Happy days will make a comeback

They are coming out of the woodwork, these doomsayers with their death knell messages and that self righteous drivel about the new normal and how things will never be the same again and life as we know it is going to hell in a basket. Yes, I admit things are tough and things are rough and yesterday seems miles away, but I like to go with that famous old French saying: "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" - the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I don't even read these articles or forwards anymore. What is the point of self-inflicting wounds? A friend of mine writes that it is the rich-poor gap that has caused the virus to spread. Maybe he is right, I have no clue, but how does recrimination help?
All this bleakness packaged with ill-concealed glee and stenciled 'For your mental discomfort', as if they had the inside track on the situation and had a duty to paint a bleak picture. Hey, we are coping as best as we can, so stop already.
I just received a forward telling me if I believe things will go back to what they were, I am living in a fool's paradise and how life will now change for the worse. You know what, take a hike, mate, and let me reside in my fool's Shangri La. Because in the end, the human spirit will overcome and I will cross the road and hug my grandkids and we will take a ride on a cosmic train and go out to dinner with friends and open the doors to laughter and warmth and togetherness.
One day, this too shall end for end it will, and if there are lessons to be learnt, we will learn them, but we are not yet ready to surrender the grand things that mark our world and make us what we are. Enough with the self-flagellation and the almost mean pleasure some are taking in painting these dark pictures under the garb of candour.
The world has been ravaged before. WWII went in for five years into the sixth. Nature was blown apart. Yet, man and Nature came through.
So tell your kids yes, we will go on vacation, yes we will reunite as family, our children and theirs will have a future, the world will right itself again. And for those who feel happy only when they are miserable, keep your misery to yourself. We would rather be ignorant and hope.
bikram@khaleejtimes.com