A short chapter from 2020….

Life can be like a flight journey. Up in the air, it seems the plane is standstill. At the time of landing, it starts cruising. Suddenly, it whirls and takes a turn. Then again it starts cruising. Finally, it lands. It stays still for a while on the ground, then it takes off again. The same cycle starts all over. My life has seen many such cycles.

Those famous Frank Sinatra lines “That’s life and I can’t deny it!”

When the job offer from Germany came my way, I was going through one of the toughest periods of my life. The pandemic had been around for a while, my surroundings were falling apart, and my health was also not supporting me. My personal choices were all turning wrong. I needed a change.

It was the 30th of November 2020 that I had to travel to Munich via Amsterdam. An early morning flight from Copenhagen. I was nervous. A new job, a new place, and the chance of getting infected during the travel. There were restrictions all around and I remember to have taken 2 different Covid tests before I could make my way to Denmark.

The first thing I recall after reaching Kastrup (Copenhagen) Airport was the ghost-town feeling. There was almost a pin drop silence – only a few flights were operating and that too with only a handful of passengers.



 

I walked up to the check-in counter after crossing the empty Forex counters. How badly I needed some cash in Euros – but…

At the check-in counter: I was nervous and anxious with papers, especially with the ‘purpose of visit’ thing. Thankfully it was not required to be shown.

“Please keep all these documents carefully with you for future use. These might be needed later during your stay in Germany.” – kind words of wisdom from the lady doing my check-in.

The next stop was the security and I suddenly felt awkward and uncomfortable with the face mask. With all cholesterol and adrenalin and fat inside, I had developed a habit of sweating in times of stress. Thought of changing the mask, but where to throw it? Regular bins or shall I go to specific place to get rid of this new accessory?

“Sir, you can throw it anywhere!” – a lone airport staff smilingly told me and then disappeared swiftly.

While throwing the mask, I just realized that I had worn it in the wrong way! I corrected myself immediately and the next one was set in the right direction.



Now the next challenge: whether I would be allowed to carry the tiny bottle of hand sanitiser? Did I really need it? At the Airport, these sanitizing stations were all over the place and believe me, by the time my security checks started, I had used it at least a dozen time! Tough times for humanity – brain and heart both tell the same.

Still remember the waiting lounge before boarding. I was told never to touch the face mask. But I was constantly getting an itching feeling on my nose. Suddenly I saw a young lady in front of me opening the mask with no concern whatsoever. She did scratch her face and put the mask back on. I did not hesitate to the do the same.

Amsterdam was equally empty. There was literally no food shop open for customers. It felt like I was on a mission impossible journey. The flights had also stopped serving hot food – some food packets were offered.

The sad part of the story was yet to come. After landing at Munich, I walked out of the Airport, and I saw one poor taxi driver. He had sad eyes which lit up finding me. I had to take a cab as the car booking had gone all wrong. It was blessing for him. He had no customer for days! An inanimate object (virus) – we did not even know whether it was living or non-living – could affect so many lives. It could affect the smartest of the living beings – the humans. An almost barren highway from Munich to my destination made me smile – we humans could be tamed and tamed so hard. Everything that we boast of could be snatched from us – such is the hollowness of human powers!

But then human civilization is incredible in its true sense. When crisis hits, it adjusts almost invariably. I do not think there are many other animal races which have the power of coping with incumbent issues so strongly as we humans can do. Thought of writing a series of blogs on how I had coped with the pandemic and what all I had to go through. But no. Let us get over it. Let it be a nightmare which lasted a few years. Let us contain the virus, let us keep taking help of science….

Let us join hands and work together to build a better world for the future.

 

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