Thursday, 31 December 2020

RING OUT 2020

 

RING OUT 2020

The year 2020 was not the one which deserves to be thanked for having come, but it does deserve a quick farewell with the REQUEST not to cast its ugly shadows on any future year of our beautiful  planet.

The Covid-19 pandemic which emerged in almost the very beginning of the year and continued to prevail throughout the year,  disturbed almost every area of human life all over the world. It became a deadly curse, day in and day out, affecting the health and happiness of millions of people.  There was no immediate remedy to curb it except to bring a change   in the human behaviour, like masking the face, keeping  social distance, and washing hands frequently, remaining indoors and avoiding all sorts of physical gatherings.

The hope of getting rid of this harrowing affliction or even putting a strong check on  it, rested on the most intelligent medical fraternity.  Thank God they rose to the occasion and  through their fast and intensive research succeeding in producing best possible results in the form of vaccines.

Each one of us should earnestly pray to the invisible forces above  that the vaccine which comes into being turns out to be safe and effective and becomes accessible to every eligible person at a modest price.

What follows are some stanzas  of a poem written by English poet Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892).  Though very old, the core message of the poem is as relevant today as it ever was. 

The title of the poem is “Ring Out, Wild Bells.”

“Ring out the old, ring in the new,/Ring happy bells, across the snow;/The year is going, let it go;/ Ring out the false, ring in the true

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,/For those that here we see no more;/Ring out the feud of rich and poor,/Ring in redress of all mankind.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,/ The faithless coldness of the times;/ Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, /But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,/Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;/Ring out the thousand wars of old,/ Ring in the thousand years of peace.”

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Wishing all the readers a perfectly healthy and happy New Year 2021.

                                                                                    G.R.KANWAL: 31.12.2020

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