Day #21 ( 14 April 2020)
Back to your classes; It’s lesson time!
The bell rang. Our school is like a noisy market. The kids are all scrambling back to the classes. It’s a small school, of a few hundred in various age groups. The Headmistress’s announcement suddenly comes, through the speaker, and quietens the corridors, “Good morning, students! Welcome back to the school. We will not begin our regular classes today. I am requesting all of you, irrespective of your class and age to assemble in the Lessons Hall, which is room No. 21, by 10.00 am sharp.” The speaker crackles and switches off.
The Hall is bustling with a hundred voices. Most of the us have assembled; many could still not make it after the lock down. The kids look at each other, speak in hushed voices. Many are looking at the empty chairs; some of the friends have gone, taken by the disease; some are still ill, recovering; some are in various stages of quarantine; some couldn’t make it, their families have moved out into nobody knows where! Those who could make it, the fortunate ones, are here, to tell the story, and present their lessons!
The headmistress and the teachers parade in. The headmistress walks up to the mike, “Dear children, Good morning!” “Good morning,” a chorus replies. “We are assembled here to mark our deep condolences to those, who have been taken away by the pandemic. We will pray, that they Rest in Peace! We are here to also pray for those who are still ill and fighting the virus. Let us pray, in silence!” There is Silence.
In the same sober tone, the headmistress, “Now, you remember I had asked all of you to think and tell us, what is that most important lesson that this pandemic taught us. As we have so many of you here, I would request that you keep it short, and not repeat, if somebody has already stated the same. Agreed?” The kids nod!
Ishan, the youngest, in Class 8, raises his hands. The headmistress signals him to go ahead. Ishan pulls out a piece of paper and reads “Friends, a belief which I used to hold was that all sayings of great people were always true. Though it is most of the time, it's not the case this time. Abraham Lincoln's saying, 'A house divided on itself cannot stand' has turned out the opposite for us! United we spread the virus, divided we slow it down!”
He continued, “Another thing I have felt is that no matter how deadly, how fast, how stealthy the virus is, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the Earth is getting a cleansing session. Factories and vehicles have come to a still. Places which were once hazed with smoke are now clear, blue-skied habitats for animals of all kinds! It has been nearly a century since anything like this happened. Over a million cases have been registered with a grim death toll. Yet, that is not enough to silence the human spirit. All over the world, people are reflecting. The balcony has now become the most important place of our homes. We sing, we laugh, we fight, we giggle - all from our balconies. This room is now our door to the outside world. Even such a grim weight on our species has not stopped the one thing that a human should be capable of - laughing. And I think that symbolises us. Ourselves. We.”
These words coming from the youngest among us, rippled through the class. For a moment the headmistress stood still, then with a smile, “Thank you, Ishan. That was a great beginning. Very nice, very hopeful. Now, can we hear the others.”
Robin, an entrepreneur, spoke, short and crisp, “Health is wealth" - Wise man did tell us, but we ignored.” Subish added “Lock down is nothing but a rejuvenation period of Mother Nature. The world needs to slow down if we want homo sapiens to strive further. This period is a planning period for examining our progress, to add sustainability to it for guaranteeing a beautiful Earth to our future generations. And make them learn to live in harmony with nature.” Amanjot, a strong girl, high pitched, has an idea, “My mother told me people are saying why govt is not doing this lock down once in a year. They are facing difficulties in villages, but still feel its good for nature.” Rekha agrees, “Learning to enjoy life in its relaxed pace. The world can consider a lock down and relax once in a while. It revives the whole nature.” Peethambaran, a quiet one, ever seen playing with a camera, jumped in impulsively, “Mother nature is above everything.” Saying that, he sat down. Usha, a horticulturist, nodded in approval. After all, an idea she had shared – A month of lock down every year, for the Earth - seems to be catching up. Anjana, working with an Insurance company, could not hold herself back, “I have started hearing the old birds songs around me. My confusion is whether those old birds have come back or whether I am having time to hear these birds. The lock down has surely brought us closer to nature.” Everybody seemed to agree.
