2020- a unique year with many lessons in disguise...

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 It was 2017. I was in class 9. Shri APJ Abdul Kalam’s words were echoing all around the country. “vision 2020”. I was awestruck after I read the synopsis of Mr Kalam’s book, “India 2020-A Vision for the New Millennium”. The Vision is dedicated to a ten-year-old girl whom Kalam met during one of his talks and asked her about her ambitions, to which the young girl replied, "I want to live in a developed India." In his book India 2020, Kalam strongly advocates an action plan to develop India into a strong nation by the year 2020.

And then we welcomed 2020 with a humongous amount of energy, enthusiasm and great zeal. But, as Erin Morgenstern says, “life takes us to unexpected places sometimes. The future is never set-in-stone. Remember that.”. In January, we got brief news of the ‘Epidemic in China’. Then by February, the infamous Coronavirus spread to other nations. In March, WHO declared COVID-19 an international pandemic, disrupting all my summer plans. And on March 22nd, Shri Narendra Modi initiated the lockdown, and after 22nd march, everything went downhill. Masks were a necessity. People were rubbing on sanitizers like body oils, and social distancing is in vogue. Malls, Theatres were shut down. Millions died by October, including some notable famous people. Our COVID-19 heroes; the police, doctors, public servants are constantly striving to fight the virus. Scientists struggling to find an antidote, rapid decline in the world economy, etc. are some things all of us know.

Thus, people renamed 2020 as ‘Ew Year’. It has not only disturbed our daily life, education, tour plans, meeting with friends but also made us feel gloomy and lazy in our rooms. I’ll admit this fact. But just like every cloud has a silver lining, this dark cloud named 2020 has many silver linings. I’ll tell some of the valuable lessons I learnt.

2020 is one such year which not only taught me to focus on my health and hygiene, it also helped me love myself. Now I am as fit as a fiddle as compared to my class 9 wherein, I wasn’t able to touch my feet.  Junk food ain’t available now, so whatever has to be made is made at home. So, to treat my hunger pangs, I learnt cooking. I joined badminton, which made me strong and swift. I am trying to dance, I play video games like hell, especially Call of Duty: Mobile, etc. all these kept me busy. And I can meet my friends on social media, trying to avoid zoom classes but I can’t, cycling in my colony early in the morning. Activities like these help me stay happy.

Apart from all these, I’ve also learnt to control my short-temper, attitude problems, and I have been trying to mingle freely with as many people I can and I am making new friends wherever I go. I’ve always learnt from the mistakes I did, and this year, one of the huge mistakes I did was picking up an unnecessary quarrel with my friends. And now, they don’t even speak to me like before. They treat me as a total stranger. Since I was guilty, I am mending myself now. And 2020 has given me ample time to check on myself. All these years, I was either behind studies, games, or my friends and family. But this year has given me a lot of time to sit peacefully and know more about that person who was inside me all the time, yet I didn’t know much about him. 

So now I took time, got to know more about the person within, and I am spending a nice time with him. Therefore, I understood that self-love is a very crucial thing. This year threw many hurdles at me, but instead of evading them, I’ve learnt to face them in a cool manner. I realized it is worthless when you actually try solving a problem in haste. It just creates more and more problems. And whenever you deal with complex issues, think with a cool head, try to think out of the box and try solving any problem effortlessly.

Well, this was my 2020 in a wrap. I’d like to quote a friend of mine, Anusha Sridhar, who said “2020 is not an ew year, it is view and review year”. And these words turned out to be true in my case. I learnt acceptance, I needed forgiveness, I got to know the Pranav Sameer inside me after a long time. Understood the real meaning of happiness, “which lies in living peacefully with what you have. Not by acquiring what you want.”.

This is Pranav Sameer, signing off. :) Hope you guys had a nice year…


Comments

  1. Haarika7 December 2020 at 23:24

    your writing was sooooo relatable....truly 2020 taught us new things...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. pranav sameer7 December 2020 at 23:30

      I know... 2020 is truly an year that made a difference in all of us. Thank you🥰

      Delete
  2. SriNikhil Reddy9 December 2020 at 01:05

    Well done so relatable to this terrible year

    ReplyDelete
  3. pranav sameer9 December 2020 at 02:15

    Rey macha, 2020 daridram ey. I wont object...but adhi manaki kashtamaina vidham lo gunpaatam nerpindhi ra😄

    ReplyDelete
  4. Divya9 December 2020 at 19:57

    Great Job,Pranav🙌

    ReplyDelete

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