The world we are living in today is witnessing the destruction of humankind. Ever since the novel coronavirus broke out, nations have fallen apart and millions of lives have been claimed. Nations announced complete lockdowns, confining everyone to their homes. Despite the fact that epidemics and pandemics have occurred every once in a while, COVID-19 is most certainly the first viral outbreak of this nature and scale in our lifetime! Today, we don't break into song as easily nor do we crack jokes as we used to. We are always striving to remain politically correct, all while allowing ourselves to embrace momentary grief instead of unbridled joy.

During such unprecedented times of global crisis and the ever-rising need for mental health, it is time people finally address the elephant in the room by simply acknowledging the fact that a person's mental health is ten folds more important than their physical well-being. This takes us back to when Suhel Seth, the founder & managing partner of the consultancy firm Counselage India, and a well-known columnist spoke about the importance of friends, family, and happiness in our lives.

Seth firmly points out that we are all so intertwined with our smartphones that we refuse to participate in the simple joys of life. We have quite conveniently replaced the art of conversations with instant text messages and DMs, accompanied by some garrulous laughing and temporary celebrations. Especially at a time of social distancing, we are all left with nothing but a handful of our social media handles to fiddle with. As Suhel has rightly put, "We are living in a generation where the art of writing is slowly dying away owing to the clutter in our heads. Our evenings end when the evening ends. They don’t linger as fond memories. They are abrupt and never enduring. We long for the evening to end so that we can tick the relevant box of social arrival or acceptance as the case may be."

Seth further explains how life is too short to dwell only in the present and eradicate the joyful memories of the past. Especially at a time when so many of us are away from our loved ones and the rest confined in their homes, it is time we begin celebrating the smaller things of life in bits and bobs. So, this time around, bring back memories by reliving every inch of them, immerse yourselves in priceless laughter of old photo albums. This is the time for you to allow yourselves to flourish and prevail in Suhel Seth’s simple recipe of happiness.

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