The other day my techie husband during his all technology infested monologue with me, which he often does by the way, was talking about different versions of Android operating system and what new functionality got introduced with each. But what rang a bell in my head was the name of each version. They have named each version after a dessert, yes to all you food enthusiasts like me, how cool is that. They had given names like Android Lollipop, Marshmallow, Nougat, Pie, etc based on the version letter. I guess this was to make their product sound as tempting as a dessert. 

It just occurred to me, that with every passing year we become a new version of ourself with all those new experiences that we had, the new things that we learned about people, places and all the other stuff around us over the year. So why not dedicate a dish to the passing year and annotate the year with the name of a dish. And not just any dish, but the one which captures the essence of that year with all that happened. Then hey, which better year to start with this tradition than 2020. This has been a year unlike anything that we have lived before for whatever time we have spent on planet earth. No doubt it has been hard for all of us, and for some more than the others but it did bring in some unique flavours with it.

Hence I name it the year of Waffle, and in thisblog I will tell you why I think we should call it  so. 

To start with, remembering this year just for the Covid-19 will not be fair. But rather remembering this year for all those, emotions, and the change in priorities that took place would be a better ode to he year. With this, let me unravel the expansion of  W.A.F.F.L.E for you.

W – Weird

Without an usher of doubt I believe we all will be on the same page to call this year Weird. Because we have never experienced anything like this. There are people who are not believing the pandemic theory and are trying to keep business as usual attitude, then there are a whole lot of us trying to be cautious, taking precautions but eager to break the shackles of lockdown and social distancing. With no explanation of what has been going around in the world, and how can a virus bring the whole world to a standstill. There have been all kinds of sickness which co-existed with humanity but nothing, yes nothing brought us to a complete halt until Covid-19. No accurate explanation and understanding about the situation has resulted into a mixed response from people and hence it looks like the helm of weirdness.

A – Anxiety 

The lack of understanding, explanation and control over the  whole Covid situation, by the experts in the field resulting into confusion has pushed most of us towards anxiousness. This rising anxiousness has resulted into swelling consumption of anti- anxiety medication across, even with the ones having no prior history of it. Anxiety in these times have become more like a natural response to all this uncertainty about ones health, family, career and social life. But this prolonged situation has taught us all to be cautious and be less anxious at the same time. May be a learning for life.   

F – Fear

Fear, fear, fear… O dear. Whether we accept it or not all of us have lived through the fear for most part of this year. Governments, medical authorities and anyone else who even had an iota of understanding about this disease, have instilled fear in us. Fear for our own safety, fear for safety of our loved ones and fear for the safety of our community we lived in. And they have all done so with good intentions of making people aware of the perils of not taking precautions. Most lived in fear, but those who were on the frontline like the medical workers, law enforcers, law makers, essential service providers and army, all had to overcome their fear every day to perform their duties. May be not in the same magnitude but most of us had overcome our fear to get on with our daily living. This year did give us fear, but it also taught us that fear is not bad if it brings our courage out in the open to overcome it while taking all possible precautions that we can, against it.

F – Family

Being holed up in our homes during lockdown and with limited to no social interaction, this really gave all of us time to be with our family, know each other better, help each other with the household chores and support each other in getting through these traumatic times. Most of us started to realise the importance of a family and family members, whose presence in our life we have been taking granted for. Those who could not be with their family as they got stuck due to lockdown, they realised the importance of having family and caring for one even more. 

L – Learning

Being at home with nowhere else to go, meet, no much help at disposition gave all of us time and motive to learn new things. People who have been avoiding the digitisation were forced to embrace it and learn it, so that at the least they could communicate with their loved ones. With the pace of life slowed down and distractions minimised we had our focus back in our control, and all of us started investing in ourselves by learning a new skill. It could be anything, from cooking, sewing, to new subjects and technologies. If I had to take my example, I took my interest in healthy cooking to the next level and learned technology to spread this awareness through various social media platforms I had access to.

E – Energy

Last but not the least, this year helped us realise the energy within ourselves. Energy to take care of ourselves and our loved ones without any external help. Perform all our daily chores without outsourcing it to someone else, which I believe most of us thought we did not have energy to do at all. Above all, the positive energy to survive through all the fear and anxiety and the negativity around. Thus a year which helped us discover the hidden energy within us.

To conclude I would say, all of us did get compartmentalised within our homes and boundaries like those we see in shape of squares in the waffle. But it was still on to us to fill colours in these squares and derive the best out of it or keep it dull, boring and plain with no decoration to cherish.

lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu..