Family Birthdays during Covid Era

My niece is turning 20 tomorrow. I haven’t met my friends, family, relatives, and colleagues in person ever since pandemic set in. I don’t know when I will interact with them face to face again. I ask all to stay home and stay safe till the situation is much better.

There’s a serious vaccine and oxygen shortage in India.  My friend, and her husband have Covid. Her parents are also infected, and ill.

I’ll write about the Covid situation instead of editing or censoring it even if I offend those who are thinking that I shun positivity, and should be held accountable for spreading negativity.  I cannot frame certain aspects about life in a ‘rainbows and unicorns’ hue now (this phrase has been used by Dr. Ramani Durvasula in the video in which she talked against toxic positivity). I love that video.

Mashi returned from the vaccination centre today after having been given a coupon and being slotted 26 April, 2021, for the vaccination. It’s our social responsibility to discuss the situation instead of being tight-lipped about it as we better spread positive vibes only to make toxic positivity people happy and happier.  If my timeline upsets you, you may mute, block, or unfollow me; but I will not be guilt tripped into silence.

I love a line by Rabindranath Tagore when he writes:

 বোনাবে    রঙিন সুতোয় দুঃখসুখের জাল

(In colourful threads, a tapestry of both sorrow and happiness will be woven.)

No, I don’t think ‘positivity’ is a gross word. I feel joy to adorn my home with 20 balloons on my niece’s 20th birthday, and send them pictures and videos.  Rather, Mashi did the decors. Birthdays are going online nowadays. How have you celebrated virtual birthdays?

#birthdays, #birthday, #Tagore, #Rabindranath, #RabindranathTagore,  #Tagore, #poem, #TasherDesh, #positive, #positivity, #balloons, #virtualbirthdays, #toxicpositivity, #rainbows, #unicorns, #Covid, #Corona, #pandemic, #Bengali, #Bangla, #WestBengal, #Bangladesh, #censorship, #vaccine, #oxygen, #vaccineshortage, #pandemic, #happiness, #sadness, #celebrations

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  Goddesses of wisdom Goddess Saraswati, draped in white garments, perched on a lotus, with her snow-white swan vehicle, dispels the darkness of ignorance with the light of knowledge. Her annual worship is tomorrow [5 February 2022]. Here are other goddesses of wisdom from around the world: Benzaiten ( 弁才天 or 弁財天 ):              She’s among the seven lucky deities of Japan and associated with water. What a graceful goddess of beauty, logic, wisdom, arts, music, dance and wealth she is! Many of her temples and shrines are built close to the sea coast. She dispels darkness and materialism from a human being’s mind. Athena: This powerful goddess is from Greece known for courage, wisdom, skill and arts. A fiery warrior she has a wise old owl perched on her shoulder. Minerva: Highly esteemed on the Roman pantheon of gods; she’s praised for her wisdom.   She’s also the goddess of poetry, arts, handicrafts, commerce...
Read more
Image
  Inclusive Playgrounds Pictures of wheelchairs, crutches, and ramps generally get less likes on social media by a mainstream crowd. Many of them erroneously think that they all represent a situation which is tragic, so the like should be skipped. They little understand that all of these are actually positive images as they encourage mobility and inclusiveness. Able people often use   regressive phrases like ‘confined to a wheelchair’ instead of ‘wheelchair user’. They don’t gauge that for a disabled person, it’s helping them move instead of imprisoning them. It’s often assumed in schools that kids with disabilities need to sit on a bench during physical education classes, and only watch on as other children play and have fun, during his/ her school tenure. There was a boy in our school who had lost a limb. However, he stood along with his class in sports drill, and participated and races. He finished last in sprints, but still took part. Once, I heard a child say, “Oh, I ...
Read more
Image
  The Raven BY  EDGAR ALLAN POE Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—     While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—             Only this and nothing more.” The main difference was that I had this dream at noon when the sun was high in the sky. A raven was really cawing, refusing to stop. The black crow became a close relative who has always invalidated me. Her shouting was synonymous with the ebony bird cawing. I saw our garden in Papua New Guinea. It was a bare lawn. I planned a beautiful orchard and garden out there. Then I was taken to a cubby flat with a small verandah where I wished to have a few pot plants. Whatever I had sown was destroyed by this relative. ...
Read more