“The Human Folly”

Humans are creatures of habit and one such disdainful habit we possess is that of taking things for granted. It’s too deep rooted, almost innate. And as we sit here today, reminiscing,  we often catch ourselves missing, fondly remembering things which we overlooked everyday.

Humans

Man is a social being. Other than the introverts most of us like people. Well, introverts like them too, right? We have families , friends , colleagues and we tend to surround ourselves with groups of people, giving them varied labels. But this pandemic has abruptly taken away our cocoon. Norms of social distancing have limited us from meeting our group of friends , have stopped our Saturday evening soirees, and Sunday morning brunches.

We have always greeted each other with hugs and kisses on the cheeks, we have revelled in the warmth of human touch. But what now? We can’t hug each other! All of us have resorted to the age-old Namaste instead.

This lack of something everyday has made us wonder the importance of human touch. How a mere hug , a pat on the back, a warm strong hand shake could help our soul!

Places  

Most of us have enjoyed freedom of movement since years now. As we have grown up we have gone from asking our parents for permission to informing them that we are stepping out of the house. But during this pandemic every step had to be taken with a bated breath. We have all seen instances of the authorities punishing humans inflicted with wanderlust during the covid times. So as we uploaded photos with #throwback #needavacation #boredathome we realised how much we had taken movement for granted. We missed the beaches , mountains , shopping malls , the feel of hogging onto popcorn in movie theatres , the thump of the music in clubs. We missed a simple stroll in the park ! We felt caged in our own homes , ironically despising the free time when we ourselves cribbed before , that we had none!

Food

So for a foodie who loved and still does , eating outside food , street food ( I know ! I miss momos too ) , eating home food was a task. The only organ happy about this was my stomach and the acid producing glands as they were finally given some down time. Most of us have had to cook our own meals during this time. Some of us have laudably turned out pretty good cooks by the end of these two odd months. As we scrolled through our gallery , reining in our watering mouths at the site of all the food we have eaten , we wished for our favourite restaurants to open. Some of us were blessed enough to be able to recreate some of those dishes at home , the not so lucky ones waited for swiggy and zomato and uber to start delivering

Our Own Self

I believe we have different attributes of our personality in different situations and environments. The office me is different from the home me. So as we sat at home, nurturing the home version of us we started missing our other version. But what is essential to realise is that, in the race of work, education, competition we were starting to lose our true selves somewhere ! Agreed the world is still there, our old lifestyle is around the corner and our transition into that is a discussion for another day but this forced vacation can be conducive to the real us. To the hidden dancer, singer, artist, writer, cook, learner and dreamer us.

Yes, these are dark, uncertain tremulous times. We miss our old life; the happy, carefree, maskless life. But this post-pandemic life awaits us, with open arms and open minds, hoping that humans do learn to live with a little more of humaneness, compassion, kindness, quality, and love. For what is life without kindness and love? We have erred in our ways and this could just be the opportunity to mend them, to rectify our folly.

Kindness is a wonderful way to let another struggling soul know that there is still love in this world.

-Anonymous.

By- Dr Madhura Mandlik

Junior Resident, KEM Hospital, Mumbai