Dear Moon

Dear Moon,

It has been a long time since I last wrote to you. I hope you are doing well. It is a very different world now, Moon. We are under a lockdown till the 16th of April due to the ongoing pandemic. 2020 began with the trends of world war three on social media. On the first day of this year, social media was full of memes circulated on the ongoing war-like situation. Things went in a spiral down, but there is no war. It is a pandemic. We are not even halfway through the godforsaken year, and the whole world is bound to be in isolation. Cancellation of flights and closing of state borders as a precaution. It is to spare us from a further spread of the virus.

I reckon you don't get the memorandum on what is going on Earth. Nonetheless, I assume you are aware of the current scenarios. Moon, the sky is so clear since the lockdown. I got a glimpse of you during the daytime. I don't remember the last time I saw you during the day. Perhaps, I didn't care to look. Or maybe it was due to the typical Delhi's pollution blocking my view. I may never know. One thing I know of is that that our lives will be changed after this Pandemic.

In 2001, after 9/11, the trajectories of everyone's life was deflected. Either directly or indirectly entire world was affected. The social, political and economic conditions of the world are linked so intricately with our lives. Nonetheless, we often ignore the role the world plays in who we are and where we are heading.  At times like this, we come face to face with the fact that how fragile our accomplishments are on their own. 

On the other hand, pandemics are quite rare. One occurs every 100 years or so. In this context, the world is in a new territory. The situation is dire and warlike. People are stuck in different places with no access to essential services. The businesses are shut down. Jobs are lost. The news makes me overwhelmed! I try to avoid it, but keeping tabs on the situation is also necessary. 

An unexpected effect of this lockdown is a toll on people's mental health. Everyone is forced to sit with themselves and ponder over their lives, Moon. The sort of events that one brushes down by keeping busy on the work front resurfaces. I believe I am aware of my childhood and adulthood traumas. So in that context, I am better off than others. Especially when it comes to sitting in peace with oneself. Observing the thoughts come and go. I may not have resolved them but I know what floats my boat and what shakes it. So I am not stuck on contemplating the past and falling through the rabbit hole of unresolved feelings.  

I hope to keep up our correspondence. Until then  Goodbye. 

~Your Friend

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This post is from my series - Letters To The Moon.

Older Posts from series

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Chaos

There has been a popular phenomenon in media called the Butterfly Effect. It reveals how a butterfly flapping its wings in China could cause a hurricane in Florida. Okay, so it is not as simplistic as to link the cause and effect directly, to be clear. The butterfly is not some magical creature. It is more about how a small variation in a complex system can cause radical effects.  

This effect came upfront when in 1963 an MIT meteorologist Edward Lorenz was using an old computer to calculate weather patterns. He was working on a simulation of weather patterns and placed the data into the system. At his first attempt, he entered the initial data values up to six decimal places. However, on the second run of the system, he assumed that the significant figure doesn’t hold much of significance (Pun intended) he entered up to the three decimal places. Both the simulations were running on the same data; the only difference was after the three decimal places. 

However, this small change made the results remarkably different. To paint a clearer picture, say if the first simulation, with 6 decimal places, predicted a sunny day. The second run, with 3 decimal places’, the prediction was a hurricane. It is intuitive to think that if we change a little data input, in the beginning, this would lead to only a little change in the resultant data output. However, this is not the case in a chaotic system. 

A chaotic system is highly sensitive to initial conditions. These systems do follow the same laws of physics, however, due to a large number of constraints, it appears to be random. As the numbers of moving components in any system increase the calculation and prediction of the path, that the system takes become, well, chaotic. The turbulent system is an example of such systems. 

The Chaos theory attempts to find patterns in chaos. The model by Edward Lorenz is called Lorenz System. On plotting the graph of this model resembles spread-out wings of a butterfly, ergo the term butterfly effect. 

Nonetheless, the idea of it being linked to a butterfly flapping its wings seems more appealing to start the conversation about it. As a butterfly flaps its wings it sets up the air molecules in motion. Those molecules further strike other molecules, and this initiates a domino effect. Depending upon the system, this could potentially lead to the onset of a hurricane. The flutter of wings is similar to the variation in the data of the Lorentz's system. 

