Write-up

 

YOU ARE STILL ALIVE- A REMINDER!

:by Arpita Banerjee

                                                                      

 

26th May 2020, last time I spoke to her and surprisingly I didn't know that it was going to be the LAST until the next, maybe sometime soon or maybe NOT THAT SOON. Actually to be honest we didn't even speak. We texted…this story reply game is really fun and technically acts as a conversation starter on social media. There is always an undying hope of holding conversations with people knowingly or unknowingly.

 

She send a yellow heart emoticon on one of my WhatsApp stories and I replied with a not so smiling emoticon and that's it! Since then no messages, no calls..... No, nothing happened to her! She is still like the winter landscape. A creation painted with pure serenity living miles away in her hometown. But something happened with her that turned her world upside down overnight.

 

Friendships weave relations with love, understanding, concern, and not blood! So the reference of SHE since the beginning is of a dear friend whose turmoiled life can't come back to normalcy that easily. This young girl, merely of 18 lost her father on 28th May 2020. The LOCKDOWN brought a dip in small business hubs and her father became prey to this financial recession. Maybe, it will take years for her and the family to revive back or maybe they won't be able to smile again. No amount of condolences can bring back her DAD ... She is emotionally traumatized and at the same time financially unstable.

 

She is not the only she, I guess; what I mean is, this pandemic stretch is taking away several lives directly or indirectly. Losing someone close to you at any point in time is irreparable damage incurred.  The melancholic grief set by this terrifying monster named death is a permanent ailing thereafter.

 

Whether I would ever talk to her again or not, is less known now. The very moment I think of her situation, my heartaches. But this incident made me acknowledge something that I haven't in a while. Hopes of being able to lead a normal life without sufferings are being crushed by this pandemic, walking proudly with a big trail of repercussions ruining lives in every possible way. Where the Virus has put a pause to our otherwise bustling lives and the darkness is engraved deeply in our souls, there are still things to be GRATEFUL for.

At least, I am alive; what else could I ask for. Every single breath that I inhale is a gift. Every single meal I am having during this lockdown is a blessing. All my loved ones are safe, I am lucky. The surplus amount of sleep, food, a roof over your head, and no such financial constraint is a luxury many don't have access to. Above all, still, I am alive; so are you.

This war is for survival and all we do is forget to cherish that we are alive!