Will everything be the same as before?

This article, written by Charithma Hettiarachchi under the theme “A Post Pandemic World” was awarded second place at Rethink 2020, the English article writing competition organized by Rotaract Mora in May 2020.

The dark shadows of COVID-19 have covered the big blue marble for months. More than thousands of lives have already taken their last gasp, moistening the eyes of the world with drops of tears. Millions of humans have been isolated in their own houses with the fear of the monster of the pandemic. The world today is not the same as the world, four months ago. Many smiling faces with us are not seen today. The pandemic brought us to our knees.

But,

The world has to rise again enduring the pain. The world needs to face the challenge which was sentenced for abandoning that we survive owing to mother nature.

This pandemic will change adapting to the law of nature. We will overcome it after repaying for our misdeeds.

But,

Will everything be the same as before? The question that every heart asks.

With the hearing of the final sound of pandemic, people will open the doors and step outside and inhale the fresh air and feel the warmth of the sun rays as before. The gardens filled with the voice of lonesome will fill with smiles and voices.

Nevertheless the phobia of the monster of the pandemic will haunt our hearts. The air kisses and waves will replace handshakes and hugs. The fear of getting infected will bury the eagerness to draw closer to your loved ones. It will not be a piece of cake to give the things our heart desires, for a while.

However the rise of the post-pandemic world will disclose that many fields are on the skids. The whole world will face a major economic crisis. Not only the daily paid professions but also high-return companies will be exposed to the risk of being insolvent in front of this tragedy. The government will need to adopt necessary measures to improve the living standard and general well being once the isolation period is lifted.

When the entire nation was on a lock-down and our lives were in jeopardy, new inventors came up with the light of technology and creativity to defeat the darkness of the COVID-19. Those offspring revealed the opulence of the islanders in many industrial fields.

Ante-pandemic Sri Lanka mostly depended upon the potential of the foreign innovations and importing business. However the pandemic has proved our potential and the future must follow that light indicated by the youth. The grandeur and remarkableness will rise from the third world and establish an unprecedented development in our country.

A virus has turned the world upside down. It taught millions of lessons to bear in mind until the last blow. The plant of the post-pandemic world will grow up extracting the essence of the boons, as well as banes gifted by COVID-19.

However we can not forget that we repay for a punishment of mother nature. The punishment for ignoring that humans exist because of nature. The punishment for one child of hers filled the lives of other children with the freedom of happiness. Animals that roam around freely, trees that bear fruits happily, the atmosphere that recovers gradually sing the song of the freedom they have got. But soon humans will get bail and touch the grass on the ground as before.

Intoxication for power and wealth will start to detriment to mother nature. We all have to come to terms with this reality along with folded hands with the hope that mankind will consider themselves as a child of mother nature. Not only mother nature but also there are many things rooted in them, that mankind can simply forget.

Guardians defend the battlefield while we quarantine behind closed doors. Medical professionals, armed forces work day and night holding their breath to let our hearts pump blood as right as rain. During the flames of the pandemic we honor them and sing our gratitude. But it is doubtful that people whose memory is limited for two weeks (as the leader of LTTE has mentioned before) will bear their service and the tragedy we faced in their hearts forever. But it need to change with the post pandemic world.

Remedies to power through the traumatize lies in the past. The angels of the spring will come back with some undetected editions. People will raise like a Phoenix and fix disparities to refurbish corresponding to the rhythm of history.

Even though the pitch and pace is different, we will sing life again. But the stability of the future voyage will depend on choosing the ship built with steel of the lessons of history, hereafter.

Therefore let us keep our fingers crossed that we would be able to hear the chirp of birds on a day in which humans defeat the evil of pandemic and rebirth with the lessons of yesterday, in the embrace of mother nature.