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Blog: A Classic Travel Blog

A few years ago, I was on a long drive from Dubai to Ras al Khaimah. The goal was to see the highest peak of the United Arab Emirates at Jebel Jais. It is so pretty to accelerate through such a rapidly changing landscape. In a desert-scape, the colour of sand varies so dramatically. It is fascinating to see this gradual change. FYI I love the colour of sand in Dubai as oppose to any other sand I have seen so far. It is a golden beige. The low saturation of this shade makes it fit perfectly to my current sense of aesthetics. 

As we rode through the fast-paced highway from Dubai to Ras al Khaimah. We found ourself in the middle of a pack of bikers. A group of 40 or so odd men riding their typical Dubai style modified bikes. It was an exciting sight to see. Nonetheless, I was far more interested in enjoying my playlist and watching the picturesque terrain. The theme track of the movie The Glass Castle was playing on the chart. If I think of it now, it feels like the Sunlight was filling up the world with hope.  

As we entered Ras al Khaimah, I started to notice a few pebbles on the sides of the road. At first, I thought it could be the theme of the vista of the city. However, As we drove further, it was not just a few pebbles. The terrain had dramatically changed into mountains of sedimentary rocks. It was clear at that point that this area was a waterbody. We parked our car at the side of a valley. There was a small pond at the bottom of the valley. Any rain in or around the proximity of that area kept this pond filled. 

We sat on a big roadside rock and finished our Mc Donalds takeaway that we had picked up at last gas station. (We bought our trash-bags back with us, in case you are wondering.) It was a nice stop to relish in the beauty of an isolated corner in the middle of nowhere. Often at places like this, a particular observation comes to mind; How the most beautiful places in the world are the ones that have no human inhabitants. 

After resting for a while, we continued our drive to the peak of Jabal Jais. We drove up to the topmost motorable point. We decided to climb further on the mountain. It was a scenic view from the top. After tracking for a while it started to get dark. On considering that a downwards descent would be harder in dark. we decided to head back on the downward track.  We reached an open lounging station. There were a few people at this location. Most of them had their barbeque setups on the place. The air was filled with celebrations. People were playing music. 

As the night passed, we took out our beach mat from the car's trunk. We laid on the highest peak of the UAE and the sky was clear. Our view was filled with bright stars. We spotted a few shooting stars. Talked about random stuff and shared some snacks that we had bought. 

The conversation led us to the stories of ghosts. We decided the next stop for the night was going to be the abandoned Ghost village in Ras al Khaimah. Spoiler alert: we did not find any ghost. However, that's a story for some other time.

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Apocalypse

As I Pulled my laptop to start writing my very first post of 2020, my news updates notified me “Wimbledon is cancelled for the first time since World War II due to the coronavirus pandemic”. I thought it is almost unprecedented. Unprecedented - A word we heard a lot in the past couple of years over news debates and whatnot. 

Strangely enough, this pandemic and its effects are something none of us experienced before. The other day my mother shared her concerns by asking rhetorically “How long will this go on?”. “I don’t know I have no experience in something like this” I replied. “Nor have I.” she retorted. 

My mind often draws a parallel of the current situation to movies like the birdbox, a quiet place, etc. At this current day, life seems like the beginning of a dystopian apocalypse. However, in the movies, the situation accelerates too fast. Perhaps they, in the movies, never get the chance to “flatten the curve”. “Flatten the curve”; Another phase appears a lot on media in light of the pandemic. I shall pardon you the explanation assuming that at this time you will all be broadly aware of the mathematical models of infectious diseases. (if not then perhaps I shall write about it for you some other time)

Much like in the movies, media is flooded with the only thing "apparently" happening in the world right now. I admit having paid my fair share of heed to the apocalypse analogy. India has been on 21-days lockdown since March 24. So, I do spend uncountable hours scrolling through the news. I imagine an extension to the lockdown ... Lockdown lasting up to an indefinite time. A time when crumbling supply-chain and the crashing economy would be scattered on the green landscape of this spring. 

The spring of 2020, on the other hand, is one of the prettiest spring we have had in Delhi. The clear blue sky filled with puffy bright clouds. Birds are chirping everywhere. A pleasantly cool breeze flows towards the east. My cats purr while basking in the sun as the sunlight flies through their whiskers. It is a beautiful site. The sound of pin-drop silence is my favourite sound on any day of the year. However, at this time this silence is dire. Like we are tip towing in the eye of a hurricane. 

Or maybe, this abrupt spike in panic is all in my mind.  Anxiety makes you anticipate the most unfortunate scenarios. Meh! 

This too shall pass. 

How are you coping with the current times?  Let me know in the comment section below.

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