Pandemic — Guru of important lessons

I must admit that this has been one of the most incalculable time which no one had envisioned. This pandemic for a moment brought lives to standstill for the whole mankind on this planet.

I remember back in January 2020, I was casually chatting about this situation (which had not yet surfaced in most of the countries then) with my colleague at work we were discussing that how strong human body and environment is and this would not affect everyone and would vanish like a myth. But soon after almost a month or so, we were proved incorrect totally. We did not know how to react to the circumstance when all of a sudden after a working evening we got an email from our workplace saying that we would be doing work from home for an indefinite period. And then next day when I stepped out for grocery I could see the stores totally packed with people piling the canned foods (and of course tissues!). It was so scary honestly and I am sure no one knew how to react. I did not have a mask to wear and had been using a handkerchief till the time I could manage to get masks. Life took total 360 degrees turn with lockdown.

For me personally this was real difficult as I was all alone then in this country with my family being in other part of world. I don’t remember praying so hard ever because I was scared stiff. No doubt pandemic affected all of us in all ways. It took so many lives and I do not know of any person who did not lose some friend or family. But we humans adapted and emerged stronger and did not let it fail us and this is the most extraordinary thing about us, right. I am an optimistic person and I personally learned a lot from this which I would like to share here.

• Not to take things for granted! This is my biggest learning and this is also the source for my second learning
• Family is everything. I would at times just not respond to my home calls when I was occupied with work or plainly because I did not feel like. But this situation made me realize that I am nothing without my family and they are the ones that actually and honestly care about me more than anyone in this universe
• Cherish smallest things. Things like just eating in a park, enjoying a noon at beach, summer music concerts and even shopping
• Materialistic things do not hold the value they used to in my life anymore. I would often shop for the latest trends and was quite a spend thrift when it came to clothes and shoes but now I do not feel the need for them the way I used to
• Getting rid of unhealthy self-consciousness. Now I love myself more and hey I do not care about other’s judgement
• Understand myself better. Since I am working from home and have nothing much to do I took this time to get to know myself better. This was really enlightening for me where now I know what I really want to in long run
• Saving money is so old fashioned but totally worth. My parents always emphasized on saving money and I never really got it. Whenever I used to shop and get an extra dress that probably I did not need my mom used to give me speech on savings which I obviously never took seriously then
• My love for travelling has only rocketed and I crave for nature more than ever now
• This one might be weird for few people but now I empathize with animals in zoo so much. Though I am not sure if they would be happy caged inside but I feel ya

I hope you enjoyed reading this one and do share your experience as well.