As of today I am super super worried. The world is changing so very rapidly. We are in the strange grip of an extremely paranoid response to a very very sneaky attacker. The attack is on humans but the paranoid response is pretty much destroying the world economy. Millions of people are going to be out of work and that collateral damage will come at a very very high price.
There is of course the possibility that a new world shall emerge with some totally new paradigms and a totally new social fabric. Maybe money will be wiped out and a new method of valuing exchange shall come. Capitalism may be finally defeated. Question is how will this transition be. How will it impact us all?? Am I being too hopeful!! I wonder!!
The environment is of course getting cleaned up. Nature in one massive strike is undoing years of damage done by mankind. Will this be a wake up call for mankind. Something that will shake it out of its apathy.
It is also a great time for each one of us to rethink our lives. Conduct a full review and see how we can reset and recreate the rest of our life. I am most definitely thinking of that. It is really time to take some tough decisions.
Also somehow it is just easy for the days to simply pass by. At the end of each day it feels like we didn’t really do anything. The routine is like this…. get up and catch up with my parents and some news online, now that there is no newspaper service. Then get some fruit, if any is at home, and then get on the cycle. Whilst cycling for about 30 to 40 minutes, I end up watching some television. Yesterday I saw a couple of interesting TED talks. They were about the future. Obviously recorded a while ago. But nobody could have foreseen a future like our current present. The entire country is in house arrest. And a part of my business may just get wiped out. In fact the entire world is in lock-down so i am probably not alone in getting wiped out.
Thirty minutes of cycling is followed by a shower. Immediately after that we get about getting some lunch organised. Our sons have been very good with all the house work. Today our coffee roaster son made some rotis (a kind of a thin Indian flat bread that puffs up on the gas) and some lentils and French beans. This with some millets made for a grand lunch. Of course it was close to 3 pm when we ate.
Followed by half a movie and some coffee with some vegan matcha and coconut ice-cream (also made by our coffee roaster son) and suddenly it is 6 pm. The day is over. What about the thinking I wanted to do? What about my blog?? Not that my writing skills are anything to boast about. What about the new plans for my business? At least I did not spend time worrying about how I am going to pay for all the business costs over the next few weeks. Somehow that has been shoved under the carpet. But that shall have to be squarely dealt with soon. I am dreading that.
The sun is about to set. I thought of going for a walk. But that too has been scuttled. In a way better it got scuttled. My right knee has been feeling strained. So best not to walk. So now I am pouring my random thoughts into the ipad. Oh, I forgot to mention, that I did manage to get a work call in earlier in the day. I have been working on this one passion project since over 2 years now. Suddenly it seems to have got a little lease of life. I thought it was almost dead. But it seems to be out of the ICU for now. So we nudged that ahead a bit today.
Even for that I keep wondering if there will even be a need once the world reopens. It is difficult to imagine and predict what the world will be like post-Corona.
Earlier today I got a message from a friend’s nephew…. Giving advise on how to spend the day…. make a routine, break the routine, go offline, connect, laugh, pause, work, eat mindfully, etc. Really feels like advise for a bunch of prisoners. Life in quarantine is like imprisonment. Even though we are in our own homes and have our families with us. But the lack of freedom impinges on our very being. Our need for freedom is so great. Being at home out of choice vs being at home in quarantine is very different.
But I keep telling myself that the earth is getting time to reclaim some of its soul. So that is good. That is very very good. Very very very good.
Random thoughts whilst in lock-down, quarantine, house arrest… whatever you may wanna call it. Enjoy this time we have all got to catch a breath.
Written By Mohit Gupta
Week 13, March ’20
