I haven't stepped out of my home in months, the last time I left home for more than an hour was for my vaccination two months ago. Covid is still raging in India like a wild fire, this despite the lock-down country wide.
The official reports firmly state that the infection rates are coming down, but while I was speaking to my doctor friends I figured that what the media reports and what happens on the ground are two very different stories.
I had to pick up some urgent medical supplies from a local pharmacy and as I drove through a short distance from home after two months what did I see?
I saw people walking around without masks, people shopping and crowding around in the grocery stores, no social distancing norms were followed, it scared the crap out of me. Why would risk your life when you could have all this delivered at your doorstep for a small sum?
What where these people thinking? Do they think of themselves, are superheroes or that they are immune to the disease?
A couple of weeks ago I heard of two young men dying of the disease in our neighborhood, these young men were friends. So what where these guys doing, challenging death?
I called a few of my doctor friends and spoke to them. This is what I heard one in three patients coming to the hospital for various other illnesses (not covid or covid related illness) are testing positive. The numbers are not coming down, in fact the infection rate is going up. Testing rates have come down that is the truth, It is expensive to get tested. Most people cannot afford it.
A neurosurgeon on emergency duty told me story after story. You've got to read this.
Apparently young men are bored sitting at home so they get out on the roads at night when there is no traffic or cops around and do wheelies on their bikes wearing no helmets or protective gears and die from falls.
Young women are jumping out of second and third floors because the young men they love are ditching them. Just talking on the phone isn't enough and these young men want them to venture out to meet them defying the laws.
He told me about a young girl of 17 who has brain stem injury and will never walk or be able to move her limbs again because she took the extreme step of jumping from the 3rd floor of her building.
I agree it is frustrating to sit at home for a year and a half. Nonetheless you can only have fun if you are alive.
You can enjoy your life and roam around without following any of the prescribed preventive measures, but what about the people at home or the people you come in contact with. What if you pass on the bug which you caught from someone due to your carelessness to someone who has been careful and doing the right things.
Let me explain, my husband was at the supermarket last week. There were so many young people in the ques who were so busy chatting, laughing and falling on everyone around, their masks were on their chins.There was this elderly lady who was trying to pay for two products she bought and these girls were so close to her. After a point she was literally pleading with them to maintain social distance, she was pleading with them that she was old and weak and needed to be careful.. Seeing her plight my husband asked her to stand away while he paid for her purchase.
Why do we not care for other peoples lives? I can understand if people don't value theirs, but why put others at risk. Whose life is it anyways?
Everyday when I wake up I pray that I will not hear any news of friends or relatives passing away. Last week a neighbor of ours who had no symptoms suddenly complained of breathlessness and collapsed, within minutes before aid could arrive he was declared dead.
Right now, we do not know where covid lurks, it is in community spread mode and do we care? No, the young and the strong think they need to live their life on the streets, partying, doing stunts on the motorbikes and aimlessly wandering about. They will recover because they are healthy, but what about the elders in their homes or in their neighborhood.
Whose life is it anyways? Has the pandemic robbed us of our common sense and social responsibility?
Or has the number of deaths we hear about everyday made us cold, lacking in compassion and responsibility?
So I plead with every Indian today -
Every life is valuable, when you dance with death you are sure to fall prey, so let's be responsible. Let's live, let live and fight this pandemic together.
Images used are from Pixabay