PositiveNewsCorner

Article By Sandarbh Anand Sharma

My father once told me “there is a thin line between bravery and foolishness”. This sentence has stuck with me for a very long time, and influenced many decisions of my life. Just to be clearer, this set of words does not imply that a person becomes a coward, it just suggests that one should weigh the actions, with caution and discretion.

Let me come straight to the point.

Unlock 1.0 and people’s subsequent reaction to it has baffled me. My reaction was triggered by a photo which showed a crowded Marine Drive, with people walking without a care, social distancing gone for a toss, celebrities running in shorts with mask covering their chin, and a few bravehearts without masks as well (you read it right, without mask). If that was not enough the other image I saw was people pushing each other to buy …. guess what — “Samosa and vada pav”.  If the educated, supposedly “aware” and rich citizens behave this way, what can one expect from the “unaware” ?

In my understanding, Unlock 1.0 started to just relax things a bit. It was to allow offices, markets, temples, mosques, restaurants to open, online shopping to resume etc. basically it was meant to be just the first step towards normalcy. I strongly believed that even in the Unlock, the basic rule – — Go Out Only If Absolutely Necessary,  would still stand . I thought it was very obvious that Unlock 1.0 was a necessity that arose because of the hit that economy had taken, just that, there was nothing more to it.

Apparently people, masses and the classes, had different views.

As soon as Unlock 1.0 started. people were seen moving out of their houses, same way an animal would run out of the enclosures, or a criminal would run after a jail break. The maximum business was done by eateries, people thronged the restaurants and roadside shops, as if they had been eating crap for past few months. People went to parks and to beaches for family outings, shopping, all was being done as if there is no tomorrow. Two wheelers carrying 4 and individuals making a mockery of social distancing was a common sight. In smaller cities, situation was pretty much same, except that the mask was worn round the neck, only to cover the face when seeing a cop, and that too solely to avoid paying a fine

I don’t understand why we behave the way we do, but interestingly people have their justifications ready for their acts.

Some intellects think that Corona is not as dangerous as it is made out to be. For some it is just a way of distracting people from issues such as unemployment, recession etc. etc. There are WhatsApp forwards that say that there are other far dangerous diseases in the world today.  Some conspiracy theorist are working full time on this.  Unbelievable but true !!! This is being said in the times when corona virus has mutated itself 10 times, when experts are worried about extreme contagiousness of the disease and the fact that it causes sudden and unexpected deterioration in person’s condition, it causes Acute Respiratory Distress syndrome and last but not the least, it leads to thrombosis and clotting of blood vessels. This does remind me of pigeon, that closes its eyes when it sees danger. Just to let you know, a moment of carelessness can have devastating effect.

There are others, who respond by saying, “Everyone has to die one day,” , “no one can escape death” and “when time comes one has to go”. I don’t want to get these people out of their “philosophical world”, especially when what they are saying is true. However I want to ask them a question — “If time of your death is final and you will die when you are destined to, why are you being super careless and causing harm to others? If you don’t care and have to die of Corona, why carry the infection for 14 days and spread it? you can very well stay at home and wait to die, you don’t need to make efforts, if you have to die, then even a ceiling fan can fall on your head. The masterpiece is this “Corona will kill you whatever you do”…. if you really believe this then wait for it, but wait at home.

There is another group that feels that they are so nice and religious that no harm can come their way.  They can roam around, riding on over confidence, but the fact is that Corona does not care a damn on who you are, what religion you follow, what caste you belong to, or what country you belong to.

Others find masks restrictive, but then again, if you think you don’t need a mask, its ok, fine, but them mask is not for you alone. if you can’t wear it for yourself, wear it for others. protect yourself and spare others. If a person is for example a Corona carrier, imagine how useful the mask would be and how many lives it would save. Think about the senior citizens, and others around you, whenever you are in 2 minds regarding  wearing masks.

Corona has changed the world around us, it’s basically changed everything, primarily the basic concept of “freedom”. There are rules, restrictions everywhere. It’s natural to feel frustrated. I understand that, but dears you also have some duty towards the society, the nation needs you, it needs all its citizens to be careful and do whatever they can do to fight this disease.

Remember the “Thin line between bravery and foolishness”