Life has little oscillations...

Today I am sharing about my personal experiences of the past six months that I have spent at my home. Returning to my home, for which I used to long when I had to stay at my hostel during my graduation, has been proved a sweet and bitter experience. For the past six months, I have my parents around me with whom I couldn’t get to live in the last three years. Though I visited home a countable number of times; it never felt that same homely feeling whenever I came here. Time just flew whenever I came here for two-three days on festivals or a short mid-semester break. There were some awesome people in the hostel who never left my side even when I didn’t need any help or support. We passed smiles while passing through the halls, eating meals sitting on adjacent benches in the mess or when we crossed each other on staircases. That beaming smile assured both of us that everything is good or if it is not at present it’ll get soon better. I was very bad at interacting with new people; I hardly used to say anything when I went to hostel three years back. One of my close friends from school helped me a lot in making me realize how much it is necessary to interact or to get socialize with the people around us. I am grateful for the help I received. Gradually, I got comfortable in participating while they discussed their favorite books or hilarious incidents from their school days. There were some with whom I used to discuss random concepts of mathematics. I got to learn a lot from each one of them. My close friends from college made me understand how just patting someone’s back boosts his/her confidence (in addition to the wishes I send), others taught me how important it is to leave my comfort zone and step outside the college campus.

But six months ago, this all ceased to happen. I couldn’t say the last goodbye to my friends, click more serene views of the college campus, complete the discussion on a book that I and one of my hostel friends were doing before this meteoroid fell in our life. We all know that this pandemic has changed our life a lot – from never watching the Ramayana (1987 TV series) and Mahabharata to at least watching the whole show two times; from never stepping in the kitchen to cooking dishes that we never heard of earlier; learning new things, to name a few painting, coding, enrolling in an online course, playing a musical instrument and a lot more.

This was all the bright side of these six months but what about the hard times that we all went through. I agree with those who believe that family never leaves us in our bad times but I agree with those too who know that some friends and well-wishers also reach out for us whenever we need them. Not getting to meet any friend or someone close from my family tree kind of troubled me in the earlier months. I wanted to see my cousins and friends in person but thanks to the Google Duo Call app or Whatsapp video call feature that allowed us to share smiles, jokes, about what we’re learning, or anything that passes through our mind, virtually. However, this all couldn’t continue for long. We all got bored, or I should say we couldn’t give that virtual meeting the place of what it’d have felt to see our friends in person. The count of phone calls and video calls slipped away or to be honest, I stopped receiving them. I am bad at pretending; I can’t keep a smiling face throughout a conversation of 20-25 minutes while all others are discussing the current happenings in their lives. So, for the last two-three months, I have engaged myself reading books, preparing for some entrance examination, helping my mother in some household work, watching documentaries on YouTube, and painting when I get overwhelmed by not knowing what to do. I tried watching the first episode of FRIENDS Season 1 but I couldn’t keep up with it. I didn’t enjoy the laugh those six were sharing, couldn’t laugh while deciphering the hidden sarcasm in their conversations. I know that people are mad after it; maybe I would have if I were genuinely okay.

Oh I forgot to tell you why I chose that title. It is just to remind all of us that maybe today our life is hanging at one of the extreme ends but we will soon enjoy the fresh breeze when it will swing in the air with full pace. So till then, we can take it as an adventurous 'unplanned' trip.

Yours,

Hakuna