May 13, 2025
It’s been one of those weeks, one that sometimes feels like a month and at the same time feels like a heartbeat. India attacked Pakistan, Pakistan responded, and Indian media went berserk and ‘attacked’ Rawalpindi, Karachi, and Islamabad. It was embarrassing watching India being joked about by other countries. Then Trump tweeted about a ceasefire, and both India and Pak insisted the other had capitulated. Trump tweeted again, acting like a school marm with a stick, and threatened, you can’t get any trade unless you stop your war. Most Indias were pissed with him and some Indians also wondered why our PM wasn’t telling him to get lost, but our PM was lost himself until last evening.
The PM made a 20-minute speech at 8 pm IST last evening. Most of what he said had been said before. He did tell us India will not be blackmailed by nuclear threats or threats of trade. He did say India-Pak was a bi-lateral issue, but he didn’t clearly tell Trump to get lost and some of us wondered why. India had stood against bullies before.
I watched a discussion about his speech during which the speech was praised as powerful. One person even said it was the most powerful speech ever made by any politician and I was like, dude, were you born yesterday or do you think the rest of us were. Anyway, it felt like Orwellian doublespeak, which left me wondering if had missed something ‘powerful’ in his speech and if I should replay it. Later before I slept, I was pleased to watch another press conference where the person brought up the unanswered questions that I had been left with. Like last week I was relieved that someone had spoken what I had been feeling. Lesson one of this week was to trust my gut and sing my tunes even when the world was blasting other noise.
In the behind the scenes stuff during this week a big one was about China assisting Pakistan during this mini-battle — many say that they were using Pak to test their defense equipment against Western made defense equipment used by India. The Chinese equipment did well, and the share value of the arms company rose. I wonder if that is one reason the ceasefire happened. China seems to have gained in field tests as well as economically and I wonder if the terrorists that killed the civilians in Baisaran were funded by China. They haven’t yet been caught or killed, and I hope they will be soon — preferably caught so there is a chance to find out who sent them.
Meanwhile most of us could get on with our insignificant lives or let me amend that and say that I got on with my own insignificant life and struggles. Lately I have been feeling down as I feel like I have been going in never ending circles with some problems in my own life, but I had been feeling that I had made some progress towards healing my knee and ankle. But in that urgency to feel a forward movement, I rushed and pushed, and suffered a major setback there. This set off a period of gloom and brain fog and paralysis (which was particularly easy to slip into under these circumstances where the threat of a nuclear war hung). Today I am emerging from five days of level 8 pain with the second lesson of this week, a big lesson, that at this age any gains in body healing will have to be slow and steady, and pushing beyond limits is daft. I’m sad but it is what it is.
This morning, I woke low and saw several people had sent me the same forward — about the PM’s speech and what a precedent Operation Sindoor had set. I almost didn’t get on to the monthly call I have with a group of writer friends, the Prosers, I had met during an online class. Part of me wanted to wallow and I was convinced the Americans wouldn’t possibly get what I was feeling. But I got on the call and everyone was in a slump. A person was angry because her very rich boss was ‘instantly’ closing the company she works in. She had to figure out her life in a heartbeat. Another works in environment and under the new Trump regime was worried about her job. Both hoped they would write a million-dollar book and be worry free. I did too. Another was sad because her best friend’s dog was in ICU, and the last of the group didn’t attend because he was going through a mini-nervous breakdown. All of us are worried about him. We spoke also about the importance of being kind to everyone during these times. I’ve been an hermit lately so the authentic social contact even with others who were also in a slump felt reviving.
So yes, three big lessons this week on a personal level. The first two mentioned above to trust the gut, and let healing find its own pace. The last was, get on those calls and don’t cancel those one-to-ones with people you trust as authentic relating is also healing.
A calm beat amidst setbacks on so many levels. Breathe easy and love yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment