{"id":29729,"date":"2020-12-15T07:42:33","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T03:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=29729"},"modified":"2020-12-15T07:42:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T03:42:33","slug":"2020-the-unique-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2020-the-unique-year\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 – The Unique Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sonakshi Seetohul<\/strong>, London<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We all know that 2020 will be unique<\/span><\/p>\n

As days turn into weeks, then months<\/span><\/p>\n

We near the end of the year<\/span><\/p>\n

When lockdowns have taught us to value and appreciate whatever we have<\/span><\/p>\n

At first we thought Covid-19 was a type of flu<\/span><\/p>\n

And would soon go away<\/span><\/p>\n

But it looks like it has come to stay<\/span><\/p>\n

We listen to the government as we think they know what\u2019s best<\/span><\/p>\n

Stay at home and isolate is the request<\/span><\/p>\n

Masked faces, sanitized hands and social distancing have become the norm<\/span><\/p>\n

Grounded planes no longer leave<\/span><\/p>\n

As the virus spreads from one country to another<\/span><\/p>\n

Travel restrictions imposed on whatever holidays planned<\/span><\/p>\n

Air travel and foreign holidays may become a distant memory<\/span><\/p>\n

But we can still keep in touch with our friends and family far away<\/span><\/p>\n

As we can use Zoom and WhatsApp to connect with loved ones abroad<\/span><\/p>\n

Had it happened 20 years ago, life would have been different<\/span><\/p>\n

No video calls or online shopping<\/span><\/p>\n

In this great world of ours there is so much to see,<\/span><\/p>\n

But all our streets are empty<\/span><\/p>\n

Shops, pubs and theatres are closed<\/span><\/p>\n

Usually bustling and full of sparkling lights<\/span><\/p>\n

Especially as Christmas approaches<\/span><\/p>\n

All music has ceased<\/span><\/p>\n

All performances remain unclapped<\/span><\/p>\n

History books will talk of the time the world stood still<\/span><\/p>\n

At war with an enemy unseen –<\/span><\/p>\n

A nasty bug called Covid-19<\/span><\/p>\n

Hoping one day we shall step out of doors<\/span><\/p>\n

Without sanitizing hands and putting masks on our faces<\/span><\/p>\n

Walk down the streets,<\/span><\/p>\n

Meet families and friends,<\/span><\/p>\n

Enjoy a cup of coffee and maybe a slice of cake.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dec 2020<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on 15 December 2020<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sonakshi Seetohul, London<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":22507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7946],"tags":[26926,22005,11601,26180,8378,23688],"class_list":["post-29729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poem","tag-26926","tag-covid-19","tag-poem","tag-sonakshi-seetohul","tag-whatsapp","tag-zoom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Poem.jpg?fit=1175%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-7Jv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}