Rulers of our own
As I write this, the pandemic is raging in India. India is breaking records on the numbers on a daily basis.
Just a few months back, my friends, acquaintances and relatives had all started living a life that felt somewhat like animals that were let loose from their cages — every other person was partying in big groups, every other person was going on vacations to party in Goa, there were religious gatherings, shopping in malls was in full swing etc. It seemed unreal for me sitting in Germany, considering, Germany has been in some form of lockdown since Nov 2020.
Obviously, as this lavish and merry lifestyle of the rich got back on track, so did that of the lower rung that serves them.
This, mirage of a life that resembled pre-COVID life was short lived indeed. Keeping aside all that the people in power did/did not do, the utter desperation of the vulnerable, the privileged people of our country fuelled the fire too…
- The obvious — no distancing/ wearing masks/ washing hands et all
- Saw and heard many many stories of house helps (the servants) not being informed of COVID positive people in the house. They were still coming in to ‘help’ their ‘masters’ and in return get infected…infect many others that they ‘serve.’ (I know, the argument that letting them go will affect their income etc. I don’t buy it cos, the right thing to do would be to let them go with their pay. Many of the folks living privileged, lavish lifestyles can afford to do this.)
- Many other such ‘service’ people (carpenters/ bank personnel etc… — the kind of stuff that can wait) were let into the houses without disclosing that there were people with COVID in the house — just so their own ‘job got done.’
- “We are social animals, we’ve got to have our Holi party…” (in our posh farmhouses)
- Bloated egos of the people did not allow them to seek help. Their over intelligence led them to believe they can manage everything on their own — following WhatsApp university, their own intelligence and previous methods that worked for harmless things like the common cold.
- Others were too stigmatised (With the entire world facing the situation, this beats me.) to accept and inform others about their positive tests.
The media plays the story as, “while India managed the first wave well with some stringent measures, the second wave is out of control…” The first wave is being called ‘well managed’ because it did not affect the privileged class as much. While this class was busy having downtime, baking bread, doing yoga, the first wave had already brought a huge population to dire straits. This population isn’t perhaps important enough to talk or report about.
The second wave has hit everyone. The privileged who were as much the super spreaders as everyone else, are also suffering. Their sense of entitlement is under threat. Despite being able to throw down cash everywhere, the infrastructure can simply not offer them anything.
Makes me think — things seem so colonial in so many ways. Except we are our own rulers now. As long as the rich and privileged are being provided and served for, everything is good. No matter what, the servants need to be there to cut, clean, wash…their lives don’t matter.
“Hush! Don’t tell them we are positive.”
“Lets smuggle them in our car, so we are not caught.”
So, come to think of it, in my eyes, the second wave is a perfect storm of all of the following things:
Pride, ego, stupidity, self-righteousness, entitlement, stubbornness, dogmatism, bigotry, irresponsibility, naivety, ignorance, vulnerability, desperation…
A disease that for many is a perfectly controllable one, is not and has led us to this.
I sit far away from India but I have many family members that are affected, many I have lost within a short time, many friends and their family members are affected/have been lost. The plight of the poor is just unbearable. I just wonder, which system is being referred to when the media reports, “the system has failed.” For the poor and under privileged, there has never been a real system to go to.
Perhaps this is more of a rant than a blog. While I rant about the many out there that are still flaunting rules, there are also those that are strictly taking precautions and following them. For them, it seems grossly unfair because it feels like, the virus is just waiting to get them…