Skip to main content

World of Hope

 


Today, an old memory has flashed across my eyes and decided to stay. I don't even want it to go away because it is so joyful!


A lazy stroll on Marine Drive, late afternoon sunshine, cool and salty and tangy sea breeze. People walking about without a care in the world - for it was a glorious summer Sunday! Groups, couples, families, single brisk walkers. Locals and tourists and visitors and residents. All and sundry just passing each other by.


I sat on the wide parapet, facing the waves. Tuning out the world and its buzzing, hearing only the ocean song. Reveling in nothing but that single moment. This day was pre-cellphone, pre-Worli sea link, pre-Mumbai Metro -- when we were still in good ol' Bombay.


A song crept slowly into my mind and stayed there. That day, that moment, that particular song - stamped forever as a happy, innocent, glorious memory!

"I see trees of green

Red roses too

I see them bloom

For me and you

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world


I see skies of blue

And clouds of white

The bright blessed day

The dark sacred night

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world


The colors of the rainbow

So pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces

Of people going by

I see friends shaking hands

Saying, "How do you do?"

They're really saying

"I love you"


I hear babies cry

I watch them grow

They'll learn much more

Than I'll never know

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

Yes, I think to myself

What a wonderful world

Oh yeah"

---What a Wonderful World - by Louis Armstrong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nGKqH26xlg)
Lyrics courtesy - https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/louisarmstrong/whatawonderfulworld.html 

More than two decades later, today, I sit inside my "new normal" home cocoon. I suddenly see this memory as clear as day. As if I am transported back to that moment where my time had temporarily stopped. Those days of youthful frivolity when there were no responsibilities nor any burdens. When someone else was always there to soothe away all pain of heartache, with just a cup of chai and motherly love. The motherly love is helping me tide over Life's idiotic twists and turns even today. But how the tables have turned!


When did I become this grown woman who is drowning in responsibilities? When did heartache become a numbness to be lived with? When did those all-important "friends" simply vanish into thin air?

Now if I do get out of my house, all mask-and-gloved - I look around to a very different reality. Prematurely greyed hair and wrinkles. Worried faces and empty lots where we once partied. Smiles hidden behind our masks. Greeting with folded hands, no hugs allowed. People and faces not seen since weeks or months. All connected through a rectangular piece of tech. People hurrying to finish their work "outside" so they can go back to the safety of their own homes. People constantly typing or talking into their phones. Connected and yet so disconnected.


Now a different song reverberates like a prophetic warning from the past:

"...And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never share

No one dared

Disturb the sound of silence..."

---Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkUOACGtGfA)
Lyrics Courtesy - azlyrics.com/lyrics/simongarfunkel/thesoundofsilence.html 

And yet - Life moves in a new rhythm. We continue to adapt. We don't give up. We still wake up daily, start the day, pray to our Gods, get on with work.

Hope lives strong and indestructible. We balance home and work. We eat right, watch our health and our family's, too. We raise children with more responsible attitudes. We teach them to cherish humanity and resilience. Yes, just like Louis Armstrong said - "...it ain't the world that's so bad, but what we are doing to it..."


Just search your rectangular piece of tech for "Earth" and click on "Images". Just look at that blue planet. It is home. It is a Wonderful World. World of Hope. The only home we have.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We are miracles

Wish for something with so much conviction that it has no choice, but to manifest for you. This is a conviction which keeps me going these days. Keeps me motivated and get up and brush off anything which is pulling me down. Every person has something which pulls them down, as well as something which gets them out of the depths. There is no shame in being low. There is however, a strength of character in overcoming all and coming up again in the light and breeze. There are situations where all seems to be lost. Including hope. And yet, even in the bleakest gloom, there is one single thought, or person, or hobby, or interest - that one something - which keeps us grounded to our true nature. That keeps burning inside our hearts like a flame of hope and joy, and doesn't allow us to fall prey to overwhelming sadness. Keep that glimmer awake and burning. Keep that interest or hobby going, no matter how dim the light of joy is. Don't let it completely flicker out. Ult...
Post a Comment
Read more

Words to play with

Each of us have a personal method of healing from hurt and pain. If that is taken away, life becomes a misery. My healers are my words. What I feel and emote, I do through writing. Composing sentences and quotes. Paragraphs and entire blog posts. Expressing emotions through short stories and direct blogs. Sometimes though, there comes a time when life throws you such a painful googly, that your healing powers bite dust. My words just vanish sometimes. I might be in deep depths of depression, and there is nobody to keep me company. Nobody to get me out of the bottomless blackhole. People, yes. They keep me hanging in there, so I don't get totally lost into the mire. Other than these dark phases, all other times, my writing keeps me constant company. It is like a mild summer day, with fluffy clouds of thoughts forming inside my brain. Then the words appear like wings and carry me away on a journey. Stories happen anywhere. Something I read or watch, or something comes in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Virtual Handshake

Art by @theAwkwardYeti Never thought I would start a brand new blog amidst a very Hollywoodesque, apocalyptic kind of situation. Usually, in those movies when the world is ending it is just the USA and we are nowhere in the picture. Some American regular damaged guy then single handedly rescues everyone and saves the world (American world) If only... Nope. Reality is that medical professionals, sanitation workers, police, grocery store owners, farmers, chemist shops etc are the real heroes. Multiple people across the entire planet. Regular damaged people are saving the world by sitting at home like obedient children. Working from home. Some are writing blogs. Social distancing is necessary but it also feels isolating, doesn't it? How are you coping? I hope to distract you from the usual activities and provide some tips to maintain that, much needed peace of mind in these trying times. Get off social media. If you really need to go there, just plan what you want to do. D...
6 comments
Read more