hospital. Power, money, resources, influence, contacts — nothing is more important than good health. Because none of them seemed to help when the health was not good. Mental and physical health are the most important assets to be invested in.
I seemed to not consciously look after my health and hygiene as much. I was not too conscious about washing my hands regularly. I was okay eating outside anywhere without bothering much. I didn’t exercise regularly. I didn’t get health checkups done regularly. Got too busy chasing one milestone after another that I saved looking after health for later. I wanted to excel in school and then get into a good institute. Then fight for placements. Get into corporate and then work constantly for one launch after another, one project after another, one promotion after another. All these along with the desire to do a lot of things in parallel — events, parties, toastmasters, dancing, drawing. I personally also have developed this habit of doing everything as a task assigned to me — to be finished in time, in the best possible way, at any cost (even this blog writing as example). This habit even turned relaxing activities and hobbies into tasks, at times. With so many tasks to be completed at all times, spending time doing things to stay mentally and physically fit was always way back in the priority list.
Pandemic has definitely made me realise the importance of health now and how keeping it for later won’t help. How staying fit, both physically and mentally is extremely important and is the only way to survive the crisis. I am going to make conscious efforts to invest in health and hygiene. I have started reminding myself to exercise regularly, to maintain hygiene, to take mental breaks, to allow my mind and body to relax — I am still not too successful but I am going to keep trying.
Count your blessings
We all take one particular path amongst the infinite possible paths that open ahead of us every moment. We can’t tell how our journey would have been had our path been different. I generally didn’t even ponder over this as much or even considered if there was something supreme guiding us all along. With so much going wrong in the world, I feel compelled to believe that there is some power looking over me, guiding my path.
Pandemic has affected education a lot. Online classes are not easy. Students are missing out on the biggest teacher of school time - their peer group. Getting a job is difficult for fresh graduates. This situation started in 2020 and my brother just sat for his placements and secured a job in 2019. Just a year earlier. My brother would have still been in school, taking online classes and facing all of these hardships, had my parents not decided to have him skip a grade two decades back on his teacher’s suggestion. The year saved back then ensured that he graduated and got a job just in time before the pandemic started. A lot of people had advised my parents back then that it is a bad idea to skip a grade. They did it anyways and it turned out to be a blessing for him in hindsight.
I was in Bangalore when the pandemic started and my parents were in Gujarat. For some reason, even though India did not have a lot of cases, my father kept insisting that I should just come home. I kept telling him that there is no need. Eventually, I had to give in to his consistent urging. I took a flight and reached my hometown, just in time before a three month long lockdown was put in place all across India. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like, had I been stuck alone in Bangalore for that period of time - away from the family, under the constant worry of falling prey to covid, staying completely indoors, with no help.
In times as bad as these, when we don’t have any control on our own fate, faith is the power that can help us get through. Faith, that something bigger than us has a plan for us. There is a meaning and reason, which we may not understand - but everything is happening for a reason. This pandemic gave me a chance to look back at these countless blessings that are the reason for where I am right now. There has to be blessings like these that has so far safeguarded me and my family.
These were my learnings so far. Let me know if you resonate with these. Focus on your health, help as much as you can, reflect on your blessings, stay safe, and take care of yourself and your loved ones!
