‘We Will Rise and Shine Again’, by Pooja Thapa (English Teacher, Secondary level)

It was 2020, and just like every year, people were thrilled to welcome it.

Everyone happily ‘bade adieu’ to 2019 and warmly welcomed 2020. Many people had resolutions for the coming year and I was one of them, with plans to tour many places since I was new in Nepal. But I couldn’t make it, as it wasn’t an ordinary year.

Nobody had ever dreamt that, not only a country, but the whole world would be suffering from this terrifying virus called “corona”. I mean this was something beyond anyone's imagination. We heard about the virus in the middle of January 2020 but nobody was that bothered, as we thought that there would be a cure and everything would get better soon.

However, as time passed, we came to know about how many cases there were and how quickly the cases were rising - in the blink of an eye. And so, we had our first lockdown on March 23^rd, 2020 - which was for our amelioration. But, by the 3rd of June there was still no good news. Countless people had lost their lives, countless deaths in a day.

Everyone faced such adverse and heart wrenching circumstances. Migrants were sent back to their hamlets as they had no work to do and they did not have money for their survival. And many people suffered from starvation and lack of shelter.

Hopefully, the government dispensed provisions to the indigents and transportation facilities to the migrants. However, the whole world is still suffering and we are still fighting the pandemic. Things are now much better than before, but we need to be patient. The World will rise again - this is just a phase. We are dealing with it and soon we'll come out of this.

So stay home, and stay safe.