There is a stench rising, as people queue up in almost all major cities across India in search of Medical Oxygen as the number of dead rises. Devastating scenes emerge all across the country of dying people, patients gasping for breath, wailing relatives. I too have lost a close relative, a young man, a couple of days back. The young guy had his whole life ahead of him. I cannot claim that he suffered from the non-availability of oxygen or medicine. He did not. He died because the disease if too horrible and the worse thing is that it has brought our primal fears out in open
When the time is too tragic, there is no space for emotional commitments, we stay stuck in our cages of security, however ephemeral it might be. There won’t be anyone except the nearest one to risk the disease and bid the goodbyes. He was cremated by his mother, a solitary woman alone in her grief. After cremation, she did not get a shoulder to cry on, but a quarantine to handle the grief of losing her son, alone. Such is the disease and one has little choice but to suffer in silence. The devastations Covid is leaving across the Globe will take centuries to heal and the scars it will leave on human souls will forever torture us.
In such times, as the families stand stark naked abandoning the pledges of never abandoning one another, the nations, the continents and the worlds are falling apart. We look at others with suspicion, we no longer hold hands even of those we know, we shrink away when someone coughs around us. Every day of the pandemic takes away some pretence of human value that we took pride in across the centuries of our evolution as species. When emotions cause discomfort and pain, it is the truth that is the only healer. It is fact and objectivity that holds us together and as the Hindu thought says, the Dharma at a very fundamental level is nothing but the truth.
Facts always present a counterpoint. For every shrinking human touch are those struggling men and women clad in their PPE kit, afraid but determined to take care of the flood of the sick, day after day. For every scared soul, there are brave men in uniform advising, urging and begging us to help beat the pandemic. For every woke elite lamenting their lost foreign vacations, there are women manning the Petrol pump, driving the trains, connecting the people, working on the vaccines, cleaning the streets and keeping the cash counters clicking, so that the Economic wheels of the world keep rotating. When things are falling apart, it is the job of media and leaders to keep hopes afloat.
Facts will hurt, so does fiction. Facts, however, when confronted will give us perspective and stop hurting. Fiction will continue to hurt us.
Conclusion–
I wanted to talk about political parties and blame games but this is not the correct time .Only request to all the political parties and so called leaders please stop blame games and come together for saving lives. People are in deep need of help dying because of unavailability of oxygen or bed which is really shameful and heartbreaking. Health Workers are giving their services for 24 hours,and risking their lives.We need to support them.
Lastly , Whatever help as an individual you can provide please do come forward and help each other .Its not going happen that every time government will come forward and provide help. As a member of society we also need to understand our responsibilty .
Author-
Mr.Raman Tirpude
BE ,MBA
Sub editor-‘YUVA’ weekly newspaper
Volunteer-National Human Rights Commission,New Delhi.
raman's blog 