o-zone

Together, yet so far apart

What seemed impossible, has been achieved by a virus. What are the lessons this pandemic teaches us?

Vinita Dawra Nangia 5.4.2020

When was the last time you felt so connected to the rest of the world? Never were all of humanity’s concerns so aligned. For once, the world is thinking the same thoughts, sharing the same fears and battling the same enemy.

We are all reaching for the same medicines and protective gear, and standing in queues for food, fearful for the next meal. All nations are collectively rocketing high on the corona graph, and deepdiving together dizzily on the economic graph.

Such synchronisation would have been impossible to achieve ever! And yet, today, impossible is the new possible. Nobody is stronger than the other – the most powerful have fallen hardest to their knees. What the might of powerful nations, fear of a thousand armies, or the wisdom of a million saints could not have achieved, has been managed by a minuscule virus. Strange times indeed – life is being held to ransom by a non-living being. We are under attack by a chemical ball – proteins, those cherished life-savers, are killing humans. We are all in it together, and yet each is on his own. Was this ever your vision of ‘One World’? I never did doubt His presence, nor His sense of balance and justice – but this one instance convinces me God has a sense of humour too. We were all so cocksure of everything, uncaring about our environment, recklessly looting from the Earth that nurtured us, ungrateful for the love that surrounded us, isolating ourselves from fellow humans… In one fell swoop, a virus neutralised our negativity by pushing us into our homes.

And now the Earth heals herself as pollution lessens; the birds tweet to their heart’s content in a clear blue sky, and leopards and sambhar reclaim their land as we stay locked away...

There has to be some meaning to all this, and we must understand the lessons this pandemic is teaching us if we are to avoid similar debacles in the future.

Log on to ozone.blogs.timesofindia.com for lessons the pandemic is teaching us

The opinions expressed in this column are the personal views of the writer