There is a lot to look back this year. The second wave of Covid in India created havoc. A lot of us lost friends and relatives. There's sorrow to be dealt with. I hope all of us can deal with that grief and move on. For many, good things happened. Relationships worked out. People got married. Kids were born. So, as usual, the good, the bad, the ugly co-exist. Each one of us will have various issues that we have dealt with this year. Grief and guilt that we may have to deal with. It is good to take time off and look back at the first given opportunity. If the opportunity does not come we make it.
One would have been used to certain procedures during the pandemic which became the new normal. Remember the times you could just pick up a bag and walk up to the aircraft to fly to our destinations. That was before terrorism. After that security checks became the new normal. Similarly, certain protocols for the pandemic will become part of our lives and we won't notice it anymore. This is how we have dealt with various diseases — cholera, typhoid, etc. More hygienic practices have become the norm in our lives.
So, what we do have to look forward to? According to many experts, we are reaching an endemic stage where the cases will be isolated to few pockets and it won't be a mass community infection. If what many experts are talking about Omicron, the new variant, is true, then that will be a natural vaccine to protect us from future Wuhan virus infections. And in most cases, the new variant Omicron is only like a cough and cold with a mild fever. So, either we reach an endemic stage or we get used to the new normal and life goes on with all of us getting back to our priorities, the business of living. I wish everyone of the readers a great new year to look forward to.
(The writer is the founder of Aarsha Vidya Foundation. You can write to him at aarshavidyaf@gmail.com)
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