Thank God coronavirus didn’t start in India. There’s no way India could react in the way China has. – Jim O’Neill, Economist, Britain
I look at the rising tally of total recorded cases all over the world and feel despair and hope in equal proportions. Despair because irrespective of countries, we are all suffering and hope because we are fighting and we will ultimately win.
In the middle of this mayhem, the many things my mother told me when I was growing up has come back to me- A fruit laden tree is always bowing down while a fruitless tree stands erect, either you bend when the wind blows hard or you break, keep your head down and let your work speak for itself, treat people with empathy– and many more on similar lines.
In a strange twisted way, COVID-19 isn’t just a biological condition, but it is also laying bare the social fabric of every land and government. It raises so many questions- How much freedom is optimal? How much control should the state have on our lives? When to see an enemy in the eye and when to back-off to fight another day? What is the right way to respond to aggression? How to prioritise our own preservation over retribution? How to differentiate between hope & sense of invincibility? How to know when to be empathetic & when to punish?
COVID-19 has indeed exposed so many assumptions we casually live with and believe at different levels. Epidemics, communicable diseases are thought to be the diseases of Third World. Crowded, unhygienic and poor countries fall prey to it, not, the progressive, First World. Third World nations comprise of unruly, wild population incapable of discipline. They won the war against Ebola, SARS, H1N1 & many more and it could not dent the First World one bit. They took control of the situation and we will ride this out with no discomfort.
While we believe all of the above, we also feel occasionally guilty and misplaced over compensation by running “Hug a Chinese” campaign. Chinese crisis happens in a remote land that evokes curiosity but not a call to action. It also exposes the level of invincibility we attribute to our respective systems. While a fast developing nation like South Korea took prompt steps to contain the virus, another nation decided that Soccer was more important.
While, one nation went into COVID-19 lockdown with as little as 500 cases against a population of 1.3 Bn, the other’s leader continued to describe it as “Flu”, confident in their cocoon of financial war chest and superior healthcare infrastructure. Ironically, COVID-19 is proving itself to be a very harsh teacher urging us to revisit all the so-called old fashioned values of Empathy, Patience, Courage, Solidarity & Vision.
At the risk of sounding self-congratulatory and that too soon, I am proud to see all the above values being put in extensive practice in India at this critical juncture.
As a country of 1.3 Bn people and most of us under privileged, we are doing our best to share our little bounty with each other, sacrifice our freedom so that our vulnerable are protected, our politicians are showing solidarity and acting in unity.
The government of India may not be able to give us humongous relief packages, premier healthcare infrastructure but they are giving us something more significant and priceless– Vision, Leading by Example, Support to the best of their ability and Instilling a sense of Unity.
Standing at north of 21,000 cases, we know we may cross a few hundred thousand in a matter of few weeks. As one nation, one people, we have learnt to live our lives to the fullest with limited means and that is exactly what we aim to do now.
We know this virus is going nowhere for the foreseeable future. We are only slowing the rate of spread so that everyone who gets sick gets adequate care. We are fighting to live another day and come back stronger.