Meandering Mind

On a very sultry night  a week or two ago, I was pacing on the balcony. It had been a difficult period at home and outside. It had been a couple of weeks that I had been volunteering in this pandemic and helping out in whatever way I could. It was hard to retain my composure at times. We (the group I volunteered with) had lost some patients in the previous 48hrs. There were heart-breaking situations when we lost patients just when we were about to deliver oxygen and medicines to them. We cried silently for a moment but had to wipe our tears and move ahead to help the next patient. There was no reason for them to die. These were precious lives. 

Pacing on the balcony that night, I was trying to fathom what was going on. The tragedy unfolding in front of us was of enormous proportions. The infrastructure crumbled. People died everywhere. It reminded me of the horror stories about the 1943 famine in British India, which my father had endured. Successes were few and far between. But they were there. There were moments of satisfaction when recovered patients and their families reached out to say, Thank You. These were the moments that I shall always cherish in this journey. 

That night I was unable to sleep. I pondered at the enormity of the tragedy unfolding across the country. I sat down for a while and looked up at the night sky. I took this picture at that moment. The light, the shadows, the darkness around, the floating clouds made this picture special. It seemed to portray my frame of mind. The light in the foreground was probably the successes we had. The darkness behind us was the losses we suffered. The floating clouds probably our efforts to reach many more of the affected people.

 I had stepped into this volunteering initiative rather hesitatingly, but my sister (Mrs Madhumita Chanda) inspired me to take an active role. Numerous people, who had never met each other, came together from all walks of life. Volunteers built a solid network with information and resources to help the maximum number of people.This had never happened before in our country.

Hopefully, this will hold us in good stead for the future…fingers crossed.