The Fault In Our Stars — Really?
I loved The Fault In Our Stars — be it the novel or the movie. This story is poignant and a heart-wrenching love story about two teenagers who struggle to keep their love together moved me to bits.
Besides the story, I marveled at the quotes from it because they taught me the essence of love and life.
In the current fear-gripped situation, I’ve tried to use the quotes from The Fault In Our Stars that are worthy of consideration.
Keeping in mind the unforgiving COVID-19, these quotes will resonate with each one of us.
We cannot choose to negotiate with the virus to not infect us, however, we have some say in who infects us — this is in our control.
Maintaining physical distancing — 1 meter, taking 20 seconds to wash our hands and face, and ensuring 0 excuses to flout these guidelines.
Wear the mask, cough and sneeze in our elbow, and go outside only if we are in dire need of something, such as groceries, medicines, or baby food.
How true is this? Perhaps, we all understand the meaning and what it tries to convey. We all have been into one situation or the other; when either we weren’t able to keep up with our promises or someone else couldn’t.
When the news about the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world, each one of us had only one thought — to get out alive, isn’t? We had many suggestions, plans, ideas, but when all of these things culminated into government’s guidelines and the first call-to-action, a majority of them received them with open arms — one week over, two weeks over, and then we started complaining — boredom, we felt like being caged; also experienced irritability and panic.
What happened to our promises that we made on the first day after this pandemic was announced to be dangerous and life-threatening?
The promise was not meant for that fleeting moment, but for the period until this unpleasant situation lasts. So, if we love ourselves, our family and friends — we must keep up with our promises.
We’re happy because we are surrounded by our near and dear ones. So, weigh both these situations — whether we want to love them, or we want to miss them. The decision is ours.
This pandemic COVID-19 is the reason for people being away from work, at home together and vaguely calm despite being nervous during the lockdown period. Think again — either to love or to miss.
This quote is beautiful when we’re in love, isn’t?
Let’s apply the anthropomorphism technique here, and God forbid, imagine for a second, what if COVID-19 microbe, which is .125 micrometers first clings on, professes its love, and then whispers — “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”
Does this analogy affright us?
If we feel the jitters, it’s the right time to think — freedom to roam about during the lockdown period or be mindful of social distancing when we go out grocery shopping?
Nearly a month ago, the time spent at home with our family was a faraway truth. We were all scattered in different directions. Our immediate world was phone, work, commuting nearly 4–5 hours every day on the roads to reach our destinations.
This virus has put a brake to everything, literally to everything. Nobody could escape — it was a “red light” for all of us, regardless of race, faith, economic conditions, countries, or languages.
This is the time to thank for all the little blessings we have in our lives — saying a prayer, chirping of the birds, waking up to the sunrise, the wind ruffling our hair, the things we can buy, eat and most importantly to be alive.
This virus has literally given us — “a forever within the numbered days” in all positivity. It has given us the lessons to make us understand how fortunate we are to avail of the basic things that we have that most of them don’t have.
This is the time when communities are coming together to help one another to distribute food, share a ride, send medical supplies, perform charity, being sensitive, collaborative and above all becoming a “humane world” again.
This dreadful time will go away sooner — with the wish to never come back again, but it has given mankind the biggest, most powerful and meaningful life lessons.
Don’t let this virus take us over. We can control it with the guidelines and measures that have been suggested to us.
We shouldn’t remorse later about the things that we could have conformed to for containing this virus, but we didn’t heed the guidelines given to us by the government and medical fraternity and eventually, God forbid, we get infected.
