The World now stands where it is supposed to be. The Nature has shown its wrath.

As I was closing my day, completing the first week of the work from home option that I was enjoying, I retrospect the somber situation, as apt to the music of the song ‘Departer’ by Katatonia, which was being played on Spotify.

The so called ‘fast moving’ world was now awash with a dreaded silence.

For an alien from Andromeda, this silence might lead to its sanity departing (hope mankind is not destroyed), but, for humanity, it is beginning to learn a few lessons and getting accustomed to a way of living, it had long forgotten.

The COVID – 19 has not been contained, and the world was already in a lock down within three months, since it surfaced in China.

As I lay on my sofa pondering this, my wife questioned, ‘What is the plan for the weekend?’

Weekends are such a nice thought. However, weekends are not supposed to be like this. It is hard to recollect when we had last gone out.

I notice a man on the opposite balcony of my apartment, who had just come out for a fag. Calming his nerves, perhaps, he too is wondering the same as I do.

It is not about going out. The world is still in panic, similar to a World War like situation, with everybody in isolation. Controlled measures are in place, but, living in isolation has started to pose its own problems.

‘Such times as these, are to be innovative at home’, I tell her, remembering the pre-internet/mobile era. ‘It is like the age before the 1990s. How much do we recollect those golden times?’ I question myself.

Of course, nobody recollects the good and the best times, forget the golden age.

It is, as though, nature wants our children to enjoy the same freedom and socializing, which we had enjoyed when we were young.

To teach what our father and fore-fathers have been doing for generations, is not an easy task, especially, considering that the world has moved fathoms ahead of time. But, nature has a unique way, which we would never understand, or, would we?

The current brood would not learn. It is to be seen, how soon we would part ways with the ways of nature again. I sometimes wonder, are we really accustomed to this way of living? Will we ever be able to live our golden age again? Will we ever slow down?

Perhaps a big NO. The sooner a cure is found for this virus, we would drift back to our old ways. As they say “Old Habits, Die Hard!”

In these few days of isolation, I have found a lot of peace as I woke up. No alarm scares, no early morning rush hours. I have even got the time to admire the porcelain cup in which I drink my morning coffee. It is a good one, with a bouquet of daffodils printed on it. Whoever has decided to print on it, I appreciate his imagination that he prompted a cheer in my morning dose of caffeine.

I listen to the birds chirping in my balcony. The sparrows are back. I wonder if these gentle birds would ever forgive us for being unkind towards them. You see, as a matter of fact, we do not know. But, observing them closely, one could only guess that they are happy.

A sparrow jumps on the nearby pot and pecks something which it probably liked and flew away. I think, how unjust can we be to anyone. Here we have a tiny bird, who is happy to spend its time on earth, which is its natural right, and we humans have robbed its freedom, yet, the gentle creature is still happy to share this earth with us. Can we lead a life as noble as that?

So, here we are, like the birds, happy, to be spending quality time with our family. It is the time, which we have forgotten over the years with our race for modernization and easy living. It is a time which nature wants us to think who we really are. It seems to me that nature is reminding us our place on earth. Do we foresee that?

The nature is healing and has allowed us to recuperate from the greed of our madness of power. Nature wants us to slow down a bit, giving us a mention on how much family and friends are important to us. It wants us to take care of the nature around us.

The isolation has brought me closer to my family. A thought automatically goes to the other creatures in this world, like the sparrows. So, is this what nature really wants us to think about, as we, a superior race can only bring back peace on this earth.

Think about it. Lest we become the cause of our own extinction and theirs. It’s a humorous thought, when we say we would be extinct, isn’t it? But, where are we right now? Where is our medical advances protecting us?

Does mankind really need a catastrophe, for it to slow down and then, think about the so called ‘Quality time’, as we never had quality time before. Cannot we not learn from our mistakes and live sensibly?

My only fear is that we do not go back to our old ways.

‘Will the present awareness guide us to a better and a possible future on this earth’, I ponder, listening to another song from the 90s.