A page from my Diary: Should 2020 be erased?
Let us start with a very basic, yet interesting question, that most of the people do ask;
What if, this year 2020 would have never existed?
Fasten your seats belts, we will try to explore and get the answer of this question.
So let’s begin the journey and explore the answer through a page from my very own diary.
Dear year 2020,
I hope you are doing great man!
I thought of sharing my experiences with you, whatever I have experienced this year.
This year started with a grand party (the New Year party), followed by one of our trips to Goa. All was going fine.
I came back at my home in the month of March, you know very well why.
Holi being one of my favourite festivals, and enjoying it with the family and friends is a cherry on the cake. So yeah, Holi vacations + Gujiya (one of the most famous sweet dishes in India) was the reason I decided to go to home.
But now, it’s September end. I really don’t know how long will the pandemic go, and when would I be able to meets my friends again, hangout with them, and plan road trips.
I now understood how difficult it would have been for Anne Frank, from The Diary of a Young Girl, to remain locked inside their sheltered home during that tough times.
But don’t be sad. I know most of the people are really angry from you and want you to get erased from their life. But, I want to thank you, not for the reason that you will be written in golden words as the Great Pandemic Year (year is just a number and would have been any year, so don’t blame yourself), but I want to thank you since you are the one that has made me realize the importance of family, relationships, friends, and each and every person of my society.
This period has given us the privilege to stay with our families, support them during these hard times, spend quality time with them, pursue our hobbies, work on our passion, and polish our skills.
This quarantine and lockdown period has been quite prolific for me, and has proved to be game changer.
1. You know how much I love Sciences and Mathematics, and always wanted to go in the domain of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) research. I love exploring different research fields and various emerging domains.
But I wasn’t really sure how to go for that one. What skills one requires, and like I am a beginner, I wasn’t really knowing before which field to pursue, and whom to contact for guidance.
A big thanks to you my dear friend, you are the one that has really been a ray of hope for me, in this tough and dark times.
Travelling to different countries, and even various parts of the country for attending conferences and seminars was always difficult for me. But because of you, I was able to attend each one of them. You know why, because they were shifted to online format. Isn’t it interesting?
One day I was in London, and the very next day in United States, followed by attending conferences of European countries the very next week, and getting back to India the same day.
Attending them has helped me to gain insights of various trending fields and build strong and everlasting connections and networks. This new normal of E-Learning, to some extent, has improvised our thinking and way of grabbing knowledge. Now, I can access best in class courses from Worldwide Universities. Majority of books and journals have been made accessible for the common people, and that is really amazing.
- I am a member of IEEE, you know, this is the biggest organisation of engineers around the globe. I thought I forgot to tell you that I am an Engineer too. So yeah, I wasn’t really knowing true potential of this global organisation.
But all thanks to you, that has made me realized it true potential and has helped me in growing my network. Being an IEEE member, I was fortunate enough to be a part of organising committee of various events that has helped me to grow as a person. My soft skills like time management, communication, digital marketing, networking, etc. along with various other technical skills has really improved.
- I have always been passionate about my hobbies, you know very well I am a numismatic (a currency and coin collector), and wanted to share my knowledge and experience with others. You were the torch bearer that has helped me in giving online talks as invited guests and sharing my experience and knowledge with the gathering was such a great learning.
- I am a keen learner, and a learner can be a great instructor as well. So, I started my very own YouTube channel named as The Knowledge Mountain, with the only initiative of imparting the ideology of Research-Based Learning among people. I started the channel with the Vedic Mathematics course where I focus mainly on Concept building. Sooner, I will be uploading more fascinating videos and I, with my viewers together, we will be unleashing many unknown facts.
- You are the one that has helped me in reviving my interest in Mythology. I always wanted to know about our existence, how we have evolved, our culture, our gurus, etc. So, I started learning new things from my elders, my grandparents, parents, and other relatives. It wasn’t really possible earlier since I used to be at my home only on weekends. But you have helped me to spend worth time with my family members.
All in all, you have helped me to be my updated version.
Also, don’t really worry in case people are scolding you that this year should be erased from their lives. There will be lots and lots of people to demotivate you, but there would be caring one’s as well.
My simple answer to them is “I really think we were in dire need of such a year.
I don’t know about others, but this I have learnt many things and have been able to develop the feeling of self-love and gratitude which is very much important in today’s era.
So yeah, to be very honest, I don’t hate this year as much as most of the people do”.
Take care man!
Yours truly,
Aryan
