Diya's Diary Entry on CoronaVirus

I was browsing through my old photos last night and I came across this diary entry from my daughter’s scrap book, written last March at the beginning of the lockdown.

What an uplifting message from a seven year old.

Of course it is endearing to me because it was written by my daughter. But even disregarding that, it is very inspiring.

But it is also heart wrenching to think what these kids must have gone through in the last one year, cooped up in our two bedroom flat, not being able to go anywhere, not being able to play freely, constantly being on alert. The pandemic has robbed them of their childhood.

And this is nothing compared to what many others have gone through, people lost their loved one, not been able to be with them at their last moment, people lost their jobs, business, livelihood. So many successful businesses closed up, so many innovative startups died at infancy. It was just a litany of endless misery.

Some people tried to find a silver lining in all of these. “It was good for the environment, pollution has gone down, traffic has gone down, people are spending more time with themselves and their families”. I applaud their optimism. But I myself cannot find any solace in any of these. To me this pandemic is just unadulterated suffering, the worst calamity of my lifetime. There is nothing good that can be found in this endless misery.

I really, really hope that Diya will not have to endure anything like this again in her lifetime.