Sometimes it all seems so unreal - the life that you, I and the rest of the world is living right now. It almost seems as if we were watching a Hollywood movie like Contagion and somehow managed to walk out of our living rooms right into the movie. The virus that spreads through coughing and sneezing and kills people sounds rather apocalyptic, no? But somehow it has become our reality for the here and now, and perhaps for the near future as well.
A couple of weeks back I came across this question - what have you done in this lockdown that you have never before done in your life? The first answer that came to my mind was - wore a mask. But then I realized that I have never before in my life seen empty shelves in the grocery stores and at chemist shops. I have never been told that there is no soap left or that there are only a couple of packs of biscuits left, and that too of a single brand. This happens in countries that have been ravaged by wars or ruled by dictators, right? Countries that we won't be able to locate on the world map even if our lives depended on it. How did we all get here again?
People are busy fighting over whether China is to be blamed or not, whether the world can teach them a lesson or not. Whether to allow maids to come into the society premises or not. Celebrities are sharing things about them that we are supposed to find fascinating. Quite a few of them - who might not have set a foot in kitchens for years - have suddenly become expert cooks, dishing out a delicacy a day. There have been pictures of peacocks dancing on the streets in parts of Mumbai. News of the Himalayan peaks being sighted after eons from parts of Northern India. Everyone is talking about the Earth healing, rebooting, reinventing itself. Why, even the Ganga has managed to clean herself back again, it seems. Oh, and even though the Pentagon has released footage of some pilots seeing unidentified flying objects in the skies, no one is going gaga over it. Perhaps no one will bat an eyelid if the little green men do decide to make an appearance now. It will fit in right with the current scheme of things, no?
And yet, on more web pages than one, I see a rotating cube, giving the latest statistics about the number of the infected and the number of the dead. What am I supposed to do with these numbers? Lately, I find myself staring at the cube for a fraction of a second and then reaching over to close it. Again and again and again. No, I am not an insensitive person. Any loss of life is sad. But the constant daily barrage of news - whether I want it or not - has numbed me to all this. I do not know what is the truth and what is not. And I am tired of Googling for it every time.
They say there is light at the end of every tunnel. But this one seems interminable. The light seems light years away. At least for now. :-(
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