Being privileged
In another life, the outbreak of a pandemic would be unthinkable. Fear, panic, anxiety and financial insecurities would have eaten me from within. So, I am relaxed now? I don’t know. Not yet.
Compared to so many, I can actually afford to stay home and protect myself for the longest time. From the pandemic, yes. But from other social norms and behavioral changes that I foresee with extended isolation, perhaps there is no protection. What will become, will.
After 5 days, I stepped out of my home yesterday to feel the fresh air of the April morning and buy some vegetables. The push cart vendor was happy to see me. Eager to sell, she was trying to make me feel special. I told her “Take care, you are susceptible to exposures”. She had no mask on while I covered my face with a scary dark scarf. That was a straw I broke. She vented on how times are hard for people like her with income not coming through and debts to pay. “What will we eat at home?”
Day after day, I innovate myself and my thinking to adapt to the new reality. I find ways to entertain myself through social media, work out in my spacious terrace and home, protect my health with nutritious food and check on my aged family members to make sure they are not risking it out there. Alas! The elitist ogre in me shows. But I am not so evil. Those who have it also need to spend. And spend more. Without us spending, what happens to hawkers, small businesses and street vendors?
Then comes the part where we need to go out of our way and help those who are miserably poor with nothing thrown away, nothing given away and nothing shared because of us being indoors. Businesses and hotels are shut down. The easiest way to help someone is buying food and ration. If we can buy groceries for our home, we can damn well buy it for others too. So what if the world is coming to an end? Let us share the misery equally and let our better senses prevail to heal us as one.
If there is a way you can help, you should. You can stay home and help others too. Go slow. But keep moving. Find ways to reach out. State should definitely make provisions to ease out the distress but this time, only few people cannot manage the entire crisis. They are people too.
Let our cynicism rest for a bit and let us help the world fight out the fears, uncertainty and poverty. Let us force our petty lives to come out and put a smile on others. Let us make the animals love us. Let us make Mother Nature be proud of us. Please help.
