A Sign of the times

"...what more can be said save that… so great was the cruelty of heaven (and in part, peradventure, that of men) that, between March and the following July, what with the virulence of that pestiferous sickness and the number of sick folk ill tended or forsaken in their need, through the fearfulness of those who were whole, it is believed for certain that upward of an hundred thousand human beings perished within the walls of the city of Florence, which, peradventure, before the advent of that death-dealing calamity, had not been accounted to hold so many…"
                                             - Boccaccio 'The Decameron' 

It was all going well in the locality despite the worse news of a fast spreading pandemic of COVID-19 around the world. People weren’t panicking here until there peeped out a confirmed case and information on the real magnitude of the pandemic started surfacing the media. It was too late by the time people understood through reported death tolls the non-availability of a vaccine or a treatment protocol if contracted with the disease; and the rate of its spread was alarming by then. A microorganism so inconspicuous to the eye has already locked up the whole world to submission. The war it waged cost thousands their lives, leaving humanity with no means to cure, but to control. Now the Governments dived in with the control measures and bulletins.

As a part of control strategy, people all over the world were instructed on social distancing restricting themselves to their homes. Lots of countries have already gone for a complete lockdown. This put many of us into panic and some of us even went on so ‘selflessly’ to hoard essentials. India under corona’s clasp also started taking measures beginning with shutting down schools. Most companies went for a ‘work from home’. Then the Govt. started shutting down public spaces and colleges and universities as a part of controlling the spread. Once holidays were announced all hell broke loose. Students booking travel tickets, swarming out of hostels, jamming through all public transport, making all efforts to avoid mass gatherings impossible, putting themselves vulnerable to contracting the fast-spreading disease. Any situation of having even a single infected person amidst would make contract tracing, a tougher task even more difficult. But still hostels were shut down, food, water and electricity cut off, almost forcing anyone left to vacate.

I left a couple of days later, equipped with some hand-wash as we were instructed soap shields as prevention. People have left all stores empty of hand-sanitizers and masks, thanks to panic-buying. I wasn’t disturbed until I saw most people at the station wearing masks, moving around in crowds. As I started on the journey towards home, there were kids running around the compartment with soaps and playing games like, ‘here, you die of corona. I’ve caught you’. Things were normal until morning. I almost scared the shit out of everyone at the bay when I started sneezing continuously as I woke up in the morning. My sinusitis has never been so kind to me and since the air-conditioning was too much, it got so worse. I saw fear in everyone’s eyes as I was passing by with tissues to dispose.

 As we were then put to quarantine (hopefully still are), things floating around media (the virus still in air) exposed the differences to the pandemic among different facets of humanity. The Govt. instructed all the people to stay indoors to prevent community spreading of the disease and suddenly posts on hardships of staying indoors became a trend in social media. We were all so mindful in entertaining ourselves with games nominating our friends, while the ones on real trouble out there are the poor, homeless and the destitute. The Govt. also experimented on a one-day lockdown throughout the nation staging, ‘Janata curfew’ which ended so ironically successful with a marching of people in many places, clapping and clamoring (as instructed by the PM himself) expressing their gratitude to the medical community so unintentionally highlighting the purpose of the lockdown. In a society of tradition valuing plant foods superior, there were serious racist remarks and spreading hatred (like the virus) on how the Chinese consuming animals set the world into a pandemic and the U.S president (no wonder) so hearteningly called it, ‘Chinese virus’. But with the mRNA-1237 under test in labs, hoping for a vaccine by the coming year, the scientific community is on a ‘no time to die’ pace, even as Gods were themselves in quarantine.

As a wish of the world, let this pandemic end, for I’d then write on it as - CORONA - With a name so vogue, she sounded so feminine. She was silent yet fierce and held a serene penance. As it ended, she unleashed a raging anger – a wreaking catastrophe cruel enough for perishing lives sparing anyone but human. In her arms, the earth rested so comfortable, with the perpetrators busy fighting a pandemic. She spared all nature, letting alone human beings to suffer.