A Truce with Time to Find Peace

Si vis Pacem Para Bellum in Latin means “If you want peace, you should prepare for war.”

That seeking peace was going to be so costly was never thought off even in my wildest dreams. Since a long time, I was contemplating coming out of the “Haves & haves Not” race. In August’19, a proxy war on professional front was bugled against my choice to live a life more slowly paced, relaxed and more on seeing other side of life away from materialistic pursuits.

While my mind was constantly planning and executing an exit plan for liquidation of debts and minimising losses & damages, my heart was looking forward to spending days reading books, listening to music, planning holidays and finding some “Me & Myself” moments. At this point in August, both my friends & foes were known, life was organized, driven by policies, matters were discussed to arrive at a mutually agreeable conclusion. I thought my “peace” was just round the corner to be found.

But come December’19, when a nationwide human rights issue was ignited with the introduction of CAB, everything went off track. Many of us were pulled into the sentiments of being son of soil or foreigner and a political game with religious undertones that saw end of 2019 with human rallies, protests & curfews. The New Year 2020 was welcomed with disgusts, police atrocities, angst of students, confusion with identity crisis, poor growth of GDP, banks & financial scam, factories closing, manpower layoff, economic slowdown etc.

My small yearning for peace, was lost somewhere amidst all other reasons much beyond my circle of reasoning, proposals and plans. Then in March, suddenly a new low was reached, when an invisible parasitic enemy “Coronavirus” invaded our lives, cities & towns. The invisible enemy quietly crossed borders and fractured major countries economy, while populations were put under lockdown. Citizens, foreigners, rich, poor, Hindu- Muslims-Christians none escaped, all got caged within the walls of their homes fearing infection that has caused thousand deaths. But, nobody has any clue how to fight this invisible enemy. Days, weeks and months lost to fear of the unknown. There are so many unanswered questions. Who is mightier: wealth, power or health? Who connived to unleash the horror of this disease -power hungry people or people hungry for exotic food?

Today, amid the virus crisis, living a peaceful life means the joy of getting food on one’s plate, seeing loved ones in good health and having freedom for simple walk in my lane. All strategies of commercial success vanished to age old “Jan hai to Jahan hai” mantra. The diameter of my “Chakravyuh” of finding “Peace” has grown in dimension: from a simple wish to re-discover one’s identity and to a fight against a global pandemic.

What I understood from a quote rings very true now: “Never expect. Never assume. Never ask and never Demand. Just let it be, if it’s meant to be, it will happen”. Until then its truce with time and new address to find peace.