Yes, we are usually unprepared! And itoften doesn’t matter in normal routine. For we usually think life isn’t anyformula. We go the way that suits us. But in times of Covid-19, bleaklyabnormal, we are stepping blindly into the unexpected, unknown; leaving thisinscrutably “normal” world far behind. Perhaps shifting to embrace a worldwhere there would be more wilderness, more pain, with a little clear light ofhope and faith.
In a scenario like this, addressing ourresponsibility, or, our ‘response-ability’, we seem behaving like self-styledsentries who have an absolute right to castigate and ostracize peopleunreasonably. A crazy lot of nutcases who see patients as criminals. Haunt andhound asymptomatic carriers of Covid-19 as desperados. Even look down upon thedead as offenders. If majority of people in Kashmir hold such perception, thenthousands of casualties to this virus around the globe stand scandalous! And,mind it, not all of them had a travel history.
Getting infected by this virus is not anoutcome of any sinful activity. From Boris Johnson to any underprivileged—thevirus is indisputably indiscriminate in whom it infects. Its mechanism iscontrolled by Nature, and that’s what we know and understand as of now. A smallmicroorganism, 500 times smaller than the diameter of human hair, has puncturedmany ideas and illusions about our life. Perhaps, this small invisible virus ismaking many things visible to us.
The way we condemn those who distorted orconcealed their Covid-19 contact/ travel history is also displeasing. Many ofthem have a reason to do so, though not entirely justifying. Given the Covid-19response system in Kashmir, it seems more of a reaction to any politicaltrouble than any health crisis. Our ‘response-ability’ is repulsive. Thebeatings, the abuses, the arrests—beyond this we have failed to create a robustsense of health security among the masses. Of course, this entails properimpartial screening and scrutiny of travelers flowing in besides professionalquarantine and testing facilities without putting our under-equipped medicalfraternity at risk. And all this, undeniably, could have been managed better byincorporating internationally acclaimed health experts in Kashmir, who are moreacquainted with local population, topography and existing healthinfrastructure.
Most appalling is the failure to testwidely for the virus. There is a highly unreliable measure of spread as dayspass. Yet the figure out of this sparse testing is still tweeted, quoted andpublished. It paints a partial picture. Nonstop ebb of grim statistics, and thefact that we don’t know whether or not they reflect reality is the scary thingabout the situation! Something hinted at by one of the District Magistrates,”If I share summary of daily events, NONE in Kashmir will sleep.”
Sometimes, bureaucracy is not an answer toeverything. Because all things can’t always be spotted through political prism.Pandemic, if treated like politics, turns pandemonic. The flashpoint : familiesand contacts of Covid-19 patients are treated like criminals and compelled torun away from poor quarantine facility.
Bottomline: Amidst this utterly helplessphase, imagine what hopeful and unifying story will emerge perhaps only at theend of time. If at all, we live to see the ending— exiting a deadly pandemicand striding into life again. And if we survive, it would be recalled as anagonizing interlude—the one where faith and love allowed us to endure it whilesubsisting on so little, believing that somewhere, beyond this darkness, existseternal realization that tried to reach us.