A moment, please
A snippet from the life many of us had over a year ago, when being outdoors and traveling in a packed train was normal.
I wrote this a little over a year ago, on my way back home from meeting up with a friend. Coming to think of it, I did most of my reading and even a bit of quick writing while commuting. Commuting from one class to the next, from one appointment to the next, from my social circle to the next. Oh, the constant movement.
For some reason, this one has been lying around as a draft for long. More than a year since writing about this experience, it was surreal to read what I had then written. About constantly being outdoors, meeting people, getting chores done, or as simple as commuting in a packed train. Suddenly the realization strikes: our lives as we knew it has indeed changed in the past year. When one says that, I hardly think we are able to grasp the extend of this change that we, as a community as undergone. Life and survival in the midst of a global pandemic has changed so many things for many of us, that at least for some, our lives from a year ago seems almost like a distant dream.
Haven’t I always preferred to stay home during the weekends? Haven’t I always wanted to limit my social circle? Haven’t I always enjoyed ordering in rather than eating out at a restaurant? Haven’t I always prioritized my mental well-being over social commitments? Well, who is to tell?
Here’s publishing my first post of 2021, living in the realities of today, with a tinge of longing for what used to be.
A moment, please
Recently, a friend asked me, “Do you ever feel like there’s so much you have to do, and be at so many different places at the same time, and it just drains you, the mere fact that you have to be at so many places at the same time?”
At the time, we were on a train going to get a chore done, after having finished another one in a different part of the city. She sat on one of those side seats in the crowded train, sandwiched between strangers. I stood leaning onto the back of another seat. Around us, people kept moving; many hurriedly walked towards the door and walked on into their respective lives, putting the few minutes of shared experience behind. Many others filed into the train, trying to squeeze their way into the crowded train compartment. Her question came to me in the middle of a hectic week, in which I was juggling too many things, meeting too many people on a single day, than my normal social life is used to. Probably because of this, her question resonated with me so deeply and all I could do was look at her and sigh. The warm yellow light in the train, that is notorious for clouding my thoughts, did not help either.
The deep sigh was cut short. You know the saying, “I don’t even have the time to stop and sigh?” That’s true to the T. Soon, it was time for us to get down at our stop and finish whatever we had set out to do.
