...Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing' in the wind...
- Bob Dylan
'Do not laugh too much, you may cry later' is a popular theory we tell others and oneself when we are having too much fun. But here's a new saying - " Do not have high hopes, the virus may catch up to you sooner or later".
So there is a SOS text on social media, pleading for Oxygen cylinders and Hospital beds, this two drugs Remdesivir and Tocilizumab continue to give night terrors, Where the heck are those drugs? Then you scroll down to next story, next posts or whatever, and later you wonder -
what happened to that stranger whose O2 levels dropped to 64? Did he get a ventilator? Did the damn O2 level turn up to 90's? How helpless is the family? Have the members of the family contracted the virus while attending to him? Are the helplines working? Is some NGO helping them? Did a relative with giant contacts help the family get a ventilator? Did that stranger die? Is he part of the statistics that I read the next day? Was he cremated with dignity ? How are the loved ones coping with this giant anxiety?
We do not know. We will never know. We pass on to the next story..
How can we not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief? We all entered this pandemic with some certainty, we tell each other that this nightmare will end someday. If survived, we may witness News flashing -
"ZERO Covid cases recorded In India".
WHO Officially declares that - 'Covid pandemic has Ended'.
But, are we going to be the same people we were, when we walked into this pandemic?
How are we going to heal ourselves from these dystopian misery?
Thinking of the collapsed public health system, pulls the iota of energy left with a grieving nation. Yes it is a PANDEMIC, no country figured out the perfect model to deal with it. But then here we are, a great nation thumping its chest with pride, the powerful state , tall charismatic leaders promising to make our lives better, intellectual bureaucracy firing to bring in changes, has thrown its hands to the wind. The state machinery by large has let its people down. Vulnerable citizens were left to fend for themselves, moving heaven and earth to find a hospital bed.
A soul bursting with despair has no ears and brains for the arguments put out by state for its failures. Every lose of life that could have been saved, is a damning question to the faith we hold on, it is a yelling cry for help to return back to certainty..
This generation has witnessed the dystopian visualization - People falling dead like flies, families running from pillar to post for an Oxygen cylinder. Never for the rest of our lives, an oxygen cylinder can be viewed as a piece of object. It is typically a nightmare for children trying to protect their elderly parents from contracting the virus. Its heartbreaking to even start thinking of the families who never got to say farewell to their dear ones.
All these visuals and images were never warned of or heard of in the past. If that is the case its unbelievable how we as humans are collectively and individually dealing with an EMOTION that is damned with uncertainty and terror. We as humans are either stretchable or nulled by nature.
One wonders in a philosophical level, What message is the universe trying to send down to its subjects? And are we listening?
A biophysicist in an interview is asked - Please tell us when will the pandemic end? To all those who believe in prayers and faith, what should we be asking to our respective God's?
To which the scientist replied - PRAY THAT THE VIRUS DOES NOT MUTATE ,PRAY THAT THE VIRUS FINDS A NEW HOST AND GETS BORED WITH US THE HUMANS, SO WHEN ITS BORED IT STOPS MUTATING AND THEN BOOM ITS GONE.!
So here we are praying for a scientific miracle.
There is a resentful voice, quietly brewing inside each of our heads. Remember the set of system's that failed your fellow citizens, remember the faces of the helpless the next time you vote. The mirror you're looking at yells back, it questions your lost humility against nature and order of things. Every passing day triggers us to question the ways and norms at which we lead our lives so far.
Its laughable, how we humans, who are just a distance away from a virus that can drop us dead, live with the illusion for foreverness.
In the end, to all the lost lives, someone's parent ,someone's dear grandparent, uncles and aunts, young ones succumbing to deadly virus have to be memorialized.
Each life was precious.
Each one walked on this earth,
contributed, had dreams, had more to do,
and was taken away too early..
Each needs to be remembered individually, their loved ones have to be shouldered.
More than anything, Those who did not receive help and support, have left behind questions that need to be answered.
The answer is the closure to this misery.
The lost lives becomes statistics, the pandemic may end, the system may or may not learn its lessons, But as we move on with our lives with these memories, long past the burning pyres and broken families..
How do you and I dose the pyres burning in our hearts ?