I join millions of others in saying goodbye to a year that was (we can finally talk about it in the past tense!) unmatched in its suffering and devastation in a hundred years. “How much longer?” is the question on everyone’s mind. Every sniffle we hear sends us scampering away. Sanitisers have chafed our hands and social distancing lessened our need and desire for company.

Enter 2021. Not quite sure of how to receive it, we stand on the side like onlookers hoping it will be kinder than the one that has left. Allowing us to live the way we used to before 2020 gave us that jolt. Giving us our freedom back, to travel, to meet and to exist.

What does the Lahori in me want for 2021? I would say, masks for all, if I weren’t afraid of the negativity surrounding this wish. I hope we don’t wear masks because the reason to wear them is no longer present. It vanishes just as briskly as it came, leaving us unmasked folks to revel in the joy of seeing unhidden faces once again. Having said this, can we please be more serious about this virus if it does persist? Stay away from weddings and not host them either.

Lahore seems to have got most second-wave infections from large gatherings which should have been capped at a far lower number of people than it is currently. We Lahoris enjoy socialising, food and all events big and small. Apart from a few places, the SOPs in the city are really wanting. If we are to flatten the curve, not only do we have to be more socially responsible as Pakistanis but also as citizens of the world who are trying to beat this pandemic together.

What does the Lahori in me want for 2021? I would say, masks for all, if I weren’t afraid of the negativity surrounding this wish. But I hope we don’t wear masks because the reason to wear them is no longer present. It vanishes just as briskly as it came, leaving us unmasked folks to revel in the joy of seeing unhidden faces once again. Having said this, can we please be more serious if the virus does persist?

On a more personal level, I would love to come back every few months to a cleaner Lahore, where the drainage and garbage facilities are better, the hospitals are not strewn with people in the corridors and the citizens abide by traffic rules. Where schools are not run as a business and children can have cleaner air to breathe. Rated as the most polluted city in the world by the US Air Quality Index (AQI), it is choking on smog caused by smoke from brick kilns and steel mills, burning of garbage and cutting of trees. 2021 should be a year to make Lahore green, plant more trees and provide cleaner air to people who live here.

My hopes for 2021 for Lahore also include a more inclusive society in which merit and character define the person more than wealth and connections, where the boundaries between haves and have-nots becomes less clear and a person is judged more on what he is rather than what he possesses, where a person’s values are reflected in his behaviour and not how he looks.

Existing in and recovering from a Covid-19 world has not been easy for anyone. We, Lahorites, stand united with others in loss and pain. Let us move forward into 2021 with a resolve to improve the quality of life of the city’s inhabitants by doing our bit.

The author is a freelance writer and creative writing teacher based in Manila. She is also the author of the novella, Our Small Lives, and can be followed   on Twitter @EmaadSehr