Lucky to be comparatively safe after 2 shots of vaccine!
As a super-senior, I got vaccinated twice and am now comparatively better protected! While scientists opined that it is better if we waited a bit longer for the second, we went ahead! The front-line workers were also given their second shot with a shorter gap of 28 days. So fingers crossed! To be really safe, the Covid 19 has to go away or the herd immunity has to spread deeper in to our sub-continent. In the meantime we need to stay home and stay safe!
I am now resigned to being locked down. Last year around this time, I was different! I showed my resentment for having lost control over my life. The way the pandemic is raging and that the younger lot are becoming victims and are fighting for their lives feels terrible and is extremely saddening.
Raxit, our son-in-law, who flew in from USA called from Mumbai. He said his journey from USA felt strange. ' It felt like being in a world-war! All we needed to do was to keep safe distance and practice safe hygiene by wearing a mask!'
We all know that simple things are the hardest for humans! The word ‘war’ set me thinking. A war is always unfortunate and this war against a non-human enemy seems even tougher. While armed conflict among humans has some sort of discipline and respect for leadership. The war against covid is chaotic.
Since the war against the Covid 19 was declared, it is the young who are in the forefront! They are required to keep the world running! They are the agricultural labor, factory workers, nurses and doctors, supporting staff, the municipal workers. They also include the grass roots political workers, police, administrators and yes the military. It is their job to see that our life goes on as usual. However in this war the people at the hospital are tested to the maximum!
Politics is beyond belief, and its ramifications are bound to be tragic. Tara observed 'the world is bound to see its worst and the best at such times!' Each country has chosen the way it wants to face this pandemic. Fair enough. This war, in fact, needs to be fought together with clear-cut strategies with experts guiding us! May be we will get there.
During the so-called Covid war, we did see battles being fought among humans in different parts of the world. Ignorance, fear and greed all are working as usual. It is as if the wars of yore, the Mahabharata, the various crusades protecting the religions of their choice, various invaders with their superior fighting abilities, the list is endless, are all fighting at the same time!
It seems attempts are made by some to correct all the hurtful past-mistakes in one stroke. Covid for them is an opportunity which should not be missed. The best time to attack your perceived enemy! I heard an young woman caution that it was a war nature has begun to destroy us unless we change! It is tempting for some to be seen as the new oracles!
Some experts are in agreement that it will be a long arduous haul and we need fundamental changes. Here I would like to mention CEEW , an indigenous think-tank which has been engaging experts to guide the world, when the time comes, to a path of recovery which is sustainable! (I have been meaning to write a blog for a long time Arunabha!)
Some of them wished "The world will work together and make this blue marble a better place!" I did mention some good deeds in my blogs. My golfing friend Prasanna helped in distributing food those who became jobless overnight! My cousin's son Anil Srivatsa spent days helping to make the returning migrant workers' journey to be less arduous. Many who employed helpers at home, paid them when they could not work during lock down. My grand children, Leela and Rhea, helped me with sketches for my blogs! Akshara, a friend’s Daughter, made a video on the Mahabharata story to keep herself occupied. Every such act is important. There would be many thousands more. We should chronicle all such good deeds for posterity. Webinars surely saved many; their jobs and their sanity!
Unfortunately, we also heard and keep hearing many horror stories as well. I do hope those responsible will be tried and punished. If pandemic is a war, then there could be punishment for 'pandemic war-crimes'.
Some wisdom from last year! There are many more!
The lockdown will NOT get rid of the virus... it’s about understanding that we will NOT get rid of it for the next year, or more, as it burns it’s way across the world, until we gradually develop a resistance, or even better, some REAL treatments or vaccines against it................................ Some people are going to die and we can only do our best to treat them as they come. ..Cape Town Rhuematoligist (?).......April 21, 2020
{This is a loaded advice, it is like conscripting soldiers during war time. It is based on the assumption that the probability of them getting seriously sick and die is low.}
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