The Good, Bad and Ugly Sides ft. 2020!
|By- Alok Parekh|
On 31st December 2019, people never thought that the following year would be so traumatizing and saddening. People now will not be able to use the very often used Hindi proverb ‘Unnees-Bees ka fark’ because the years (2019 and 2020) have proved exactly opposite to each other and have major differences. The first two months were very jolly and we didn’t even get any hints of what was approaching towards us in the upcoming months. This year then turned out to be very depressing and it has somehow managed to just devastate mental peace within people causing a lot of further destruction. This #TerrificTuesday, let us look at the array of such problems and scenarios but also look for the positives we can derive from misery:
1) Corona Virus:
The novel corona virus was first found in China in November 2019. The masses weren’t completely aware about the threats it could propose and what precautions were to be taken. People came to know about the havoc it created when it started to spread to almost all the countries in no time. The trepidation started to spread very rapidly within citizens of the most affected countries like Italy and the USA followed by other nations. Gradually it became a very serious situation and as a result, the affected countries had imposed a lockdown wherein people weren’t allowed to step outdoors without any emergency. This period lasted in India for about two months from late March 2020 to end of May 2020 with several stages of extended lock-downs. All started thinking that they were trapped inside some cage just like animals in a zoo. Their movement and business, both got restricted. Many daily-wage workers started protesting against the lockdown as they were worried about their families.
Amidst this chaos, Sonu Sood (Bollywood celebrity) helped them to go back to their houses with advanced permissions for travelling from governments of the involved states. It was after then, when the government came up with ‘Unlock 1.0’ which provided with certain relaxations and gave relief to distressed and sapped minds of the people. This step was also taken to boost up the collapsed economy of the nation. The most intimidating part is that despite of taking so many precautions, the cases in India are still increasing every day surpassing the number of cases on the previous day. Finally a few days earlier, a vaccine was successfully tested that decreases the fatality rate within the victims by one-third.
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2) Locust Attacks:
The worse came when the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were severely affected by the attack of locust swarms coming from Iran and Pakistan earlier last month. Though the attack was later controlled by a set of certain pesticides, but such massive attack measuring 1 kilometer hasn’t been recorded in almost three decades. Along with the pesticides, the change in wind direction also helped in preventing the cumin seed and rapeseed crops from being damaged and sought solace from these short-horned grasshoppers.
3) Uttarakhand Forest Fires:
It was not more time that people had relaxed from this disaster, that another significant environmental tragedy severely hit a state of Northern-India, Uttarakhand last month. Due to excessively risen temperature, the state suffered with acute forest fires that proved to be respite-less for the fire fighters. Approximately 50 hectares of land was covered by the fires within four days with quite some deaths and severe injuries amongst the citizens and wildlife.
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4) Cyclone Amphan and Nisarga:
Other environmentally challenging disaster was the cyclone Amphan in May 2020 later followed by cyclone Nisarga in June 2020. West Bengal, being the epicenter of Amphan, was the most affected along with Orissa. Though the fatalities were not as much feared, yet there were around 90 deaths reported. According to sources, the wind speed was around 112km/h and losses of approximately INR 1 trillion were faced by the state. It proved to be even worse than the ongoing pandemic.
People of Bengal had not entirely recovered from the loss and cyclone Nisarga arrived in Maharashtra. With a wind speed of almost 102km/h it caused a damage of around INR 50 billion. Despite of the government taking measures like deploying 33 teams of NDRF within the state and evacuating 10,000 people living near the coastline, a lot of destruction had occurred and resulted in 6 fatalities.
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5) Galwan Valley Attacks:
The most tragic thing that I was very downhearted by was the constant terrorist intervention into our territories from the neighboring countries. The country is too hit by the novel coronavirus yet it still does not leave the habits. They keep on sending terrorists and invade our nation on a regular basis. Why can’t they just behave and maintain peace! Maybe that is not what they have been doing for years. They have just been constantly troubling us and showing their low status to other countries. Recently, even China joined and has managed to raise a ruckus at the Galwan Valley where we lost 20 of our brave hearts serving selflessly. Here I would definitely use the famous dialogue from an MCU film with some changes ‘Earth just lost some of her best defenders’. I was taken aback to hear that 20 of our soldiers were martyred during the recent Indo-China border dispute. It was all over the news and it gave me goosebumps. I was so helpless that tears rolled down my cheeks. That was when I actually understood why it was so important to #boycottchina for their heartless and shameful act. I proudly pay tribute to all the martyrs and thank all the forces from the bottom of my heart to serve the nation and keeping it as their sole priority.
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6) Losing Our Favourite Celebrities:
This series of gut-wrenching incidents was not enough. The number of deaths of our beloved celebrities seems to keep increasing as every week passes by, causing equal torment to our fragile minds. This started after the death of legend Irrfan Khan, followed by one of the greatest actors of all time Rishi Kapoor and one of the most loved music composers Wajid Khan of the duo Sajid-Wajid.
In addition to this, the demise of the young Bollywood sensation Sushant Singh Rajput has left people upset. It is after then, that people started giving importance to their mental health. They also commenced helping people suffering from depression or those having bad mental health. I express my gratitude to the dead and deepest condolences to their family and fans.
The Good Side to 2020:
I know that till now all of us have been talking about only the negativity of this year, but has anyone even given a thought towards the positivity that this year has come up with! I will write further about positivity this year has brought.
It is not wrong to think that the imposed lockdown is bad and depressing, but have we ever thought about what good has it done to the nature? It is because of this lockdown that the animals can now be free in their environment. It was very difficult for them to come outside due to the threat they face by us, the humans and so called ‘ruthless animals’. It obviously feels like we are caged inside our houses, but it seems that life has turned the tables on us. Till date, we used to go watch animals in different zoos but now they can have a chance to watch us caged indoors. The reason why animals are living a peaceful life in this time span is that we aren’t allowed outside and we can’t harm them. They are now fearlessly sitting on the roads that are surrounded by their habitats. To be honest, not only animals but also birds can be heard chirping whilst they are on trees in the morning without any fear of people causing trouble to them. Particularly me, I find it very amusing watching this variety of birds sitting on trees every morning making me feel even fresh throughout the day.
Adding to this, tranquility maintained due to the least number of vehicles moving on road, also helps in maintaining the inner peace. The noise caused by vehicles has been near to negligible these days. Though it was difficult to adapt to this situation in the beginning, eventually when we think it through, we know that it is better than before. With this ginormous reduction in the number of vehicles and a significant drop witnessed in the factory emissions, air quality in India has shown a substantial improvement; ergo people able to breathe cleaner air as compared to the pre-lockdown period. This clarity in air quality has worked nothing short of wonders for some. The residents of certain areas from Bihar, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have been able to see the snow-covered Himalayan Range after over three decades.
Moreover, I feel that this year has been good to me. I have received multiple opportunities to showcase my talent and gain knowledge in the field I want to make my career in. This has also helped me boost my confidence while talking to new people.
Hereafter, I genuinely think that this year brings more positivity than negativity in all our lives.
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