“I was still living with the mental agony and the fatigue after handled hundreds and thousands of dead bodies, injured and vulnerable people during my rescue and relief work for the boxing day Tsunami, Pakistan earthquake, Bam earthquake, Haiti disaster, Japan, Afghanistan, Sri-Lanka, India, Bangladesh floods, Myanmar tragedy and then the new chapter of horror, uncertainty, debilitation, sorrow, the fragility of the financial skeleton, loss of education, vanishing of the concept of socializing began in the form of a much wider disaster in the shape of a global pandemic, the COVID-19”.
For many months since its onset in March 2020, I was in a denial mode that such a thing exists because the acceptance of this kind of despair was unimaginable as compared to the size and visibility of this posh named virus – CORONA.
When I completed my bachelor’s in medicine and I opted to become a research scientist in Rheumatology by studying the effects of continuous mental trauma on the body of a human being, which at that time was a huge achievement keeping in view the scale of the disasters I had served in.
However, with this new global pandemic, the scale of the mental, physical, emotional, spiritual trauma has crossed all the barriers which are immeasurable and exceedingly difficult, and even impossible to address and acted upon.
Huge losses in jobs, businesses have caused irreparable damage to society. Education has been affected to a no return mark due to which the personal development, time-bound targets of the students have badly been dented. Socializing, which is a normal behaviour of our nature, has been taken away from us. Tolerance has started getting to an alarming range because of the continuous uncertainty since the last year of lockdown. Not being part of the funeral or a wedding of the dear ones has started to push our thoughts to a gloom, physical well-being which could have tackled any mental or physical ailment has been to a standstill due to restrictions on gymnasiums and sports activities.
In a nutshell, I am trying to gauge the effects and after-effects of this pandemic and how much its destructive definition will bring this world to its knees is a big question. For me this is the tip of the iceberg which we are seeing at present, however, its long-term implications on the global stability and the return of the normal lifestyle seems a distant dream now and for which we must adapt to a new era of living, though a painful experience.
This for me is the test for our tolerance, approach, contentment, and our thankfulness towards our creator (SWT). May Almighty (SWT) keep everyone safe and secure wherever in the world they are. Let us obey the rules of safety so that we see the colours of happiness again.
