People have been through the darkest times humanity has ever witnessed during the COVID-19 & subsequent lockdowns. World over, mankind grappled with uncertainty while scientists tried to trace the origins and find out how we came to be here, so we do not have to tread that path again. The world saw the healthcare system, as also the social order crumbling down like a pack of cards. The afflicted families’ struggle was even bigger- having to secure an oxygen cylinder, to finding a vacant hospital bed. It is a big respite and thank God that we are over the endemic, but yet, the dark period is far from over; the biggest catastrophe we are not yet prepared for, is awaiting us at the doorstep – mental health. Nobody can be a mute spectator and claim immunity to ongoings and yet possess absolute sanity.

There is also global collective pressure to bring world order back to the old normal. While we are still “on the way”, this “normal” world is understood to restore economic activity to pre-Covid levels and so, people living at the margins of society can hope for better days- but again they will all be just a cog in the wheel of development where everyone is, just a piece of machinery. After COVID-appropriate behavior, the biggest lesson we need to learn- if mental health ever gets the attention, it so deserves- is empathy!

To be empathetic means walking a mile in someone’s shoe to know where it pinches. We may be short of words, but to be aware of the immediate needs of aggrieved people and doing smaller acts of kindness is better than merely paying lip service or sending superficial “heartiest condolences” messages. Yes, we are over the mayhem and the sight of widescale deaths all around us, but we are yet to get hands-on with the actual sufferings post-CoViD, which are mostly mental, and thereby, invisible in nature. In trying to conform to social norms and assuage pain, people continue to be insensitive in their remarks – as they did during the endemic - “See, I asked him to get tested”. The same attitude followed subsequently as well.

And those claiming untouched by the virus are not doing any better, either. For one, working from home has become a norm. Though within safer confines, WFH for many, seems like a house arrest edict with erratic schedules. Work sometimes gets on the nerves like a highly toxic substance. I too, after a year of putting in longer work hours amidst thoughts of an uncertain future, found my mechanical being coming to a halt at an appalling rate- surely a sign of a very unsustainable state of body and mind. I looked out from my window to witness the standstill world at a distance. Closer to me, at the windowsill, lay the potted plant which nearly died after days of bitter neglect. Morbid, though, it resembled the nil motivation I had.

I resisted the meetings that went on no end and grew an aversion to the job I was once passionate about; I could relate to Naomi Osaka, a victim of the mechanical world that smacks a lack of empathy. Her predicament is understandable- to be reasoning day in and out for failures is plain insensitive and plays havoc with one’s psyche. No wonder, Naomi refused to toe the line & do press conferences; was admonished & fined heavily for that, she was made to feel like a war prisoner torn apart by hungry lions at the Colosseum.

After some days, I once stopped by the window to get some fresh air, since it drizzled last evening. To my astonishment, the plant lived and atop that, its crowning glory – a flower had bloomed! All along, I was too consumed by negative emotions to care for the poor plant, but now it proved to be the catharsis for my depressed mental state. I was overjoyed, wondering what element within made it survive the absence of conducive environs and consistent neglect. Empathy is a tall order perhaps, but hope is the key here, since “Hope transcends everything, going beyond all doubts; it silences fear; it quietens' despair”. Like the lone plant, with perseverance, the world too, will eventually bloom, regardless of the gloom that surrounds us.

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