Maas-salaama 2020!

 

2020, what a fancy number! A fancy-number-fanatic would have paid a handsome sum to obtain such a number for his vehicle. But lo, this very same number has been subjected to so many memes for its notoriety.

'What went wrong for you in 2020'? Most of us would have a unanimous answer. Let's tweak it a bit; I like to count my blessings: 'What went right for you in 2020?'

In the first month of 2020, I visited Kolkata with family and friends to attend the wedding of my bestie. Kolkata had been on my travel list for a long time, being the only metro I haven't visited. The visit to the City of Joy had indeed been a blessing in disguise, which we all cherish till date for multiple reasons. That's the last time I boarded a flight, attended a wedding, stayed at a hotel and had food at a restaurant! Not to forget the Big fat Bengali wedding, the hospitality extended by the family, the Sangeeth, the midnight Muhurath, delicious food and all the fun. Having food at a restaurant would probably be on most of our 'Bucket list for 2021' by now.
Now, wasn't that a great start!

I had a peaceful February; serving notice period at office is like the time between one's engagement and wedding. You are just so excited and everyone around you shower love and care in abundance! March was personally the much-awaited time of my life, when I started my own venture Prernaa. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of starting up from scratch, from designing the logo, deciding on the name, preparing content for the website, creating the social media pages and so on. It was a great learning experience and still continues to be.

If you're worried about having to read one paragraph for each month, rest assured that the rest of 2020 won't take much of your time. Here is a quick visual representation of what 2020 was like.

Having said that, I wonder how many of you noticed that the line represents a stable mind. A mind that was stable because of quality time with family, listening to fairy tales and stories from 70s and 80s, being surrounded by happy faces, sleeping at will, chatting with long-lost school buddies and having time to do the little things I have always yearned to do. That’s not all, I learnt life skills like breaking a coconut into two equal halves and received on-the-job training as primary school teacher. All this while I had the challenging job of living up to the whims of an impulsive kid, most parents working from home can relate to this particular challenge. Most of us have learnt to wiggle around the narrow line between work and personal life.  

This year had brought unprecedented changes in our lives, and reiterated the basics of human life. We have been forced to redefine our priorities. A year without eating out and shopping, walking aimlessly in malls, and we are all still sane. I'm sure the same can be said of our work lives too. Who would have imagined attending meetings from the kitchen or with a toddler on your lap? We have survived, adapted and are definitely destined to witness the calm after the storm. 

We will soon be missing the hidden blessings this year had bestowed up on us and when things get back to normal, I'm hoping we carry forward our lessons learnt. I hope that we will all emerge stronger and smarter, with our life goals reimagined and redefined. 

Wishing you all a Happy Healthy Balanced 2021! 

Maas-salaaama 2020 (Goodbye in Arabic)