A star-shaped papaya reconnected this HT reader with long-lost friends!
Nothing in life should be taken for granted, not even a celestial looking papaya, the lockdown has taught us!
Our reader, Kamal Jit Singh, found a star-shaped papaya and it helped him revive lost friendships! “This papaya made my day! I could not stop clicking and sharing it with everyone, even those I had not been in touch with for ages,” he says. The lockdown has helped us find joy in little, everyday things. Nothing in life should be taken for granted, not even a celestial looking papaya!
Kamal says, “With the imposition of the lockdown, nature has been giving us such wonderful delights. When the local fruit seller got me a star-shaped papaya, I immediately shared the picture with many of my friends and relatives. All of them echoed the same sentiment about how nature is giving us hope and subtle hints to fight against Covid -19 with patience and courage. This shape of papaya is very rare and I have never come across such a shape.”
With a stable internet connection and camera, connecting with friends online is perhaps easier now than ever. At some point during the lockdown, we all have realised that it’s not as weird to send a picture to someone you haven’t spoken to in years. He says, “This virus has brought long lost friends and acquaintances back to me. I’ve reconnected with people I have not heard from in years. I WhatsApped the picture of papaya to so many of my long lost friends.”
Humans have a tendency to adopt a fatalistic mindset that acknowledges human mortality and impermanence, specially during pandemics. Kamal says, “The pandemic has scared all of us, so we’ve broken down social barriers. If not now, then when? This is the question crossing everyone’s mind. What’s the point in waiting anymore to get in touch, to unburden your worries, to tell secrets? We have just one life, we need to make the most of it.”
After the corona carnage ends, the world we emerge from will be different. Though the world has shrunk radically, it has been inhabited virtually, for the moment by dozens of people whom all of us had loved and lost and forgotten about.
