Calendar 2020

When I was being sold in a busy traffic junction in Bengaluru, little I knew that I will be witnessing one of the most historic moments in recent timeline.

Yes, I am calendar 2020, a year which many generations will remember, for whatsoever reason.

The number 2020 was always an inquisitiveness from many decades. I know people use to plan their life, career around it. Lot of dreams on how the year will be, what we would’ve achieved etc, mostly due to the attractive numerical it was.

While I was getting printed also, people at press were talking about their new year plans, Olympic Games at Tokyo, various crisis across world and possible solutions for it and was exciting for me as well.

When I landed up on this wall in this middle class family living room, I became part of their everyday celebrations and chaos. Saw their planning, joy, sorrow, celebrations, trying to adopt to the evolving lifestyle etc.

It was a small family, planning everything, saving for future, spending within budget, with weekend chats and inching towards assumed progressiveness.  The head of family was working in MNC, with little time for home, trying to manage few friends, occasionally.

In month of February and later in March beginning I was watching news from my wall in living room and the word Covid / Corona became a repeated as day passed. Initially I use to hear in international bulletin and then it became a global news, before becoming headlines in India.

The crisis hit us by March and the lock-down was announced.

Initial few days I was confused with all these new words – lock-down, seal down, quarantine, but later got adjusted to it as if I had lived with it all these years.

I also saw the way this family evolved, from initial anxiety to sprouting with new outlook for life.

During the lock-down period from March to May, these people were completely sealed inside their house. While he was busy in his laptop as Work from Home, rest were watching news channels, which were showing the cases like cricket scores..!!

Than the normalcy set in. They started watching long forgotten marriage CD’s, family function photos. Installed all types of apps to connect with family and friends through net.

Online classes gained popularity, from hobbies to yoga to spiritual, many unexplored areas were tried. I had never imagined this virtual world, family get-togethers, multiple batches of friends connecting through video calls , from school  to college to ex-colleagues , varieties of recipes been tried and photos of it getting shared all over.

Reading habit was back and not to forget literature on various Ayurveda based immunity boosters..!!

I also saw kids (and elders) enjoying the good old Doordarshan serials and parents explaining their versions of watching TV, 30 years ago.

Many people also got impacted, lost their jobs, shops were closed, and people relocated back to their towns and villages.

Pollution was all time low, wild animals started venturing to city and dolphins were back in Ganga..!! A glimpse on what will happen if men vanished from earth.   

It also had the humanitarian side - volunteers helping the needy, giving hopes of humanity, still exist (or relived).

From June onwards, people started venturing out, with masks, gloves and getting essential things to home. But I also heard numerous stories of people getting affected due to virus and some loosing life.

Than things went fast, people started to resume business, factories. New business possibilities came across with encouragement for Self-Resilient India. Agriculture gained as thousands of acres under-cultivated lands was back to life, thanks to people migrated to natives.

People celebrated their festivals, participated in elections, and started long drives with street food … life has moved on.

This year has taught great lessons to these humans, on being connected and need of isolation, introspection of self to the care for the world, need to be present in real world and importance of virtual. The usage of modern technologies without losing the cultural heritage.

As I am ending my journey in a day, the most important observation is the spirited mankind, which keeps moving irrespective of any catastrophic eventualities.  This is the sprit which has kept this species alive from thousands of years.

While I welcome my Successor to this wall … I am 2020, a year not to forget, soon….!!