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Cavafy in the times of lockdown


The lockdown period gets extended. We are fighting the deadly virus by staying indoors. A responsibility to be fulfilled in order to flatten the curve.  Social distancing. It might find its way in our dictionary very soon given how far fetching the positive effects are. These effects will help our nation run this mission of saving lives more smoothly. It is crucial to distance oneself from the society for the betterment of our society.

Cavafy, the 20th century Greek poet, expresses it in one of his great works ‘ As much as you can’ . So the lines go, If you cant shape your life, your life the way you want, atleast try as much as you can not to degrade it by dragging it along taking it around and exposing it to the daily silliness of social events and parties. As he rightly said, why degrade or make our life miserable by taking part in any social gathering which could pose a threat to the mankind. Lets practice isolation for sometime.  For peace and stability in future. Lets be wise enough to remove ourselves from social setup for time being.

Now we are in the second phase of lockdown. The social distancing is being practiced. We are managing our daily life by removing ourselves from any position that will demand us to show us in public except for our essential needs. Even if we continue to remove ourselves from showing up in public place, there are depressing moments. There will be. The day starts with tons of chores ready to be fulfilled by us. Those times are when our energy is at the peak. But as the day crawls and sun sheds its glorious visage, the moments of low hit us hard. We cannot continue being in the crest. There will be troughs too in the wave of life. A reality that cannot be ignored.

As the moments of low get hold of us, it creates disharmony between us and our mental state. If reassuring sameness gives us comfort after every leisure travel, then this sameness which we are experiencing currently doesn’t seem to be very reassuring. And this state of ours, this feeling, is rightly expressed through words by Cavafy in another of his great works. The poem Monotony reads like this:

One monotonous day is followed by another monotonous day, identical day,
The same things will happen, they will happen again –
The same moments find us and leave us
A month passes and ushers in another month
One easily guesses the coming events;
They are the boring ones of yesterday
And the morrow ends up not resembling a morrow anymore

As the last line goes, our morrow will mirror today. Our morrow doesn’t seem to change or bring any new element. Atleast that is what it looks for the foreseeable future.

As many of us have settled and found a workable routine with their office calls, meetings, household chores and tending to child’s needs, it is very important to find happiness in the middle of these. Very important. And what will give us happiness in this difficult time, you may ask. But for me, happiness is keeping myself sane. To keep myself going. It could be anything ranging from sharing delicious food with my partner and kid, or just reading my favorite book for 20 minutes or listening to great music at the end of the day. And as we oscillate between the chaos and the rigidity that comes as a package in these trying times, the mid-point where our mental state gains equilibrium by maintaining a ritual is happiness to me. The point where I will truly find sense of satisfaction, accomplishment or joy, is what happiness is to me.

These are the small things that matters. We cannot wait for big things to happen if these small things are neglected. As they say, happiness is in the details, it is definitely in these atomic details.
To see the happiness in details, we should start taking notice of our surrounding and harmonize ourselves with it. One at a time. Let’s be mindful in practising our small things and fit those into our routine. Over a period of time, the habit that we practice today or a passion that we take up today, will fall into our routine.

 They say memories are the ones which give us happiness so let’s build memories in this lockdown period too. Lets make a memorable past of this lockdown and handover to our future. But I would not fully agree with it. Memories are like archive files that are retrieved when we reminisce or run through the photographs in an album or listening someone regale the stories of the times gone by. Once we listen or share the stories, we will plunge ourselves in a state of nostalgia. Agreed. But that will only derive us short term happiness. The daily habit or a passion that we practice and make it fall into a routine, will not only promise us but also deliver a happiness that will be for long-term. 

Forever.

 I would like to end this with Cavafy’s lines ‘ Spring is within me, true joy’.
And it will never be a matter even if outside winter spreads fog, clouds, and cold. Spring will be within us. Always. Let’s awaken the spring within us and make it find our true joy. I really hope that you will.

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