The year 2020 brought a wave of biblical curses: pandemic, death, locusts, earthquake, cyclones, and floods.
Eight months have passed, and we are feeling nauseated about the situation. The corona virus pandemic at large brought the world to a standstill at unprecedented waters.
Locked down for months together and a bleak hope of whether normal routine would return soon.
It was seen that on an average approximately ninety percent of the world’s population was suffering from bad mental health during the corona virus lockdown, which means, every second house in your neighbourhood had someone who was in lockdown and constantly felt stressed, sad, demotivated and excessively worried. The most brunt was borne by the elderly of the world.
My mother’s friend, Sharda aunty is in her mid-sixties. Maa and Sharda aunty love chit chatting over the phone for HOURS together. Primarily because she lives in Mumbai and we are in Delhi.
Last Sunday, Sharda aunty called at the same regular afternoon time. However, this time, Maa noticed a low tone in her voice.
Maa asked what was wrong. Sharda aunty, who is usually a very jumpy voiced and sounds full of life and energy, told Maa that her whole family including her husband had left a day before the pandemic to her eldest son’s house, who lives forty-five kilometres away, and she had stayed back for some work at home that needed to be taken care of. Little did she know then that she was going to be trapped in her own house all alone.
She had cried for the first time and told Maa how lonely she was and how she just wanted to be with someone and hug someone.
While Maa consoled her for a long while and took some of her stress off. After Maa hung, I could see her two heavy drops rolling off her eyes.
I understood what was happening and I just gave my mother a long warm hug.
Mental health is not a trend, a choice, attention seeking, an excuse, always visible, something you can snap out of and it is not a hashtag.
“Dear reader, if you know someone who needs a phone call, now is the time to give them a call”.
Note: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to a person living or otherwise may be purely coincidental
