Quarantine Diary: Smooth Seas Do Not Make Skillful Sailors

Since March end, India has gone under extended lockdown and the situation has not normalized yet. Since then, my own existence as an explorer and rambler is scuffling hard to breathe. Social distancing has brought psychological isolation. This new normal is proving itself hard for us all.

This pervasive virus has constrained me to cancel my trips to Shimla and Arunachal Pradesh in India, in just four and a half months. Primarily this solitude brought loneliness coupled with catastrophic and catastrophic experiences. My spirit was crying hard, "Go out, go out I beg of you/ And taste the beauty of the world. / Behold the miracle of the earth/ With all the wonder of a child." But, after a month, I have begun to learn to make peace with this new normal which eventually has made me pragmatic and constructive, both psychologically and physically.

For the first time in many years, I have tried to have an insight into our sustainable development which ranges from Mother Earth to global economic condition, from poor to every living being on earth, from personal relationships to self-improvement. The more I reflected on these, the more I discovered the hollowness of human existence. How can we, human beings, do so wrong to others in the name of development, for the sake of scientific masterminding? In the era of mechanical advancement and the virtual world, humans perhaps have forgotten to become humane.

As the lost time is never found again, it is important to venture out, how I am spending these quarantine days. The bright digital screen is often proved to be dull; uncertainty is making the cloud of thoughts darker; social insulation is shielding our robust nature of being a social animal- and clustering all together, all these are coming out as a sudden outburst of anger, anxiety, depression, and frustration.

This situation has brought me an epiphanic moment, where I have set out to discover who I am, the cosmic relations of the world. I perceived that the countless time that I have wasted on social media, wandering after the mirage, the superficial concerns and unfounded worries, I could have utilized that to revive my relationships with the beloved ones, or to catch on to the trains to my dreamland, or to do something productive, constructive and creative.

This virus has taught me a life lesson: values that reflect the cosmos, including orderliness, balance, harmony, freedom, logic, and abstract beauty. Breaking of this polyphony and consonance comes with a price, in every sector of life. Life is just like an echo; Karma never loses an address.

One day we all will come out of this situation; we all will embrace each other; we will rebuild our plans; we will inhale freedom- "We shall overcome". We will be more matured with horrific yet profound and penetrating experience as moments of solitude are sunshine to the soul. Nevertheless, "When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves" as " The poetry of earth is never dead".