"No other way" - Day #1 (25 March 2020) - 21 day #Covid19 Lock down

Day #1 (25 March 2020)

"No other way"

Yesterday, the unexpected eventually happened. At 8 pm, the Prime Minister of India appeared on TV and announced a 21 day complete lock down of the country. This was unprecedented. Its never happened in our lifetime, nor of our parents, nor our grandparents. Probably, never. He went on to explain why the lock down and how deep is the crisis. He said “we have no other way”. Everybody has to be isolated and distanced from each other, social distancing will ensure breaking the chain of the spread of the virus. Life will never be the same after the Covid19, many believe. But how many of us will be the same, even after the Covid19 crisis that has hit humanity like never before. I wonder. Not one nation seems to have been spared, not one caste, creed, religion, colour, status, age, sex; seems to have any immunity against this seemingly-flu like virus. It does look like a very even-handed virus, a socialist one, a leveler ! Yes, almost like we would expect God to be, or even Governments to be, and lost hope that both would ever be. God, as we know him or her or it, has never been even-handed. So, haven't Governments. That, we know. There are Gods and Governments that help people prosper, but a selected few of them. How else do we explain the fact Oxfam recently found. In their report 'Time to Care' they found that the world's 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 per cent of the planet's population. That translates to 0.000027% of people holding more money that 60% of the world. Earlier in 2017, they found that 73% of the wealth generated in India went to the richest 1%, while 67 million Indians who comprise the poorest half of the population saw only a 1% increase in their wealth. In such a world, how even-handed would this leveler be ? And how would an equally leveling decree of a 21 day lock down be ?


The Covid19, which is a strain of the SARS-Cov2, which is a type of Corona Virus, can host itself in some animals and human beings as well. It seems to have jumped out of an animal and found the human host, possibly because some human consumed the animal which hosted this virus. It's a freak accident with some human help, in the whole play of ecology, on which we shall dwell later.
So, coming to the socialism of the virus. As I said, this virus seems to be more impartial than any other. And at the time of writing this sentence, the world has seen 4,28,243 people affected, 19,101 dead and has spread to 194 countries and territories across the world. And there are 195 countries in the world today. Then, you would ask me which is that one nation which has not been affected. Probably, the one with the least indulgence in globalisation, I guess!

Today morning, like all mornings, started with hot tea and biscuits soaked in tea. Surrounding me were the three newspapers that has become habit – the Hindu, which is an inheritance; Mathrubhumi, which gives the local news and my wife prefers; and Deshabhimani, because the party members in my ward, selected me as a subscriber (please dont frown, I paid for it !). Every page, except the obituary columns and the sports pages, were just Covid19, and everything else was also connected to Covid19. The virus was like a superstar – a qualification, when only Covid19 stories sell, and any other story sells if you have a Covid19 in guest appearance at the least!!.

One news stood out and speaks of that which we never see, and would never wish to see happen. It was a very small news tucked away in a corner of one of the vernaculars. A woman and a child were killed in a forest fire, and three others seriously burnt, when the family was attempting to cross the forests on foot, from Kerala to Tamilnadu, so as to reach their village before the borders shut down. These were farm workers in the plantations in Idukki, and as everything came to a standstill, they probably wanted to get back to their village. The village, home, is where all those crores of workers who have crossed state borders and are daily-wages across India, would want to run away to, especially when a debilitating crisis hits them. The two deaths was only a bizarre accident. The death ensured that it gets reported. But does it end with a news like this ? No. Is it just these two deaths ? No.

Yesterday, the PM said, “People, wherever they are should stay put, and not travel”. With no work, no food, no dwelling, no relatives, this is nightmare for crores of Indians, who were forced to migrate, a phenomenon that has come to be mainstay in a globalised liberalised nation. But, as some one trolled, when “Globalisation” is replaced with “Global Isolation”, the migrants reach a state of squalor, which no amount of rhetoric, nor promises would help.

Most of my friends, in a better looked after state of Kerala, are Working From Home (WFH), and they have stocked up for the shutdown. When I , for instance, was sitting in front of the TV, watching Modiji declare the 21 day lock down, it didn't displace me from my comfort. 21 days is a bit too much, I thought. Thats all. Two weeks should be ok. One never sees the big side of the nation, the poorest half of the nation. Those that even today live a hand-to-mouth existence, the ones in perpetual deprivation. The ones, for whom this lock down is devastating.

These thoughts unnerved me, quite a bit. I stepped into my verandah, looked out into the darkness. “Suppose out there in a sunken home, there is this man, the bread-winner, whose tomorrow is too dark, and hopeless, and he looks around, sees light still burning in my comfortable home..., and suppose he also feels he has “no other way”, but to...”

The shut down may be unavoidable. There could have been “no other way”, but does it give us any lessons on the way we have distorted our communities, our society, our ways of life, our welfare systems, our confidence, dignity, economy, relationships and transactions. Time for thought, surely.

Sridhar Radhakrishnan

@sridhar67