The entire planet is witnessing the horrors of the COVID-19 and it is not very often that one gets to hear a good news. However, I have been lucky. My wife gave birth to a little bundle of joy on the October 2, 2020. Birth of my daughter seems to have changed me and my life altogether. I don’t think I have ever been happier or there has been anything else that has filled my heart with so much joy before. Not only is my daughter’s sight a dose of oxytocin (hormone that plays a role in social bonding), but her smile is the ultimate dopamine (hormone that plays a role in pleasure). You see, recreational drugs, such as Methamphetamine, induce dopamine which induce a sense of pleasure in our brain. Slowly, our brain gets used to the previous levels of dopamine and then everything else seems dull and boring – contributing to addiction. Similarly, the sight of my daughter’s smile is a perfect recreational drug – there is nothing else in this world that pleases me more. For example, I recently published an article in a top rated journal and it felt like just a small feat. Previously, having an article accepted for publication, even in an average periodical, used to be a major highlight of my year. I used to be overjoyed and remained in hangover of having published for weeks to come. This time, however, all I cared about was the pictures of my daughter on my phone.
While becoming a parent has made me the happiest person on this planet, I have also found that this happiness is fragile. I find my happiness threatened by every malice in our society that could affect the quality of life of my child. Most of all, I often find my heart crying for children born in poverty and abject conditions. I can hardly bear my child crying for milk when she is hungry which lacerates my heart thinking about the pains of those parents who had to see their children slowly die in their arms from hunger. A few days back, I spent the entire night holding my child because she was in pain after getting her vaccine shots. Just the thought of needles piercing my baby’s skin makes me want to destroy the entire humanity for hurting my daughter, but then I am forced to think of the pains of those innocent kids who were born in troubled regions and had to face bombings and painful separation from their parents. These thoughts are depressing and we are aware of them all; however, it is not until we have a piece of our own flesh and blood in our arms that we empathise so deeply with the rest of the human race, and realise the true value of a happy society for everyone. I know I can’t do much for those poor kids but I have decided that I will save some money every year to donate to UNICEF or WFP. My contribution may not be of much help to those disadvantaged but I just hope that it might assuage the pain that I feel for the rest of our humanity – a very selfish thought though.
Dreaming biologist 