Isolation Manifests Emotions

Dear Diary,

Surprised that I am back? Wondering if old habits are reviving? Ha-ha !! May be and may not be. Like most newspapers are writing, after this tremendous lockdown of 21 days India that emerges on the other side will definitely be irreversible, maybe the 'me' that comes out on the other side of the lockdown too will be immensely different. Anyway, I am back because there is something so normal yet unique that I came across today and the credit goes to this lockdown. Day 3 thoughts as you may call.

It's become a ritual nowadays that my bestie Prado and I speak for almost all hours of the day when we are awake. From random to very thoughtful stuffs. Every detail we have to share else the day's quota is incomplete. It's been more than 7 years now that we are this close. She is married and has a lovely daughter too... so mostly bit occupied but still anything important happens in our lives and we have to share asap. It's like she has become as close as you were since my childhood. Timings may vary but not the closeness.

So the same happened today morning as well, she Whatsapped me asking to check her status. I was amidst my so-called WFH(Work From Home) stuffs so I said okay and took a while before I checked it. While expecting some lovely paintings or something artistic either from her or the lil new painter in her house - my darling niece; surprised would rather be less of a word, I was like whattttt !!! On seeing her status... Her status was filled will only both of our images and very touching captions. Now you'll say that's a common thing to do if she is my bestie. So here's the interesting part.

The 1st pic was a note stating: Some souls understand each other upon meeting and not sure about me but you understand me well, happy 7th friend-anniversary Ana !!

The 2nd pic was a very memorable pic of both of us together on my birthday at her place which I visited for the first time and her lil daughter expecting to see the world very soon. And it read as - This is the oldest pic I could find.

The third pic was from her godh bharai and she was beautifully decked up in a bottle-green saree and her hair and partial make-up artist was me... so in the pic, she was sitting in a decorated swing and me next to her with her brother's 2 months old daughter in my lap who was peacefully capturing this new world. Prado was glowing and looking damn pretty. This pic read - My Motivation in all possible ways.

The fourth pic was from last year's Ganpati celebration at her place. Lil Prado(her daughter), original Prado and me posing with Bappa. The caption read - and I love you more when you love lil Prado even after knowing that she is the reason I give so little time to you."

Fifth pic was from a Lonavala trip we went together and it read - My Google.

The sixth and seventh pic were from the different restaurants we keep hopping now and then for lovely meals. And was captioned - can blindly taste when you choose it. This was accompanied by almost all the new food emotions we had tasted together.

And the last pic was a pic from this year's new year eve. And the caption read - you help me keep the "girl" alive in me followed by hashtags #mymotivation #mystressreliever #chef #mygoogle #stylo

I couldn't stop seeing her status over and again the whole day.

You must be still thinking, what's the catch here. It's not that out of the box or jaw-dropping. I tell you it is!! Though I always know that she loves me and she has all positive feelings for me and that she too considers me her bestie... But you know what, she is so similar to a non-expressive brother who will never tell you how much they care for you, that you mean a lot to them, how much they love you and at times you may mean the world to them but they'll refrain from expressing it ever... She is exactly that brother!! Your next question would be, aren't these things to be just felt and not expressed. Yes, maybe but you feel super thrilled when someone expresses this affection to you. And in today's world of social media if anyone expresses loudly you feel blessed. Even animals love to be patted... Still, if you insist on being unexpressive then that can be only Mumma's love because it's so evident in every way.

So I kept on wondering the whole day that if this is what isolation does to a person then isn't it worth it? If being cut out from the rest of the world makes you appreciate the people who you love so much and who love you too then isolation isn't after all that bad!! Diving deeper into my thoughts I kept wondering whether its lack of time or we are caught in unavoidable situations, over the time we become so indifferent to our loved ones. We start taking them for granted and yes they allow us to walk all over them without making any noise so yeah if isolation can bring out expression and emotions in a person who usually walks away from such stuff, it's worth it. If expressing can make someone's day better then yes it worth it.

Our parents, our grandparents or our siblings or our besties... we should express our emotions, our love towards them once a while. We don't realize but it can just make their day which might be gloomy or boring or monotonous !!

So dear Diary, to you too I dedicate my today's deep thinking. Thank you for guarding my secrets since childhood. Love you too.