The year that was

A year that taught me more, gave me more and took away more than I had ever imagined! Unabashedly, I must confess the year belonged to the novel and all mighty Corona Virus - like a scripted play, a news item from a faraway land turned into a domestic threat and finally evolved into a game changer epidemic of the year!

And the epidemic brought about a change – a stunning change that kept me gaping and guessing in equal proportions…it changed the human in me, the employee in me, and alas the wonderstruck traveller in me as well! It broke into my notions of the “now”, of the “permanent” and of things that would never change..it toyed with my swinging emotions, my heart oscillating between hope and despair through the year….it exposed the fragility and brittleness of what I thought was “within our control” – all age-old concepts of domesticity, business, home and society thrown into the wind just like that!

But it also brought me closer to places, things et al that I ignored in the mechanics of daily living..a little pause that helped me observe..the buttony eyes of the tiny squirrel in the garden, the aroma of cashews melting into a sheet of ghee, the palette of the twilight sky, the silence of the village life..and countless phenomenon that just ground into powder as I zipped through from one routine to the other..

It also brought me closer to myself, my loves and my hates – the warmth of mother’s coffee and conversations, the good fortune of hot family meals, the endless chatter of a little woman that fills all the spaces in between..the falling in love over and over again with the numerous characters in my books..the ecstasy of thrillers that I devoured in my pyjamas and sprawling on the home couch – art, literature and movies all streaming into your home at your will and time..

It also brought me face-to-face with some sad truths- that I can never bake that ‘insta-worthy’ cake or a pizza that can earn a culinary star…some talents are best kept away from the precincts of your resume..the pointlessness of safekeeping your shoes – one for each ‘occasion’ when all you need is a pair of home slippers to float from home to office and back…the natural unruliness of your hair and that you could survive through a year without a single visit to the salon and yet look beautiful in your own way..

Yes the year turned me upside down but it also turned me inside out – shedding a few layers of skin that I had mistaken for a part of me – what is left for the new year is the pink and pure version – ready to glow, ready to add more and ready to face off the new year..