COVID 19- A conscience awakening jolt to humankind

When advocates of climate change protested and urged us to stop and observe the damage our lifestyle is doing to the earth, we chose to not listen. I wondered what could make this catastrophe stop or even pause when we are not even willing to give up single-use water bottles. After the fire in the Amazon and Los Angeles, Australia burnt for weeks. Every day we witnessed graphic images of animals burning alive.

Image credit: The Newyork Times

As the year 2019 was ending, my mental health was in shambles with everything going back home in India surrounding the CAA/NRC protests that started against a preposterous citizenship law followed by police brutality and pogrom in the capital city. Then, as an outcome of the political tensions between the USA and Iran, WW3 like situation arose. Image credit: The Guardian

In a nutshell, the world was burning; literally and metaphorically as we stepped into a new decade via the highly anticipated 2020. Frustrated and helpless human race remonstrated about how the world changed so quickly, praying for these arduous days to end and for the world to go back to the good old times. Little did we know, this was a mere warmup.

Just when the world sighed with relief for dodging a world war, news came out about fatal pneumonia which was spreading like wildfire across the province of Wuhan in China since December 2019. It turned out to be the doing of the novel coronavirus. A virus did what no leader and no government could. First China and then the world came to a halt. We learnt about the term pandemic and all of a sudden the most crowded and vibrant hotspots around the globe became empty.

When I was little, the accomplishments of human beings were manifested by how the man has stepped on the moon. Those were simpler times. The millennium changed and technology took over, the world became faster and smaller. The advent of revolution 2.0 brought a new world order with itself. After a throng of inventions and developments, the world we live in became a lot more convenient than it was two or three decades back. But whether it became a better place to live in is debatable. 

COVID 19 is unlike anything our generation or even the generation before us have experienced in their lifetime. Sure we heard about plagues as history in our school textbooks. They seemed fictitious to us. We are modern people, we use artificial intelligence and look for prospects for life on other planets. In the past we have successfully eradicated deadly diseases from the face of the earth, we are the masters of science so it was but natural to expect a cure for pneumonia-like disease within no time.

We looked up to the world leaders for an answer, but they were as bewildered as we were. Turned out, no one had an answer. We witnessed a collapse of the medical systems and saw funerals conducted sans family and friends. The world had no time to brace for impact, naturally, the encroachment of COVID 19 was taken with strong disbelief and denial. The news about people around us succumbing to the virus consumed us with fear and just like that handshakes and hugs were forbidden making social distancing a new normal.

Crashed economies forced people out of jobs the fallout of which proved to be as lethal as the virus itself. Who would have imagined living in the world depicted in ‘The Hunger Games’. Hundreds of thousands of migrants workers in India were left on road; hungry, barefoot and helpless, dying every day from not having access to food and water. We are two decades into the much-celebrated 21st Century and a large number of our people walked thousands of miles to their homes.

Image credit: The Guardian

As a country, we claim to be a contender for being a global superpower and our children are dying in the arms of their parents, infants are trying to wake up their dead mothers struck by starvation… this is not something out of a post-apocalyptic work of literature, it is a reality we are living today

The sad part is that the influential people of the same country who otherwise reflect immense compassion towards issues of the western world are posting their baking skills and workout videos on social media. The mainstream media, on the other hand, is too busy with monetising communalism and polarising people by propagating hate.

The example of India is just the tip of the iceberg. Yemen is on the brink of extinction from the face of the earth because alongside COVID 19, its people are battling another epidemic- cholera, amidst a civil war. Right now, 3 out of 4 people in Yemen can’t afford food.

Image Credit: The Guardian

A lot of us have become insomniacs despite being safe and sound in the comfort of our cosy beds. It is when the haunting visuals that we scrolled on our mobile phones during day resurface like flashes, we can’t help but consider whether the believers of the ideology of ignorance being a bliss are doing the right thing.

Compassion fatigue is real and it is ok to switch off now and then for the sake of your sanity, but it shouldn’t in any way reciprocate for apathy because combined with privilege, it is a recipe for disaster.

If your insomnia seems difficult, imagine the trauma of frontline workers who are fighting tirelessly with an invisible enemy and feeling helpless every day as they lose several lives in the process. Ignorance is not something they can afford. To be able to feel for others is a gift. It is very convenient to behave like ostriches right now, but burying neck in the sand to pretend that all is well around us is mere cowardice.

Our world is famished for empathy. We must all dare to be vulnerable because it is not a sign of the weak, but the contrary. It takes courage to kneel with humility and look into the eyes of someone helpless with the realisation that it is our good fortune that sets us apart. Mass-spread of ignorance is what dooms civilizations. Only when we are courageous enough to cease our sense of entitlement and put our guard down, we can truly feel for others.

Our actions at micro-level contribute to changes at macro-level. Mother Teresa said, “if you want to change the world, go home and love your family”. It all starts at home. We reinstate the faith in humanity for somebody when we stop a door or give a kind smile. We make the world a better place by teaching our children that racism is disgraceful and inhuman. So, if we want the world to start healing, we must begin the reform with ourselves, we must start at home.

If all that is going on in the world right now does not make us stop and reflect, then all of this struggle would be in vain. Foremost we need to acknowledge that these circumstances are an outcome of all the good things that have been compromised to accelerate this maddening fast pace of growth and development we have witnessed in the past two decades.

The theory of human evolution claims that we come from the family of the great apes, which suggests that our species has come a long way. To survive and reach where we are today, we invented tools, battled wild animals, led revolutions and transformed the world. We are more than capable of getting through these trying times as well.

May all this vehemence and commotion transform us like pressure transforms carbon into diamond. They say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. When all of this is over and if we survive, we must not just come out stronger, but better. Let’s strive for more than convenience, let’s strive for making the world a better place.