Kapil’s Khichadi

At this time last year, post Diwali 2019, life was moving forward as per normal. Politicians politicking, protestors protesting for something or other, pupils attending schools looking forward to their Christmas holidays, businesses operating on a regular basis, workers travelling to work and back, and all us able to get into a supermarket without queuing.
The nation was also in the middle of General Election 2019. By the 12th of December PM Johnson made history by giving the Labour Party a devasting defeat. And Brexit was soon to become a distant memory.
We went into Christmas with all guns blazing. Little did we know that the Chinese dragon was about to unleash a virus that would plunge the world into a global meltdown. Tens of thousands of loved ones lost, millions suffered or still suffering, businesses brought to their knees, schools closed, leisure and entertainment closed, and restaurants and pubs closed. It affected every aspect of our lives. Making millions, prisoners in their own homes.
Every major religious festival cancelled or curtailed. Even if you wanted to go to a place of worship for that divine inspiration, that was not possible either. The world has been taught a tough lesson by nature. Play with the building blocks of life at your peril. Many believe that this man-made virus, like many others in Laboratories around the world, was left to the incompetence of the Chinese, the same country that gave us SARS and H7N9.
So has the world learned any lessons. The simple answer is NO. Some nations will continue their stealth programmes to create viruses, many believe that some rogue nations are experimenting with viruses that will attack people with specific characteristics. Humanity has now reached a stage whereby they have the capability to create a virus to kill people of colour, or people within a certain gene pool, or people with certain disabilities. Man-made viruses unleashed knowingly, or in error, are a greater danger to humanity than all the nukes in the world. Next time we see a global pandemic, it will be on a scale ten times greater than what we have seen so far. It’s time for humanity to take a step back. Playing God is not easy, unless you are God.
This week the Hindu, Jain and Sikh communities throughout the world celebrated Diwali. Its significance being different for each community, but each community united that Diwali represents for humanity an opportunity to understand and appreciate nature. That the darkness of human errors can be overcome with the light of our common humanity. That the evil perpetrated in the name of superiority can be overcome by seeing the divine in everyone.
Our Indic civilisation with its Vedic roots gave us a simple mantra:
Om Asatoma Sadgamaya
Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya
Mrityoma Amritamgamaya
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti-hi
Each line has a meaning that is relevant for every era of human existence. Today as we celebrate Diwali, let the message to the world be that of Namaste. One simple word, yet with the most profound meaning that has resonated for thousands of years. People understand the meaning of Namaste differently. The dictionary believes it just a simple greeting, the Yoga students associates it with the Chakras, for me the following meaning made more sense.
Namaste: The divine light in me bows to the divine light within you
When humanity move on from differentiating by colour, language, sexuality, creed, and recognises this one simple word, Namaste, that will begin the era of our greatest achievement on this planet.
From me to you: Nutun Varsh Abhinandan