It's raining outside

I look out of the window – that one window which gives me a peek of the world outside my isolation room. It has been exactly three weeks now; three weeks since I packed my duffel bag and stepped into a month of confinement with my Platoon boys. Outside, I see the usual Bus 90 go by. If I had boarded it, I would have gotten home in less than 25 minutes. But I can’t; we’ve got one more week to go.

All of a sudden, it starts pouring. From where I am, in the isolation room, I can’t hear the sound of the raindrops falling; but I see the grey skies, swaying trees and showers from above. “It is raining outside,” I think to myself. And then I realise that I haven’t thought about the weather for a long time now. There is no need to when you’re indoors every day, every hour, and every minute. I think about how life has changed so drastically in a matter of weeks; how no one can say for sure what will happen tomorrow, and how the Muslims got it right with the use of “Inshallah” (if God wills) when speaking of future events.

And I think about how we tend to plan for a single trajectory in life – be it to marry the love of your life and start a happy family, to travel the world and live a carefree life or to climb the corporate ladder and claim a C-suite title – but the reality is that sometimes, things happen unexpectedly that would throw you off your path or set you back for some time. A broken marriage. A death of a loved one. An illness. Retrenchment.

Yet, in all these, there is hope. The human race is the most resilient species in the history of the world, and that is why we are still here today in spite of natural disasters, world wars and global pandemics. We adapt. We work together and find solutions. And we make the most out of every situation.

In the midst of this circuit breaker, as families and loved ones are apart, business is bad, and we are all lacking a bit of Vitamin D, I see, on Instagram (my social media window), people being socially responsible and making essential trips with their masks on, making special arrangements to make sure that their friends’ birthdays are not forgotten, displaying hidden talents that I never knew they had, and eating healthily with their scrumptious home-cooked meals.

So, let us continue to mask on, support our local businesses, whip up a feast, read a book, TikTok away, Houseparty your loved ones, pick up a new skill and work for those abs that you’ve always wanted until this rain finally stops and we can all bask in the sun again.