It is just another Monday afternoon at work, sleepy yet slogging to get past the day's tasks. That's how Mondays are, aren't they? Nobody likes them. I haven't come across anyone who has had a pleasant experience with this day unless they get lucky - lucky enough to fall sick over the weekend. I've recently been lucky enough to fall sick for two weeks straight, I've been lucky enough to stay at a hospital - a place that I continuously avoided for 25 long years, I've been lucky enough to have had such a strong immunity system only to succumb to physical inabilities in a matter of one night, I've been lucky enough to stay in a hospital amidst needles and medicines and I've been lucky enough to have seen such days to get a new perspective for myself.
Certain incidents have the power to change so much in your life. It is said some people come into your life to change it forever. Well, some diseases do that too. The whole of NCR has been struck with the chickengunya fever in the recent past and I have been no different. Just one day I am enjoying burger at one of my favourite joints with my ex-boss (the most amazing man you'll ever get to meet) and the next day, you can not even get up from your bed. You don't even know when, in a couple of hours, you land up in a hospital bed. You had a huge publishing event scheduled and it's all gone in a snap. And there's no one around. People you call friends, people you call family, people you call your own. While someone can not come, some do not come. Except may be one - if you're lucky. I was lucky.
What I am trying to say here is you don't know what life has in store for you. The other month I was trekking with my friends at Triund and today, my legs pain even while taking the stairs. I would eat from any damn hawker and never get infected and today, even after so much of care, there are days when my body fails to accept food. I'd hardly acknowledge the power of my body, I hardly worked out, I hardly paid attention to the gift of my body but today, today when I can not run, when I can not even walk 500 metres without landing myself with joint pain, I feel how much I have taken it for granted.
I've given attention to people - people who couldn't even make it to the hospital when I needed them the most because it was becoming difficult for my Dad to reach on time, people who hung out with me all day yet could not manage to reach the hospital which was maybe just 30-40 minutes away, people who were humans but couldn't act humane... But then I was lucky. I had a friend who stood along till arrangements weren't made, till I didn't get alright keeping aside everything.
That was when I realized a 3 year long association can easily surpass 7 year long friendships because years don't really count, what matters is the foundation - the kind of person you are, how sensitive and empathetic can you be. That is when I realized you might stay with some people all day long yet that one friend with whom you might just chit chat once a day or two comes to your rescue. That was when I realized that perhaps friendships begin to reshape their meanings at every stage of life. That was when I realized that you may have valued bonds with people, it isn't necessary that they reciprocate the same.
It is not strange that I've been struck with this reality. We humans get hit by such situations time and again. However, I've been lucky enough to have people who have kept a regular check on my health even if I the count stops as soon as it starts. I have people who stayed beside - a family who isn't a family by blood and yet has been as supportive. People who were just another friend or a good friend and are now more than just friends simply because they chose to be humane and compassionate. I am lucky to have a supportive family who took care of me in a way that I managed to fight off the stressful and painful stage.
But this is just not all that I have learnt. They say that people do not learn unless they themselves experience a disaster. Perhaps my body was waiting for a fever like this that would make me realize its importance. Perhaps my heart was waiting for such an incidence to prioritize my choices and people I chose to stay with. Perhaps my life was waiting for me to learn the gift of life and understand that living in the moment and doing each and everything you love is far more important than a hectic startup job that pays me only so that I can keep spending on irrelevant stuff. And that is why - here I am. Back to blogging, a platform that has always brought the best in me. Back to a place where I can write for myself.
I may not be as regular as I used to be but I'll keep at it. Without stopping. Here's to a new beginning.
I may not be as regular as I used to be but I'll keep at it. Without stopping. Here's to a new beginning.
Cheers!
