Resurrection day…Happy Easter
By Mahesh Verma of Trivia Travails fame on World Press.com
Today is resurrection day…Easter Sunday! Resurrection of the Lord and saviour Jesus Christ-Happy Easter everyone! As it is Easter Sunday, it is also the day for Trivial Travails to be resurrected too- happy reading folks!
Jesus was crucified on Good Friday after which, as per the “Gospel according to Matthew,” Joseph and Nicodemus took Jesus’ body, “wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and placed it in a new tomb that had been carved in the rock in a garden near the site of the crucifixion. They rolled a large rock over the entrance of the tomb and returned home and rested, because Shabbat had begun at sunset.” After the Shabbat, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb and could not find his body there. “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said….”
While Christ was resurrected two days after crucifixion, TT is attempting to get resurrected after almost three months as it was virtually crucified on 14 January, when the last blog “Ode to a Legend” was written as an obituary to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Whenever darkness engulfs, there will always be light to see us through. The Paschal moon is thus the harbinger of the resurrection, and as Shelley wrote:
“The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
These three months have seemed like three long years. Started with the passing away of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos and hardly had we recovered from that blow when I was given a sucker punch and told that a dear friend, whose husband and I had been friends since second grade, had succumbed to the dreaded C.
No sooner had I returned from Jaipur, where I had flown down for the traditional last rites of Deepa, I was kayoed by the news that my eldest brother, who was more like a father to us younger siblings, had left us bereft and had passed away to be with his Creator. Though he had been ailing for some time, this was still a bit sudden and a rude shock. May both of you rest in eternal peace- we grieve but are thankful that your suffering is over and you all are in a better place!
And to further rub salt on my wounds and add misery to my woes, the Director General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that the COVID-19 was characterized as a pandemic, and that virtually saw the beginning of the partial lock-down in Oman.
“Thou shall not COVID thy neighbour” was the new anthem as self-isolation and social-distancing became the norm and the flights to and from the Sultanate were halted in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus.
The schools and education institutions were also directed to be closed for a month beginning 15th March, and that saw the children of our Paradise Valley School move onto the virtual learning platform. And soon the adults followed the kids and WFH or “work from home” replaced the earlier popular WTF or “work to fool” acronym.
March lapsed into April which is the month of the Aries and for the Aries, though not necessarily by the Aries. Consequently, the April birthday celebration plans had to be shelved and the Marrakech surprise that the Singhs were going to pull, had to be eventually let out of the bag. It is during these trying times that one gets to see the best side of some of the people and the worst side of some others.
However, one has to be a “covidiot” and a “coronincompoop” if one actually lets the pandemic get the better of oneself and hence the daylong celebrations and the double-four play continued virtually via Zoom, despite everyone being in self-isolation.
Thank you dear family and all the friends who took the time off from their otherwise busy schedule of housework and Netflixing, to quaff the various concoctions with me, till the milk of human kindness which normally sloshes inside me was overtaken by the draught of vintage which by the end of the evening not only sloshed inside but created mayhem!
And before I sign off, a few random thoughts:
Do you know that this Corona crisis was not prevalent during Romeo and Juliet’s time because they were then dealing with a Verona crisis?
Do you know that unlike the other years, 2020 appears to have gone viral really quickly?
Do you know that with this on-line teaching with the children being at home, the parents are suddenly realizing how great the teaching profession is?
Today also happens to be the birthday of the man who was the epitome of kindness and goodness and was the paragon of virtue- Happy birthday Guruji (Acharya Amrender Muni). You would have been 71 today had you not left us two years ago on 13th April. Rest in eternal peace Gurudev!
Till next time…….
