To stand near the balcony is a horrible thing during a lockdown. We're looking down on empty streets and no traffic to complain about, the street vendor's cart with no tikka or meetha pani puris for lunch, the malls echoing the sounds like a shy mumble, the festivities running out of ideas as people walk five feet away in masks and the buses with no rush in them but with vacant seats and missing people. That is 2020 for some people. Others in medical PPE kits, bruised to the bones, giving life and sparing their own, months of no rest and being stuck quarantining when their homes call out. Patients staring death in its eyes, isolated in a room unknown with a virus eating on them. That is 2020 for most people.
It lit with a fire in Australia, moved to political strains between Iran and US, Delhi Riots sketched a civil war in a peaceful land, earthquakes in Turkey and Carribbean shook it's core, George Floyd couldn't breathe no more, Lebanon witnessed an explosion and so much more. 2020 had it all. The apocalypse as some would say. This year lost hope for millions with jobs and lives on edge. Hundreds died, thousands left jobless and millions affected by the pandemic.
Is it the end? Sorry, but no. There is still hope for new beginnings although things look they're falling apart. We're all in this together- the great year that crashed down. Time will tick and time will come when all that went down will pick themselves up. Jobs, peace, outside world. These are on the list for 2021. There's hope in the dark and there's hope for the year. We as warriors will make it through- a rough year which will be dusted off from our shoulders like dirt on the ground we once stepped on- unmasked, together, fearless.
By Nikita Felix
I B.A.Communicative English