Corona times..2020 -09. It will be a while! But will go away!
This blog mostly reflects thoughts of many who are as worried as any!
Glad to see children involved and contributing. Leela, who drew 'Corona Devi' is our granddaughter and elder sister of Rhea. I keep praying that Corona will go away soon and children will begin to have a normal life. May be a bit subdued!
As we worry about our future on this planet!
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| Rhea says it all in one sentence |
Our ancestors did come through such calamities. The times were different and conditions were generally unhygienic. It was said (in hindsight?) that epidemics went out of hand as those at the helm of affairs were irresponsible.
A current leader, trying to remain in power, is a clear example of this irresponsibility. He reminds one of Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray, who sold his soul to the devil to remain handsome for ever, however his portrait showed the ravages of his dissolute life. Unfortunately a democratic country is now paying for the poor choice they made. There is an accusation that another autocratic country let loose the virus on purpose in a bid to rule the world. It will be apocalyptic if the rest of the world chose to punish this evil doer. Interestingly some countries seem to have escaped disaster somehow. India has been lucky so far! Will the luck hold?
I would not like to tread on the mine-field and speak of what religions have done in the last three months of the epidemic. Yes religions do give solace in these troubled times, but once religion is hijacked by politicians, there is no way to predict how it will all end.
To fight a war you need to know the enemy well. These picture of the virus is artistic and endearing. I guess the colors are added by the electron microscope to segregate the virus from the human cells. They are so tiny that a strand of a human hair can fit in 800 of them across their width.
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Over 4,800 species of viruses have been described in detail out of the millions in the environment. Viruses have probably existed since living cells first evolved. Their origin remains unclear because they do not fossilize. The Molecular methods rely on the availability of ancient viral DNA or RNA. We have only been successful in tracing the ancestry of viruses that evolved in the 20th century. New groups of viruses might have repeatedly emerged at all stages of the evolution of life. (Wikipedia)
This tiny invisible Virus is complicated and it is difficult for a common man to grasp its dangers. In spite of all the knowledge we possess we were caught badly this time.
Times were simpler for us as kids. Come summer, we would be hosts for Mumps, Measles and Chicken Pox. (Not all.) As youngsters we believed that writing a message 'Go away - come tomorrow' on the main door of our homes would keep them away. We offered prayers to the many deities our ancestors had created to protect us.
We would swallow quinine pills every night after meals, did get vaccinated against chicken pox. I do not remember triple vaccine. A lot of confident solutions are now given by one and all. Trusting them or as there is no other viable option, people will follow these experts. Hopefully it will work, at least not harm us.
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| Leela illustrated an idea that came to me of an anthropomorphic deity 'Corona Devi' . One who is pleased with a prayer and a song in her praise. Corona has two aspects, cruel for some! But does not attack all of us and is mild for most of us attacked. |
We all know the basics. The virus is passed on to us by an infected person when he coughs. Isolation is the key. A +ve person may carry the virus but will not show the symptoms. So 'test' 'test' 'test' is the slogan. Pretty hard to check 138 crores of us in India.
WHO has given a solution of total lock down. A kind of 'on and off' ' plan. An impregnable fort needs to be built. This idea of a fortress is age old, King Parikshit tried to stop a snake from biting him to death. He had many guards, hid on top of a specially built inaccessible abode.
Lock down is in place and there are issues. There are gaps and it does victimize the old living alone and the lower middle class. States have barricaded their borders. Some cities which are corona free want to forbid entry to others. Even if it is not totally impregnable, try we must. I am told the poor are already taken care of. The rich know what to do!
The other alternative is trust our people and remove all curbs and let people take responsibility and keep distance and isolate if one of them is infected. It is some kind of Karmic approach. It is argued that we cannot depend on our people to be disciplined. I have been in India and abroad. And I can vouch that we Indians, undisciplined as we are, can work this out. Yes there will be a cost!
A town during Mahabharata times faced a calamity when their king was unable to defeat a demon. He saved himself by working out a deal with the demon and vanished. The town had to send a person each day to the demon to satisfy his need for human meat. The dwellers had no choice but to follow this, they had a system wherein each day a chosen family would send a kin from their home. It was not perfect. Some rich could avoid their turn by paying a poor family to send their kin. But the town survived and life went on! Later Bhimasena (a vaccine!) appeared and saved the town by killing the demon.
Yes it is idealistic. Can our elected leaders accept more responsibilities? My suggestion is to make each urban place into wards and make the elected leaders, the local MLA and MP to stay in their respective areas and motivate and educate the people and work with the police and other enforcing authorities. Similar plans could be made for the smaller places. (Tara tells me that it is already happening, Karnataka government and Delhi have asked the elected leaders to do this! So it would be in many more states!)
It is sure that the lock down will continue till the end of April. And I urge the lock down is removed after that and let the elected leaders continue to take care and ensure that the social distancing and others personal safety habits are followed. We can take a review after two weeks. Let us face it! There is no easy quick-fix. There will be victims surely. There will be underhand deals as well! I do hope the agencies who keep watch will be vigilant and those who indulge in criminal activities are nipped in the bud.
The experts have spoken and they all are in agreement that it will be a long arduous haul and we need fundamental changes. It will be a while before people travel again on holidays. The planes and cruise ships will be like the dinosaurs. Unless of course, the whole system gets an overhaul. Automobiles using fossil fuels could be banned. Hopefully the world will bite the bullet. Obviously, to ensure social distancing, lesser numbers will visit the sacred places of religion and popular gurus would have less numbers thronging their huge places of enlightenment. The wish list can be endlessly long!.
In short, the rising graph of corona disease is sure to flatten the riches of the wealthy, and this should hopefully reduce over consumption of the well off! At least in the foreseeable future. May be I am talking like an imbecile here!
Comments
I would like to share your optimism.aftet that it will probably push the economy back by at least 50 yearsš¤£
The famous quote by Swami Chinmayananda is
Faith is, ‘To believe what you do not see’, the reward of which is, ‘you see what you believed’.
DVG also talks about this in a couple of write-ups. Sajjana Rao was criticized for building the temple when that money could have better utilized for other charitable purposes, so he asked DVG about it. DVG initially made fun of him, saying that had he asked the question earlier, he could have saved a lot of money. But when he saw that Sajjana Rao was serious, his reply was that the temple would stand forever offering solace to people who are scared by events in their lives and have the belief that it will be handled by a higher power.
Another write-up was about Hanagal Virupaksha Shastri, teacher of the Sringeri Shankaracharya at the Bangalore Shankara Matha in the early 1900's. He believed in animal sacrifices, and the justification was that the animal would attain a higher station in next life. While DVG did not subscribe to it, he salutes Shastri for the unshakable belief and sincere actions.