Back in 2008 when I started blogging, I had promised myself to do 2 blogs a month. It was crazy 2 years until I started working in a place that ate your brains in lieu of salary. It has been crazy 10 years until the lockdown gave us a welcome time to sit down at home and enjoy the sunset. There was this urge to get back to writing along with reading. Then a long lost friend came in, who caressed my thoughts and gave the kick that resulted in a writing spree. It is the feeling when you are trapped in a endless black hole and someone comes into push you out.
The Kerala Government came up with campaign, which rightly named ‘Break-the-chain’. Over the past few weeks, the humanity has seen many links of the chain being broken and new links being built.
When the boss announced the one day curfew on a Sunday, I felt a tug in the heart. Although I have been emotionally detached from the Church for the last five years, being forced to stay out on a Sunday and that too on the lent season can be emotionally touchy. But then the lent season went off peacefully, so did the Hosanna and the Easter. No one died of not celebrating the Holy communion. But then it was high time the Churches modified its practice of celebrating the ‘communion’.
Everyone knew there was a communion of spittle, but since the ritual was too holy to be modified no one really bothered. Now what common sense couldn’t alter, the virus may. Infact religion has been creeping into science, polity, arts, literature and every other aspect of human life. This one, invisible virus may have broken (or atleast rattled) the chain.
People started learning that the ceremonies, functions and festivals could be done with minimal attendance and little ‘noise’. A few weeks ago the representatives from nearby temple came to visit. The temple used to do a well-known festival every year gathering thousands of people all over the state. This year they had to drop the plans soon after making a hefty advance payment. The faithful were no longer interested in making the donations and the usually-rich Temple Trust ended up in huge debts.
Our big fat weddings became small calorie-free ones. 5 years ago I struggled to match the ‘in-flow’ to the ‘out-flow’ during mine and ended it up at 10.00 lacs( average wedding cost for a Trivandrum Christian). Today it has trebled the cost, with most of the spending on materials you won’t be using ever in your life again. It was beyond any logic to burn up the entire life savings and earning a debt on a single day. Moving on the penchant for celebration increased with people finding all sorts of excuse to eat poorly cooked food loaded with carcinogens.
As the chains started shaking so did people’s confidence in immortality. From the time immemorial humans were after the elixir of youth and immortality. A few generations ago it was difficult to survive beyong 50s. Today people well live into their 80s, thanks to the modern medicine and quality of lifestyle. When we temporarily stopped our weekly football match a month back, guys as young as 30 went with a parting note, ‘See you, if alive’. Even the youth couldn’t guarantee their lifespan. The reason was the virus had a bad impact on people with respiratory and liver issues and both of them are guaranteed in modern cities. Last week I saw my father, he was pretty sure this pandemic was certainly from the Book of Revelations. People has gone on to predict the end of the worlds.
If lifespan was a worry, imagine the situation of people having to spend day in and out for weeks with people who they can barely stand. Work life was a means to escape from their own house for many. Now they have to spend their days in closed rooms with people bound only by legal contract. The worst affected is women who had to stand their in-laws. I have spoken to people who nearly hit the depressive button. The first few days recipes from Youtube and other crafts helped them trudge through. Then came different challenges with a hashtag and quizzes. In a couple of weeks the fountain of creativity goes dry.
The idea of capitalism and free market has taken a serious rattle thanks to the virus. Informal labour sector has been India’s greatest blessing. The millions of unaccounted and cheap labour oiling the giant wheels of Indian industry are not covered by any security. The people greatly affected by them were from this sector. We literally saw a huge human crises, which literally stared back at us and laid bare the ‘Indian growth story’. Many millions have been literally pushed into poverty during this lockdown and Government has no verifiable data for its utility schemes to reach them. Moving up the ladder there are chances of lay-offs in sectors catering to US and Europe. Salary revisions will be minimal and many investments will sour.
We have also learnt that free will associated with capitalism will not help the humanity survive. Consumption has to be checked. We may have to minimize consumption and let go of many luxuries. But again there are many who lived off the luxuries. I haven’t seen the guy who irons my clothes and I wonder how he makes his living. The supermarkets gave you a ‘sense of choice’ and literally put out so many small traders out of business. The old Khirana shops have come back to prominence as people have to wait for hours to get into a ‘supermarkets’
The coming days we may have to adjust to the long queues, lesser human contact and common gatherings. The human civilization has turned a curve
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