2020, THE MISUNDERSTOOD YEAR

Is 2020 that bad a year?

As simply as it could be said. YES, 2020 is indeed the elaichi in biryani, the lemon seeds in poha, and the kishmish in your Samosa.

But the lone intention of this essay is to check out the positives of the negatives of 2020, so bear with me as we go down the 2020 memory lane of blessings and disasters. It came with an excruciating yet incalculable record of things, even Stephen Hawkings might’ve had a panic attack imagining these things (RIP).

So are we living at the beginning of the end?

Now, it would be an understatement to say that 2020 has been continuously challenging us. It feels like we are in an episode of Man versus 2020, where Bear Grylls went extinct ;

(Let’s talk about the chronology of events that have taken place so far (aap chronology samjhiye, #sorrynotsorry)

Starting with the COVID 19 pandemic, then came the Australian bushfires, Ukrainian jetliner crash, devastating floods in Indonesia, communal riots in Delhi, to say the least. Followed by the Taal volcano eruption, death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter, natural disasters in India, and the throbbing struggle that migrants and American black lives went through. Let’s not forget those uninvited locusts, who suddenly decided to expand their diet, or the deaths and suicides that made the public go in a frenzy.

I get it. It’s easy to list them this way but trust me I am trying to incorporate all the sickness and the consequences that these tragedies came with.

We end up with no basic definition of Twenty20 because it demands to be extra (by now it’s clear, not in a good way) :/

Leaving aside the possibility of the happening of World War 3, there are some benefits that are worth looking at. The more you think about it, 2020 might not be a salty bitch per se:

1. With the global lockdown being imposed, with everyone trapped in their homes (some people just can’t curb their wanderlust, can they?), nature started occupying back its space. I don’t think there is a need to explain it, there’s enough proof, with happy dolphins waving at us (their way of telling humans to fuck off and stay inbounds) and the plunging of greenhouse emissions by 17%.

2. While some thought this sudden lockdown was like living in a Doraemon episode, where all Nobita wanted to do was sleep and eat snacks and pester the weird robot cat; others started becoming chefs, artists, musicians, and God knows what kind of Instagram pages and YouTube channels have popped up in this period (including Qrator, #subtleflex).

3. Reduced homelessness- no matter how much we sadden our souls with pity for the vagrants, we took no notice of how many were moved into safe accommodation during the lockdown. The USA claims 90% of the vagrants were provided with housing facilities.

4. Malala Yusuf‘s graduation from Oxford, eight years after surviving the Taliban shooting, spreading extreme ingenuity, robots acting as allies during virus crisis when human contact needed to be kept to the minimum, the celebration and acceptance of JUNETEENTH due to George Floyd’s killing, same-sex marriages getting legalized in many parts of the world, another person getting cured of HIV only in 2020.

All these pointers have many manyy manyyy masked illnesses and sickness of people suffering, which turns 2020 into an absolute dumpster on fire, but for the sake of our sanity, Twenty20 shows some glimpses of hope as well.

It’s easy to focus on the bad, given the state of affairs, but this essay is all about the little chimes of goodness that tag along 2020!

OKAY. Enough of talking about the world, what’s good for India?

Union budget 2020 - 2021

The government proposes to spend Rs.3042230 crore in 2021 which is 12.7% higher than revised estimates of 2019-20. The fiscal deficit is targeted at 3.5% of GDP, lower than the revised estimate of 3.8 % 2019-20 with more simplified direct tax regimes.

The financial stock market crash of 1929, 1665 bubonic plagues, every year from 1914 to 1919 followed by the Spanish flu that affected millions of people terribly for many years afterward, is nothing compared to 2020 which brings new desires for 2021. India gets to be the UN Security Council President for August 2021. Plus, we have already moved past June, said to be the doomsday, so cheers to surviving 2020 for six months straight.

Also, we now live in the greatest, most peaceful, easiest times in human history as compared to the past, which was filled with slavery, inhuman acts, conquests, and terrible monarchs and dictators. No, I am not denying that problems don’t exist, 2020 has taken a serious toll on our mental health, but I am just saying: all we can do is take a moment to be grateful that 2020 happened and we can grow out of it in a positive way.

AND

Maybe all this isn’t enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel but I hope it instills a glimmer of hope to your idea of 2020. Seems like every year has its tragic and deadly spots but as they say ‘’you cannot forget the past because the past doesn’t forget the future, I guess we’ll have to take 2020 along because hell, we can’t compromise 2021 while we continue to wallow in 2020 (plays ‘it feels like we only go backwards’ by Tame Impala)