Random thoughts on nostalgia and fear:

Its day umpteen of working from home and I could not stop thinking about my isolated life back in Kudremukh growing up. When I say isolation, our only neighbor on one side was more than 0.5 kms and any other houses were either across the river or mountains and forests apart. With increased awareness on social isolation to fight the Covid 19, a thought crossed my mind if my times there was the secure one.

But, when I sit and ponder, the fears were of a different type and scale.

Now, it’s the virus that is invisible to naked eye that is consuming the humans.
There, the fear was about rattling snakes, venomous snakes, aquatic life, tigers, wild dogs attacking from outside.
Hailing from a medicinal family, I recall people coming to our home for medicine with snake bites, skin rashes with herpes or after they encountered some wild plants.

Speaking of fear, it knows no time or place. It has no form or a shape. It does not identify gender or race. Sometimes it’s a memory, sometimes it’s a haunting experience of the past, sometimes of our surrounding, of an upcoming meeting with a client, of the person you are going to propose!

We can’t contain it like we are trying to contain the virus. It exists within everyone.

When it is there, we know it. Our legs tremble and hearts race faster. Our throat goes dry and mind goes blank. Words disappear and fingers go numb.

Can we make it disappear by not looking at it? Can we pretend it does not exist? Can we ignore it like those unsolicited advertisements messages? Can we press it spam like that every call that Truecaller calls it fraud or spam? Can we hit snooze like we hit snooze every morning? Can we just gulp it down like we gulp down our favourite drink? Can we make a paper plane out of it and throw into in the air? What about a paper boat?

What we humans can do is address them through our actions. Give it your favorite drink and spend some time talking to it. Promise it to take you along on your next trip and try to mellow it down. Breathe deeper and learn to respond to it.
Life goes on despite the fear and obstacles. Clocks don’t know fear. Sun or the moon can’t see it. Seasons are deaf to it too. Oceans and the rivers can’t feel it.

For now, take a sip of coffee and enjoy the present!