The leveller

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

Man seems to be overwhelmed by the formidable coronavirus.
It sees neither caste, creed, community, religion, race, language, political leaning nor social status. The high and mighty have had to bear the brunt.

Suddenly, everyone has a lot of time at hand to take up all the neglected tasks. Parents are spending quality time with their children. With no help, people are taking to cleaning, cooking and, not to mention, bake. I baked my own birthday cake, something that hadn’t happened hitherto. There were a few initial glitches but under the tutelage of my mother, the carrot cinnamon cake tasted nice. I am now spreading my wings and am trying to make pav bhaji and pizzas, to mention my few culinary adventures.

This set me thinking. Is this a purely bleak scenario? On the brighter side, noise pollution and crime rates have fallen. The air quality has improved. Birdlife has also seen a significant change. I get up in the morning to birds chirping. Earlier, I had to depend on the alarm on my mobile to wake me up from slumber. Now the incessant chirping wakes me up. I lie in bed savouring the moment. As I water the plants, hitherto unseen sparrows splash themselves in the watered flower beds. There are bright butterflies hovering over the flowers. A pair of squirrels have started running on our boundary wall, unfazed by the street dogs. At four in the evening, the koel begins cuckooing relentlessly.

One day, after evening tea, I heard a nonstop cacophony which I thought warranted investigation. Maybe, I had left the tap open and water was spilling over. I went outside, only to discover that it was the birds who were having a whale of a time singing away to glory in the neighbourhood park across the road. Not to mention, the joy I found on sighting a tiny bird as long as my forefinger with a golden beak and yellow body. It was uncommonly beautiful. It perched itself on the branches of the hedge. It was there and then gone making me realise that God has made ‘all things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small’ but we do not have the time ‘to stand and stare’. Time is so much at premium, that we do not cherish God’s creations present all around us.