Why doesn’t God want us to go out and play? We sang the poem ‘Rain, rain go away but it didn’t. When will the virus go away so we can go meet Nani.
This is the conversation we kept having on Wednesday, 20th May 2020 (the day Amphan cyclone hit Kolkata ). Amphan is the first super cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal since the 1999 Odisha cyclone and the second-most intense tropical cyclone worldwide in 2020.
We still take it as creating another memory of experiencing a cyclone together and feel grateful for being unaffected and unharmed unlike thousands who have just lost their houses in times of a pandemic where you are supposed to be inside your house. We feel really thankful.
But what did the kids think? They felt scared seeing the trees swing instead of their swings. They felt sad seeing the unripe mangoes fall and those little squirrels run for shelter. They felt helpless when a stray dog came at our door and we could not let it in. They felt scared when the power cut happened as it was so dark they couldn’t see us whom they trusted. They felt anxious if things would be okay and they felt happy when things got okay. They felt strong like the trees who came out standing tall after being tried to be taken down by the hurdles called wind. They are braver now, stronger than before, and have learned that so many emotions exist and how to deal with them.
Could life teach them to be stronger, more resilient, and calmer all at once in any other way? The pandemic and the cyclone definitely did that for us.
We feel blessed to come out unharmed from the cyclone, without a broken leg, without a broken window pane, without any trees that fell in our garden and without any damaged cars. Another tragedy and yet another chance for us to be grateful for what we have.
How are you feeling today? What are you learning?
