That which does not kill us makes us stronger.― Friedrich Nietzsche
It was an online Google Meeting to discuss the updates, after addressing a few of the issues, the Head of the Department called out for Santosh. He had been unwell for the past ten days yet he switched on the camera. The image that was screened showed a frail, weak and mentally disturbed man, depressed with the Covid Pandemic. Everyone wanted to greet Santosh and wish him a speedy recovery but he said nonchalantly, ‘I have been advised to take Remedivir and the injection isn’t available anywhere. It is ten days now and I feel hot, feverish and unwell, the Pandemic has spread to my wife and child’. He also added, ‘I need to get admitted to a hospital for cure but there are no beds available for patients'. The Head added some words of advice and spread the message about the requirement to everyone. The word spread like fire within no time, the whole family of colleagues came together and by the end of the day, Santosh was moved to a hospital nearby. The crowd in the hospital and the busy environs did not frighten him, perhaps, nothing worries one when it’s combat between life and death. Santosh is a young professor of academics in his early thirties. There is great energy associated with his bubbly personality. It was just a few days before when we met him, he advised us to wear our masks, we had casually asked him about his mask. He said, ‘I have crushed the virus by travelling long distances and working offline for months’. That was the spirit that one and all had a few weeks back. People were getting vaccinated according to their turns and it never seemed that there was anything more to fear about the novel coronavirus.
Nonetheless, the pandemic came back with greater vigour and zest and it was the second wave.
At Pune, we were unaware of its presence and did not realise how it had crept by. As the first wave slowed down in December, people exclaimed a deep sigh and exhalation. The new year that paved in January was called the ‘Plava’ year, the Vedic astrologers predicted strongly that it would be a smooth sailing year according to the lunar calendar, they added that the first part could be turbulent but life will sail on.
Pune city did not feel the turbulence, it had begun brimming with joy, it was a triumph on Coronavirus. The vendors were back on the pavements just as in the pre-covid times, people swarmed for Panipuri, Chat and fast food once again. The vendor who used to stand near the crossroads was also ready with his lentil mixture that cooked slowly on the low fire. The sea salt, dried mango and the aroma of the spices rose high making kids and bystanders drool over the food. The vendor was an eighteen-year-old short dark boy. He was thoroughly engrossed in his newfound entrepreneurship, a water camper was placed on the compound wall of the building that lined the pavement. A steel glass was placed near it. A little boy was pleading with him for some food, the papdi chat. He seemed annoyed but the boy was his first customer that evening. A gentleman passing by said ‘ please give the lad some of it’. He handed him money and the boy who was sipping water yelled in joy and said, ‘Give me a lot more to eat’. He rubbed his hands on his shirt before he began to eat the second round of fast food. The glass was left on the wall. The story was the same every day, none wore masks or followed the COVID protocols. The sanitisers mounted on metallic rings with foot pedals in the shops were dark and dirty, they remained unused and people now feared using it due to its ghastly appearance. The remains of the pandemic seemed a bygone era.
Children began loving the long vacations, their online classes used to begin early in the morning and end by noon. Mothers would enjoy these classes and occasionally chat with the teachers about all and sundry like their child not liking healthy food and not listening to them. They would start cooking lunch after the online classes as the Pressure cooker whistles and the utensil sounds used to disturb the online classes.
The building would bustle with the sound of the kids playing joyously at noon. It would extend till they were called for lunch. Their masks hung on their chin. The maids who had begun working once again wore a mask for keepsake, they disliked the smell of the sanitiser poured by the security at the main gate, they feared none and the coronavirus was the last to perturb them. They feared staying at home and losing their jobs. The wine shops, the tiny hamlets for smokers were open for everyone. People went rushing to these hamlets without their masks to buy alcohol and cigarettes. At the posh wine shop near the junction, the salesmen checked people with an infrared thermometer before he gave them their choicest alcohol. Institutions, offices, shops, parks, gyms and almost everything was back to normalcy. The colleges lay forlorn and deserted. The parking spaces were deserted but the canteen had opened up for the faculty members and administration. The fears of eating food in the canteen were soon forgotten, it was a place to meet people.
The long roads that led to the open grounds were full of evening walkers and strollers. The group of elderly men occupied a place midway on the road divider. They were filled with glee and many did not wear their masks, those who wore them hung these masks on their chin while speaking reminding one that a mask could muffle voices. They shook hands and leaned on each other like youngsters for they were youthful in their spirits.
While everyone laughed joyously the second wave of the Pandemic entered the lives of Indians stealthily. The health authorities kept alerting people but no one paid attention, they said it is a small number. Soon the numbers grew exorbitantly, families were affected, children were at the risk of contracting the disease. Today is the third consecutive day with more than three lakh Covid cases in India, many have left us and those who left us have been our friends, young colleagues and family members. Each day we add prayers for the sick and departed and pray God to bring us out of this Pandemic. We long for Plava soon, a smooth sail for all of us where we breathe natural oxygen in the air rather than the oxygen from cylinders.
“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.”― Henry Ward Beecher “
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