Abhijith, the Start-up engineer got up, “We all know the Fibonacci retracement,” and turned around, to see some staring clueless faces, but he continued, “everything has a peak point, once it has reached that point it will need to come down.” Ganesh, engineer-philosopher, agreed, “That a microscopic bug can take the entire power of human race or mighty nations down. This is just a first shot, there’s more where it came from, so behave.” and then in a deep voice that reverberated through the hall he recited,
“yadha yadha hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharatha
abhyuthanaam adharmasya
tadhathmanam srjamyaham”
The Hall for a moment went silent, as if they heard a prayer. The Headmaster said, “We have heard the nature lovers, i suppose, now can we hear the others?”
The angry Anupam, an elder in the class, an agriculture scientist, got up, “This unprecedented situation has been created due to some psychopaths having tendency to earn money and change the economic system, destroy poor peoples' earning livelihood, they don't bother country and people, they need money and this is their motto, a perverted enjoyment even if the entire world is going to be destroyed. Its just like science fiction, it is becoming a reality. Despite warning, how these perverted leaders are destroying the nature in the name of so called development - burning the forest, releasing glyphosate through the aircrafts, destroying forests, increasing vehicles, using thermal and nuclear power plants, introducing GM crops and compulsory vaccination and what not.” He stopped and caught his breath. Mohanjit quickly quipped, “Fear is the ultimate tool of slavery.” The good old Aleyamma, a retired social activist also had some more politics to add to this, “Geopolitics is changing. Think of the post Covid world and the world powers..Will the priority be new products and new ways of making money or more value to conserving nature, respecting it's rhythms and also value for life. Many people will be more self reflective and will learn to live a simple life and care for the future. Fear for the emerging economic crisis and lives of millions of poor.. Homelessness, jobless and hence more violence on women. The health of women who now undergo over work and it's burden as well as mental and physical violence. Some (men) may with vengeance enjoy what is denied during lock down like alcohol, tobacco products and food consumption”, and after a few seconds, she asked, “What will be the role of religion, rituals and so on?” The questions she raised seemed to numb the crowd. Usha, not very typical of her, vented our her anger, “Most men country heads have no respect for ordinary people. They make us play through creating fear. Wish more people understand this drama and help change the ways. Good women leadership can work wonders.” She was referring to those nations led by women heads, handling the crisis much better than those run by men.
Anila, a religious one now spoke, “There is scope for disciplining even the most arrogant one.” She spoke in bullet points. “Never take anyone or any time for granted. Patience is the greatest virtue. Do not depend on others to feed you or expect others to support you. God is still the ALL MIGHTY.”
Yamuna, a financial management expert, broke the spell, “If you lead a simple frugal life when you have everything, lock down has no effect on you. Life can go on.” Seema had something similar to say, “Be grateful for little joys, appreciate life more, do not take anything for granted.” Dipal kept it short, “Compassion, Enjoy nature, find yourself.” Susan gave her own experience, “You can survive without so many comforts that we are used to. We are doing cooking, cleaning etc without maids. In between I get time to do other things as well.” Nisha became restless. “The amenities and luxuries we enjoy are not actually unavoidable,” she said. Sasikumar then stood up and placed the framework, “Minimalism works, even essentials could be prioritised.” Everybody agreed.
Indranil, sitting very thoughtful now stood up, “History or time is an entity with its own vision and mission. As an individual, no one can influence that. Introspection seems the only way to connect with it.” and then came the words, “I feel time is bored, it wants to talk to someone and thus forcing isolation for everyone, a pre cursor for introspection.” Amit was moved, “Nothing is permanent?”
The headmistress looked around, “Those three young ones there, don’t you have anything to say?”
Rithu, who has just started her graduate studies said, “I am not too worried about me, I am sort of much better, but there are many who aren’t, that is worrying. Yes, it will be a different world for us”. Adithya, another engineer added, “Had this disease struck us, let’s say in the 17th century, we would have got caught more seriously, but two factors – technology and media of this century, has surely helped us tackle the crisis better than we ever would have. Let’s also recognise that, and be able to harness the best side of it, without compromising on nature.” Arvind, in his graduation was pragmatic, “This is the time to rediscover ourselves. We could go beyond our current capabilities to explore our skills and find new ones, which we could be good at. I have started writing.” The headmistress and the teachers smiled in approval.
The new age farmers and the doers became restless. Ananth now jumped up, “One lesson - self sufficiency is key. Those who can get their hands dirty can survive such crisis.” Joseph added, “We people living on farms can make it through, those in cities won’t have it that great.” As if in approval Ananth said, “True. High time people realised this.” But Shibesh, a long time activist living in the village came up with a reality, “Many rural households do not have the means to cope with this much no work condition.” Everybody seemed to agree to this.
