The virus does not discriminate said, my friend. or does it? My curious mind started the debate within.
Surely the virus does not discriminate, but is the pandemic partial? Are the poor, people from the lower caste and class affected more than the rich? Does the wedge between the have's and have-not's become bigger by the day after COVID-19 lockdown? And the bigger question, have our cultural and religious differences been magnified by this tragedy?
So I thought of examining these questions with simple examples.
Me, the quintessential upper-middle-class boy from among the bigger cities in the world. How has it affected me? Almost nothing, but for the mental trauma of sitting through the day inside closed rooms. My salary has not been affected at all; I still have my house close to the beach and my life is as peaceful as it had always been. Right behind my house is a small slum. An area of people living along a small rivulet of the Adyar. The Indian city version of a rivulet! So the people there have lost their business, for the markets are closed. They have lost money, many I heard go to bed with a single meal a day; Most people would have used up all their savings if at all they managed to have some. Will their lives ever come back to normal again? In this story, have our lives trod different paths? Ain't the gap widening?
Did you hear the story of the many migrants walking hundreds of kilometres, many even falling dead? You can't miss such stories, can you? But did you also hear that the GOI arranged flights to pick people up from across the oceans? No, I'm all for picking people up and dropping them in their respective places; but why not do that to the migrants as well? Ah, their lives matter less than those living abroad, ain't it?
I wish some NEWS to be false, but they are on your face every day that you hardly can miss them. The NEWS of people from one religion being vilified, the sad reality of them not even given admissions in hospitals. Oh yes, there were children found to be eating grass and guess what, they belonged to the most backward community. Has the pandemic even dug deep our gaping wide cultural holes of caste and religion?
When it is cloudy and dark, sadly my society disintegrates instead of coming together; For we don't want them together when the sun is out and the skies are clear and blue.
Surely the virus does not discriminate, but is the pandemic partial? Are the poor, people from the lower caste and class affected more than the rich? Does the wedge between the have's and have-not's become bigger by the day after COVID-19 lockdown? And the bigger question, have our cultural and religious differences been magnified by this tragedy?
So I thought of examining these questions with simple examples.
Me, the quintessential upper-middle-class boy from among the bigger cities in the world. How has it affected me? Almost nothing, but for the mental trauma of sitting through the day inside closed rooms. My salary has not been affected at all; I still have my house close to the beach and my life is as peaceful as it had always been. Right behind my house is a small slum. An area of people living along a small rivulet of the Adyar. The Indian city version of a rivulet! So the people there have lost their business, for the markets are closed. They have lost money, many I heard go to bed with a single meal a day; Most people would have used up all their savings if at all they managed to have some. Will their lives ever come back to normal again? In this story, have our lives trod different paths? Ain't the gap widening?
Did you hear the story of the many migrants walking hundreds of kilometres, many even falling dead? You can't miss such stories, can you? But did you also hear that the GOI arranged flights to pick people up from across the oceans? No, I'm all for picking people up and dropping them in their respective places; but why not do that to the migrants as well? Ah, their lives matter less than those living abroad, ain't it?
I wish some NEWS to be false, but they are on your face every day that you hardly can miss them. The NEWS of people from one religion being vilified, the sad reality of them not even given admissions in hospitals. Oh yes, there were children found to be eating grass and guess what, they belonged to the most backward community. Has the pandemic even dug deep our gaping wide cultural holes of caste and religion?
When it is cloudy and dark, sadly my society disintegrates instead of coming together; For we don't want them together when the sun is out and the skies are clear and blue.
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