Hakuna matata : An Old Grandmother Story

By Pavan Kaushik

Everyone has stories of childhood and I am no different. Both the grandmother (Dadi and
Nani) have narrated amazing stories that travelled from a lost princess to finding lost treasure.
Every story was in a series and it had never ending end. Most of us also slept while hearing
these stories, as if they were meant for the said purpose only.
But few common words that every grandmother has indirectly told all of us is “Hakuna
Matata” – which means “don’t worry about things that are beyond your control”. If you
could find a solution, put your energy in finding solution, or wait for the natural way to getting a solution. “Time heals and restores everything” she had said.
We believed and still believe in those words, but today, we try finding ways to disconnect
sometimes.
No one knew that a dangerous virus would erupt from a place called Wuhan in China and
would make every country helpless. The virus would spread faster than a rumour and billions of people would be affected within days. When we were looking forward to conquering moon, here on earth, an unknown virus was busy challenging our science and technology.
The impact of Coronavirus is defined in two ways. One side is showing us a threat to the
mankind. And other side is showing us the balance of nature – proving that – if it wasn’t
human, the nature, the water, the air, the mountains, the oceans, the forests, the animals,
the streams etc would have been as the god created them.
The first has become threat to the economies of the world, devastating the industries, jobs
and bringing stagnancy to complete growth & development system. Last four months of
uncertainty and fight against the Coronavirus has challenged every nation and human being.
“To stay alive, stay at home. Stay at home if you want others to be alive too..”
Millions of people are stuck in India away from their home and the worst affected are daily
wagers and small businessmen. Stuck as on where basis, these huge contributors of nation’s growth story are moving barefoot to their native State. When the air has improved, the scarcity of food, water and transport has made them walk miles and miles in search of their homes.
Money has the purchasing power. No money. No power. On the brighter side, the nature has created a balance and proved yet again that it gave a clean and pious world to the human being and what you see today is not because the nature could not take care of itself, but only because the human didn’t deserve it.
Nature has the power to defend itself. No matter what. Right now, billions of people have gladly accepted being caged. But the day it not far when these caged birds would come out of their nests and look forward to fly and fly higher. The wings have taken enough rest and are now bursting with energy.

The government also knows the loss to the exchequer and human life. Government also
knows that jobs are at stake and millions of houses might be struggling to survive. Thus,
besides launching various economic packages, the government would also be geared up
economy back on the track, with much more thrust. Relaxing restrictions and much needed
support to the industries will revive the wheels of production. The cycle of employment will
gain momentum. Jobs will bring back the purchasing power and the purchasing power will
revive the micro economy as well. Every industry will be keen to find that lost foothold in their business.
The year 2020 has given all of us a break to build our hope, dreams, vision, missions and
commitment for the year 2021 and onwards. The year 2020 has been an investment – a fixed deposit of our hard work – which would bring results in the year 2021 and in the years ahead. We are sitting on a needle. Needle that is forcing us to stay still. To remain still one needs patience.
Coronavirus had made an ‘Indian Namaste’ as the global welcome gesture. With 130 billion
people in India, we are destined to make ‘Made in India’ label shine again. Government,
corporate world, manpower, investors, banks and all other services would be looking to invest the patience, commitment and the energy that we have stored during the time of lockdown.
Meanwhile, let us all sharpen our skills and polish our vision. We might not get time to look
back at 2020.
My grandmother stories always had happy ending. The princess got the prince and the good human always found the treasure. After all, if this is “Hakuna Matata” and when things are beyond our control, let us put our collective energy on things that would be under our control once the lockdown is over.
Till then – HAKUNA MATATA…