Hi, fellow resident of a flat world.
My name is Amar. I am a writer and comedian based in India. At this moment, I am working from home. There are no shows happening, no open mics, nothing. I need a haircut, but I worry about social distancing and let my hair enter my nostrils over and over. Hair in the nostrils sound better than virus in the body.
I feel that’s better than going to the barber. Who knows how many people from what places have been to the barber lately?
Life as we know it, has literally stopped over the last few days.
The entire human society is structured around people gathering in offices, kids going to schools and colleges, people meeting to socialize and just being out, because we can’t live in a claustrophobic environment. The world, currently, is a claustrophobic environment.
This is absolutely unprecedented. The viruses the world has faced in the last few years like Ebola, H1N1 etc. did not wreak the kind of infectious havoc Coronavirus has, in only a few days. Once the virus abates, there needs to be an entire debate on why viruses originate in China, and what should be done about it. We can’t have one country put the lives of the entire people of the world at risk, because of their food habits and a wildlife industry they breed. I did some research on the kinds of food the Chinese eat. For starters you may see this video.
For now, what we need to remember is that we need to be safe, and socially distance ourselves as much as possible.
You must do the following and encourage everyone else to do so:
Do not meet people who have traveled to any of the infected countries- China, Korea, Italy, to begin with.
If you have the symptoms-fever and dry cough, please get yourself tested.
Do not panic. If we are to die, we will die anyway.
My heart goes out to people in Italy and how they are living in a physical lock down. Medical facilities have been stretched and everything resembles a curfew zone. But, there are also videos going to them singing and keeping themselves in good humor, which reinstates our belief in human spirit to fight.
India, my country, has reported 126 cases, and 3 deaths as on today. We hope we can keep measures in place and enough caution so that the numbers don’t rise.
My reason for writing this piece is to instill hope in this time of fear and global despair.
Ladies and gentlemen of the world- there is life beyond this deadly virus.
There is a life to be lived. We need to understand what got us into this space, and how we can avoid getting into this in future.
Hopefully, this won’t be the end of the world, and if it’s not, I will see you on the other side.
Please take a moment to spread cheer around you.
Tell jokes, even if one person laughs. One person laughing is better than nobody laughing.
Keep the caution while knowing, that this will pass, because it will.
Thank you for reading.
If you liked the piece, please share it around, and clap below.
Love, and distant hugs :)
Amar
