On my way to ducking COVID-19

My last rendezvous with Germany

… was in 2018, before I flew back to India. Knowing little, that after a year and a half and miles apart, there will still be an undesired, deadly & more realistic thread connecting us or rather everyone in the world.

COVID-19 has brought everything to a standstill, but the insecurity, fear and hunger continue to surge, especially among the poorest of the poor. Not to forget, even when the economy will have recovered, the lives of many of us, who are being bereft of our loved ones, will never be the same. Many of us, in each part of the world, will still carry that void within ourselves.

Yes, surely the nature is recovering, undoing the years of damage wrecked on it by us humans. Though this recovery remains in veil, at least for me, but someone is healing. It was also in 2018, when the Greta Thunberg started appealing to all of us to do something to save our planet.

Talking about the situation in India

… it seems like, as if, this mirthless crisis in itself isn’t enough to make one feel distraught, that the mainstream media in India wants to be the icing of even this ‘cake’. Sure, even when many lives & the global economy are crumbling down like a house of cards, the ‘mainstream’ media continues doing its dirty business as usual. When we all need to be in this together, the vociferous ‘mainstream’ media continues to drive the wedge of hatred among people even deeper by using an entire community as a scapegoat. But I really hope that we will cut through this clutter of hatred and will not pass this onto the next generation (s).

So, amid all this

… I have decided to revisit a literary work that I first came to know about in my second year of graduation. I have started reading the novel, whose film adaptation I saw at that time.

‘Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie führen kann’ (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, or How the violence develops and where it can lead) is the novel that I am referring to and am reading. It will continue to be apt, till we as a society raise the bar of how we want to perceive the world. Do we give the reins in the hand of the media and let them rule the roost or we build a society based on discourse & space for constructive criticism, the society which questions the way the narratives are fabricated to make us less inquisitive & rather make us seek answers in terms of either you are with us or against us…OR should we endeavor towards a society, which works together to build a tomorrow that belongs to EVERYONE.

You will crave for such a benevolent society badly

… when you read the novel, as it depicts how the tabloid media rips Katharina Blum’s life apart, depriving her of her dignity and privacy. The media trials based on twisted statements bereave her of her mother and the chance to lead a normal life devoid of media as well as public scrutiny.

Please read, how a woman leading a good repute life, just in a matter of a night starts receiving death threats as our fast paced society wants to make an effortless judgement and gives the newsrooms the right to do character assassination, even when later on the person may be acquitted by the Judiciary and is indeed proven to be just the pawn being played at the hands of TRP-loving cold business people.

To do my part in the fight

… for #EndCOVID4All, I have joined as a V-Force Volunteer to aid UN spread awareness regarding COVID-19. Till now I have tried to bring special attention to more vulnerable groups like elderly people, persons with disability and to how this pandemic will worsen the gender inequality, as post this the women who already face disadvantage in accessing decent paying work will suffer the most. Currently I am focusing on the exacerbation of domestic violence against women. The girls and women in abusive environment have become more susceptible to violence as they are isolated from the people and resources that can help them. 

As we go through this wringer

… probably remembering- ‘this too, shall pass’, might give some hope. My heart reaches out to the people, whose lives have been turned upside down. Many have lost and many more are living in insecurity & fear..many are away from their homes and at the whim of the unforeseen tragedy…, not knowing when this will end, how will they survive without earning their daily bread & butter. So, even after this pandemic is over, I will continue my volunteering with V-Force post COVID-19, that is my pledge and my post-COVID plan. What’s yours?

Stay Home to Save Lives!