Twenty twenty too?

 

Twenty twenty too?

Have you noticed that good times seem to fly past you but bad times or the times of waiting creep ahead slowly? A five-minute wait for something/someone feels like forever even though hours, days, months just disappear one after the other.

But this one wait is over. The sunrise today has hauled us up to the top of the calendar to the first day of January in the new year 2022.

In the first half of 2021, we barely managed to keep our sanity while struggling with what was called the Delta variant of Covid and now - Omicron has raised its ugly head. The side-effect is that you still have to first listen to Mr Amitabh Bachchan’s monologue before you can actually talk to the person you have called on mobile. Familiar faces of big names in the field of medicine have started appearing on television channels. It is only a matter of days now that ‘experts’ and political party spokespersons who have refurbished our small samajhdaanis (colloquial, vessel of understanding) of general knowledge as well as gyan (knowledge) on specific issues from CAA, Sushant Singh case, state elections, Covid (mis)management, Indo-China and Indo-Pak relations or the world Olympics in the year gone by, would start to vociferously talk in cacophonic unison on some channels, to apprise us of their ocean-deep level understanding of Omicron.

I am not sure whether to be scared of the fact that Covid has come in a new avatar or to be consoled by the surmise that it is more contagious but not as dangerous as its predecessor, supposedly gone weaker now.

https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/what-we-know-about-omicron-variant

Early findings suggest that Omicron might be less severe than the Delta variant, but more data is needed and WHO warns that it should not be dismissed as “mild”. Studies are ongoing and this information will be updated as it becomes available. 

It is important to remember that all variants of COVID-19 can cause severe disease or death, including the Delta variant that is still dominant worldwide, which is why preventing the spread of the virus and reducing your risk of exposure to the virus is so important.

Omicron is spreading more quickly than other variants. Based on the information available, WHO believes it is likely that Omicron will outpace the Delta variant where there is COVID-19 transmission in the community. 

However, being vaccinated and taking precautions such as avoiding crowded spaces, keeping your distance from others and wearing a mask are critical in helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and we know these actions have been effective against other variants.

The widely used PCR and antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests continue to detect infection of COVID-19, including Omicron. 

Stop right now, push the pause button. I am the last person on earth who would advocate being dull, unhappy, scared or pessimistic. Even if somebody is singing Omicron is coming along, dancing on its way, a new year calls for new beginnings. Put aside your resolutions to be a better parent/friend/employee/boss, and just look forward to making the most of the time ahead for you and those around.

• Get your vaccination done if you have been dilly-dallying.
• Stay in touch with family, friends and relatives.
• Keep the children fretting at home, occupied.

For those of you who believe in prayers of any kind in any language/feeling of positivity and spreading goodwill, cheer and joy, I am with you.

I also pray for a cheap selfish reason. My worry is that lakhs of students are studying online in educational institutions which may or may not have systems in place for the purpose. Thousands of these young people would be completing their medicine and pharmacy degrees online and you and I could have appointments with some of them some time in future.

Personally, thinking of or planning a journey brings happiness. Just go ahead - look for designs to wear for the wedding of your niece/nephew, thoroughly declutter your house as you listen to uplifting music, fix that long-pending appointment with the doctor, dress up on your work-from home days, go see that friend you haven’t met since March ‘20, make an effort to have a good time.

If you do not have a game plan, just play it by the ear. If feeling down and gloomy, look for sources of inspiration.

This tenacious, sadistic Covid virus has surprised me. Half the time it flummoxes the victims where they got it from. Even after two years, it is trying not only to sustain itself but mutate to become stronger. How it survives in our bodies fed on food that is adulterated or pesticide/preservatives-laden, is a lesson in inspiration.

If that fails, just take a cue from our politicians. While world over people are avoiding crowds, these do-gooders are planning rallies for elections in some states next year. 

They are organizing and announcing inaugurations of mega-projects worth thousands of crores of rupees which puffs me up with pride about our riches and causes me annoyance with people who say our financial condition is dismal. The interviews of neta log (leaders) in media fills me with hope, not to say wonder and awe at how much they want to do for us, the people, who they do not even know personally.

And those of you who swear by the information rained by the Whatsapp network, take heart in the nugget of information (Nothing official about it, though).

So whether you agree with Amy Adams, who in the end of ‘Leap Year’ tells Matthew Goode that she is ready to ‘not make plans’ with him or with Goode who wants to ‘make plans’ with her, for our own journeys of 2022, just live it well and have a very happy new year.

                                                                                         -Anupama S Mani