I woke up to some good news. Pune has converted schools to provide food and shelter for migrant workers and their families. I also read posts on how people are coming together to provide groceries and food packets to all those who have zero income or very little income. I felt hopeful once again. This is a good omen.
I am somewhere midway through the book ‘Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho, a book that made a lasting impression on me twenty years ago. It is a book I go back to every time I face an unusual challenge in life. The good omen thing is part of this book. A line in the book draws my attention, “I’m like everyone else – I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does.” These lines take me back to a discussion on a whatsapp group and I started seeing things from another person’s viewpoint.
I see the world she is looking at – she is looking at a world where everybody is confining themselves to their home. The streets are empty. I see that she feels safe when people were safe in their humble abodes. Her purpose is clear – isolate yourself and save yourself from the deadly virus. Don’t get infected and don’t put others at risk. I see the turmoil in her – for not everyone is seeing the world the way she is. She feels frustration rising every time she sees people walking on the streets or when she sees children cycling.
My world is very different from hers. I see a world where I believe that every person can decide on their boundaries. The decision to go for walks is a personal decision. I trust that those who do so take the necessary safety measures. In my world, I want everyone to have a choice – I want the gardeners, housekeeping staff, house-helpers, vegetable vendors, grocery shopkeepers to work from their free will and not because they feel forced to do so; not because they fear loss of a job or loss of an income. I see a world where people are patient, respectful, courteous, kind and compassionate with each other – a world where nobody assumes anything – a world where one trusts that no one intentionally causes harm to another. Not everyone is seeing the world I see and somewhere deep down I ain’t happy about it.
We both aren’t looking at the world as is. We both aren’t able to be at peace with the way the world is. We both want the world to be as we see it. Imagine – with a population of more than a billion in our country – each and everyone wanting the world to be the way they see it…this thought itself made me shudder. I ask myself – should we stop expressing ourselves and further stop trying to make the world as close as possible to the way we see it? I realize that I definitely wouldn’t want to give up on my world. The next questions that arise in my mind – how can we then live in harmony? How can two opposing ideas exist together?
I have found my answer on page 24 of the book, ‘Conversations with God’ by Neale Donald Walsch. The book states, “God knew that for love to exist – and to know itself as pure love – its exact opposite had to exist as well. So God voluntarily created the great polarity – the absolute opposite of love – everything that love is not – what is now called fear. In the moment fear existed, love could exist as a thing that could be experienced.” Thus this fear is a necessity. Fear is essential. Within the fear also exists love – love for safety of all. Accept both as part of ‘One’ whole. Thus my world and her world cannot exist without each other. We are both part of the same world.
As I am writing, my attention turns toward what I see from the right side of my window. The blue fence protecting a construction site – a new building is being built here – in fact it is almost complete. I notice that I haven’t heard the familiar sounds of construction for the past few days and now I hope the construction site workers are being taken care of. Hope they have a shelter to live in and food to eat. Hope they are not somewhere walking in the heat of the day and the eeriness of the night – traveling back to their villages…
Originally posted on Facebook on March 30, 2020
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