The Joy of Human Interaction

This is not an article, and it has not been researched. Unless indulgent introspection were a research tool. This, however, is a realisation that will resonate with all of you. A realisation of what exactly we have missed over the last few years.

Like most of you, I thought I had been fine during lockdown. Complacent for the most part in not needing much, and happy in my beautiful home, meeting friends on zoom and other social media outlets. Watching TV, eating well, healing from personal bereavements, reaffirming family values…. the list is endless. The list of what I thought had been the benefits of lockdown.

That changed this weekend when I was struck with what we already know. The reason why we have unanimously opted for physical meetings, facing and working with each other, rather than in tiny windows on pixelized screens.

It is our joy in human interaction. I know it sounds simple and rather obvious. The simplicity of this realisation hit me with a sharp blow last night, changing my very perception, altering my complacency in inner peace. I thought I was a self-sufficient island; I so obviously am not.

Continue Reading

Porous Borders

‘You and your conspiracy theories,’ I chided gently, knowing well how anxious he already was. A doctor himself, he had lost both parents to the virus in the last few weeks. And his wife had now tested positive. My cousin needed to rant, so I let him.

‘You have no idea what the neighbours are up to,’ he said. ‘They have publicly announced on their national news, they are now the world leaders of Space Technology and Biological Warfare. Did you not see those disgusting images posted by the Chinese Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission?’

‘Yes, I have,’ I muttered, changing the subject to something more palatable.

Those images, continued to do the rounds on social media. Originally posted by an employee of the above mentioned CCPLAC, it had two pictures adjacent to each other. The first was a space rocket taking off, and the second, a raging cremation pyre. The caption read, ‘How we light a fire in China, and how they light a fire in India.’

Continue Reading