COVID Paradox

Just a few hours before writing this article, I was standing in a queue outside a grocery store in my locality in Mumbai. It didn’t take me much long to realize that I was being stared upon by some masked individuals in that queue as If I was an alien. Sooner I realized that it was perhaps because I was the only one not wearing a mask there. Now, scientifically, if I am not suffering from any symptomatic indications like cough, cold, fever or breathing disorder and maintaining a safe physical distance from others, it doesn’t really matter, whether or not I am wearing a mask, because the chances of contamination are considerably minimalized. That’s exactly what even Medical councils throughout world have been advocating. However, I was told by the shop owner that I couldn’t step inside the shop without covering my face. I took out my handkerchief to use as a mask before an over smart self proclaimed crusader of Corona Go Back movement promptly commented that your hanky should be properly tied around your face not just hanging on it. Trust me my folks, I am in general quite caring in nature but at that moment, I literally felt like going and sneezing on that man’s face directly. Oh ya, it would have given him a real taste of paranoia.

In either ways, I don’t have anything against these attention seekers, neither it is my profound hatred and ultimate negatively predisposed attitude towards that cunning China, that’s making me write this article today. It’s purely because I am a proud, tolerant and civilized Indian, who never misses a chance to advocate strongly against Xenophobia and Hypocrisy.

What really got my attention towards reading about COVID 19 was the incredible manner in which three main stream subjects of Medicine, Econometrics and Statistics came together to form a congregation against a demographic pandemic. Nonetheless, the so called crusaders of pure blood, xenophobes and hypocrites have time and again proven themselves to be more highlighted than their genuine counterparts, as they now have a justified reason to discriminate, stigmatize, ostracise and divide the human society on the basis of their sick mind set. This is not the first time though. Those of you have grown up during the AIDS epidemic of 80s and 90s would be able to relate to this situation with such a similarity. Time and again, we as humans of 21st century global era, have reflected upon our own prejudices and biases. This lockdown period, do Introspect honestly and genuinely so that you can assign a degree of selfishness and hypocrisy to yourself.

Our Mother land has its own mechanisms of self cleansing and detoxification. Although, 21 days of lockdown was the bare minimum and perhaps the maximum we can afford, the air quality in almost all the cities in India and around the world, have been the cleanest so far. Pollution levels are at their record lows, green house gas emissions are at their minimalist level in decades, fuel consumption is dramatically reduced. I know, I am sounding, insensitive towards those affected adversely. So let’s talk numbers folks. Till date, at the moment of completing this article, the total number of COVID 19 cases reported worldwide is 975598 , out of which 204827 have fully recovered and released. Number of mortalities stands at 49452. Sad, but let’s not forget, in all this episode of COVID, there were thousands of health workers, doctors, nurses, hygiene and sanitation professionals, Paramedics, First responders, emergency care givers, who worked effortlessly and inexplicably to get those more than 250000 people cured. They we’re never xenophobes, they were also not angels, but were just human beings, that they were supposed to be at the time of crisis.. Physical distancing, social isolation does not make you less of a human. It doesn’t make you emotionally distant from the world surrounding us. And it shouldn’t as well.

Perhaps the most resilient in all this epidemic throughout have been we Indians. Of course we were very prompt and pro active in our immediate response, from cancelling all International visas and flights to blocking the entire local transportation system. We are witnesses to one of the world’s biggest lockdowns ever and what a survivor’s instinct we have. Thanks to our gene pool, we are naturally, innately and inherently immune to lots of microbes. Considering millions in India are born and raised in extremely unhygienic, unhealthy at times unliveable conditions and yet we survive like the way our civilization is one of the longest surviving in the world.

Nevertheless, I am desperately waiting for this lockdown to get over and hoping wholeheartedly that our cunning neighbour in East does not experiment with any other microbes as a means to develop biological weapons of mass destruction. They have already caused enough harm to regions struggling for their independence for decades now, be it Hong Kong, Macau or Tibet or rest of the Democratic world.