The humanitarians then came in. Sankar, an engineer, spoke up, “Don’t take life for granted, and value everything small or big in life and feel grateful for it.” Baburaj looked unhappy, “Just think of our fellow beings at Jammu, Srinagar...where these lock downs, curfew, sec144 are routine by nature...every alternate days only 3 hours were permitted to natives to go out for buying essentials...i’m quoting during 2003-07 period, where i have been there and witnessed the hardships...now some other way we too are facing, fighting the invisible deadly virus.” He shivered. Arun, who is president of a large corporation, calmly said, “Be super kind to every human and animal and leave a good impression.”
“Fine, but do we have any solutions for the future?”, asked the headmistress. Swarnalatha knew this was for her, “Pandemic or not, the imperative of social & economic equity, public health systems & environmental safeguards remain. The better the segregation in daily routine, the less the waste burden during epidemics.” That was a very important direction, the class felt. Reema, a doctor, then added, “To keep the rich safe, the poor are suffering.” Shiburaj then came up with a set of bullet point recommendations, “It’s time for a bold departure from the usual business. 1.Urban centres needs to be centralised. 2.Priority should not be given for economic growth 3.Primary objective should be sustainability and equity. 4. Natural resources needs to be used very carefully. 5.Investment on war, weapons, and power establishments should be minimum. 6. More investment on food security and health. 7. Redesign in globalisation with focus on localisation. 8. Scope for socialistic values as capitalism in the verge of collapse or at least in great crisis 9. Rebuilding and strengthening community”. He had done his list. Nobody disapproved.
Jishnu shared his observation, “The Government hospitals have done extremely well all across the country in leading the fight against Corona; yes, it's been a single focused attention.” and then he asked, “Would the same hospitals be able to maintain the focus, tomorrow, when it loses the political patronage and is rushed with a variety of problems? How does the hospitals remain the same efficient self, or why do they turn out to be perceived as inefficient?” He felt, “The society should've a responsibility to make them remain as the leaders.” Saira, a young architect and urban planner, living in Kerala, came in next, “Lets learn the lesson and start creating small scale industries to sustain our economy. Make in Kerala, consume in Kerala. We must learn to have foresight, not a quick fix or a jugaad mentality. Stop leaning on the old ideologies and create one which builds towards better futures, integrating technology and our youngsters.” Biju quickly came in now, “Lesson learnt is to adapt to changing times. How true and apt the sloka from Bhagavad Gita is - Change is the law of universe”.
Saju, a doctor, who is in the front line of the fight against the corona virus seemed upset with the discussion relating to the economy. He said, “It’s not time to think of economy. Now is the time to think of saving lives, forgetting economy.” The headmistress intervened, “Yes! We must acknowledge and be thankful to the front-line people who have braved the crisis and are still struggling to keep us all safe. Yes, the economy can wait, lives matter the most!”
The sagacious Narasimha jumped in, as always, “To be independent and dependent for your needs”. Atleast a few of us looked at him, trying to see through his words.
Sitting silently all through was Aswathi, a journalist, “The most important realisation to me is that we are all human, simply human and nothing else, nothing including caste, religion, gods, rituals. None of these mattered. I am a deep believer and I go to the temple, but ultimately, in front of the crisis, it only mattered that we are all human. I have also understood that we have to live within the boundaries set by nature, and I have understood that we must learn how to produce our own food, to farm, however little, with our own hands.” There was an all round applause.
It was time to end this class. The headmistress stood up, for one last time, “Dear students! This was an enlightening day. Many of you have spoken. Some couldn’t. Many did not want to. But that is all fine. Sometimes, I feel, as a teacher, as a mother, I need to grow up...all of you stunned me. Thank you! The class is dispersed. You can all now go back home. And remember, home is not those four walls. As most of you were telling us, Home is our Earth! Thank you, once again!”
Author’s Afterword : As you would have understood, the class room setting, the headmistress and the teachers were all virtual, and part of an effort to weave in the responses. The students, including their names (I have only used first names) and the responses were real to the word and I am thankful to all who responded to the question in various social media, and over the phone. I end the 21-day lock down Covid19 series with this blog. Sorry for this longer one; I did not expect such an overwhelming response to the lesson question. Thank you.
