3 Ways We Can Handle the 2nd Covid Wave Better

My 11 year old woke me up today when he snuggled up to my bed and lay his head on my shoulder. Looking outside the window across my chest, he spoke words that carried the weight of a night of intermittent sleep - "Papa, I don’t think this lockdown is going to ever end. And I hate my online classes. Will I ever meet my friends again?”

I gave him a hug and wondered if my words would ring hollow if I said, “Beta, it is a matter of a few months”. We spoke for a bit, lying next to each other. He spoke about death. His theory about what happens when someone dies. His prediction that he will now only go to school in 2-3 years.

I listened mostly. And during gaps in his rumination, I told him that I was amazed at his deep thinking. I shared the concept of impermanence. How things change. How this too shall pass. How by the time monsoons are over, he will be going to his school and attending physical classes.

Our chat seemed to help. With a kiss on my cheek, he said, “Enough, now I want to go and play Minecraft”. I was relieved to see my 11year old back. But it got me thinking that children and adults around the country are caught up crystal gazing when this menace of Covid will end or whether this will ever end at all.

As I got up and walked out, I passed my Mom’s room to the shrill sound of a news channel blaring, “Lucknow main aaj shamshaan ghaat main………”. She was sitting watching intently with a creased forehead, gory scenes of dead bodies and funeral pyres. I switched off the TV and asked her, “How is this helping? Sitting here, watching more and more news seems to be adding to your anxiety. Did you miss your morning meditation?" She snapped out of her reverie and said with a weak smile. “Punjab main bhi bahut bura haal hai”. “Aap Mumbai main baithe ho. Why don’t we look at what you can do here instead of worrying about the whole world” I gently nudged her. 

These two incidents were playing on my mind and I thought it’ll be helpful to share how we can handle the current situation better. How do we stop ourselves from getting consumed from the constant barrage of negative news and falling victim to doomsday predictions. There are 3 simple principles that can help us navigate this crisis:

#1 Remember Impermanence

Gautam Buddha taught us the universal truth of impermanence. Nothing is permanent. Things are always changing. So for us to project the current difficult situation all the way to the future, tends to increase anxiety. Meditating, deep breathing or silence, helps us get in touch with the reality of impermanence. Knowing that this too shall pass is important. It helps us from falling in the grip of anxiety, fear and depression. So break it down. Take it one day at a time. It might get worse before it gets better. But it will pass. 

#2 Be the Cause

When we spend inordinate time scrolling through our twitter feed, watching news, reading WhatsApp forwards, we come under the effect of things happening around us. Sitting in Mumbai or Bangalore, we can’t do anything today about the rising cases in Lucknow or Punjab. The more news we watch, the higher our anxiety and fear becomes. And repeatedly talking to each other about how bad the situation is, just makes it worse. It is helpful to shift focus towards things that are under our control. What can we control?

First, take care of your own safety. Have a daily routine. Exercise, meditate, and eat healthy food. If you have to step out, wear a mask over your nose, avoid crowds, wash your hands. 

Second, pay attention to people in your immediate community and volunteer to help. 

• Your family. Spend more time with your family members, less with the TV or mobile phone.
• Your work. Focus on what you need to do at work. Talk to your colleagues to enquire how they are doing and lend a helping hand.
• Your building or neighbourhood. If someone needs help, step forward.
• Wider community. Look for avenues to volunteer or support others. This could be about gathering information. Or spreading information or distributing things.

The more you are doing this, the less you’re worrying. An idle mind in front of TV news is the worst kind! 

Third, don’t add fuel to fire. Become a person who douses fire. Don’t be the person who keeps forwarding gory images and stats to prove how grim the situation is. If you have to forward, share tips on how to stay safe and how to take care of each other. We need more solutions and less reminders of problems. 

#3 Use this event to re-examine your worldview

We shouldn't sweep under the carpet, the myriad issues that have caused this problem to become so bad. If we don’t solve them, we will condemn ourselves to repeating this in the future. But there is a time for responding to the situation and then there is a time to think about root causes. I maintain a diary to note down observations on root causes, so that the next time I have to make a decision, I can refer to them. Here’re my diary notes so far:

1. We have to reimagine the relationship between Govt & Private Enterprise. If I contrast how the US created a vaccine surplus via collaboration between Govt and Private enterprise with how India is today sitting on a vaccine shortage, one thing is clear: in India, we do not have respect for Private Enterprise. The Govt treats private enterprise as their personal fiefdom - to be feted, extracted or imprisoned as the tide turns. The fact that no purchase agreements were signed and no advance orders were placed for vaccines, reveals a bully attitude. The disdain with which private schools have been handled, reveals a deep distrust. As long as these persist, we will not have a truly flourishing private enterprise driving innovation in India whether in health or in education.
2. We have too much centralisation and too little autonomy. The manner in which we have responded to this situation is with the assumption that a few people in Delhi know all the answers. And the rest of the country is helpless ‘praja’ who needs to be told how to live. Both Covid lockdown guidelines and Vaccination allowance have been managed centrally in a country that is too diverse to be amenable to this level of centralisation.
3. We are being run aground by the potent combination of poverty, and corruption. We have to move millions out of poverty because they are the most prone to death and devastation during such disruptions. The rich can survive lockdowns with their zoom calls, online classes, at-home food deliveries. But the poor struggle - devoid of livelihood and freedom. Govt income is low because the contributing part of the population is low and whatever is collected is mostly wasted in corrupt programs, leaving little for social safety nets.
4. Our political leadership is too expedient and not strategic enough. The continuance of political rallies and religious festivals, the opening of liquor vends and religious places while schools remained closed, shows that our political leadership plays to the gallery. Statesmanship in terms of doing what is right is sorely missing across the spectrum. We need a new political mindset but this can only happen if the public also holds them accountable for the important things. We need to make education, health and livelihoods top of the nation’s agenda not caste, religion and petty politics.

I keep maintaining these notes, so that at the next opportunity, I do something about them. In the next elections, I'll ask our political leadership the right questions so that history doesn’t repeat itself. At my end, I’ll create avenues for education and livelihoods. Through my writing, I’ll aim to influence.

More doing, less worrying. More solving, less adding fuel to the fire. Together, let’s get through this.

Love,