Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Living through a tumultuous year!

SAMUEL-KUTTY
SAMUEL-KUTTY
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A year before, at this time, we were all euphoric to welcome 2020, and never expected the year would be as tumultuous and wearisome as it has been.


For all its eventfulness — from record-setting wildfires in California and Australia to the current COVID-19 pandemic — 2020 has, for many, been a tough year, if not a lost year. The coronavirus has made the last 10 months a whirlwind for us all!


Unlike previous year-ends, when people take New Year resolutions about health or behavioural alterations in their personal lives, this time all of us will be looking back at the year which witnessed unprecedented challenges and changes.


And after two days, the year will be part of history as the worst year ever. While for researchers and scholars, of course, the year leaves behind a wealth of material for their accounts of this turbulent period, but for billions of people who lived through this time, the year is full of unforgettable memories of pain and isolation.


The coronavirus outbreak is one of the many events that have made 2020 a harrowing year like no other with a flurry of changes. No doubt, it set the course of life to an extraordinary degree! The pandemic has taken a tremendous toll on so many lives, impacting our health, our traditions, our economy, and our psyches. We stayed home and continue to maintain social distancing in order to help save lives.


We’ve put our daily routines and rituals on hold for the good of everyone. Governments across the globe had to enforce stringent lockdowns in order to stop the pandemic from spreading. And with no concrete date for when the pandemic will end, we need to be in this for the long haul. Now, the increased use of the word ‘lockdown’ has led Collins Dictionary to choose it as its Word of the Year.


While 2020 will go down in history for an unseen virus that knew no geographic boundaries, no religion, no caste or creed!


The year also could be remembered for what got cancelled, what did not happen! With schedules disrupted, no one found it easy to keep track of which day of the week it was. Travels cancelled, marriages and births of the newborns were not celebrated and educational and places of worships closed.


The toll of the pandemic has been so much to bear with the loss of millions of lives and many more are falling preys everyday to the lethal microbe! Yet we will get through it, because that’s what humanity does. We endure. We keep waking up and putting one foot in front of another until we’re walking again, just as we did before, just as we’ve always done.


Also what we should not forget is the fact that even as the year was marred by the pandemic, new approaches through innovations have emerged out of the turmoil and are presenting real opportunities to transform our lives.


With several vaccines on the horizon, we are hopeful of a new beginning in 2021, with stability in health and economy. People have become more cautious about their health by following proper hygiene.


While this is my last column of the year, I appeal to my readers, when we enter the New Year, if it is possible, try to be more empathetic to those outside of our immediate circle. Think of the sick, the hungry and the weak. Be ambitious of the future, but maintain a medium path so that we let others also grow!


 


SAMUEL KUTTY


@samkuttyvp


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