Africa-Press – Mauritius. In Hindu tradition adding the suffix ‘ji’ to a person’s name is to show great respect to the person. The reasons can be many: the person is powerful, learned, is engaged selflessly in a great humanitarian cause, and so on.
Covid-19 or the Coronavirus, an invisible, ultramicroscopic bit of life is so powerful that it has brought the world to its knees. Hence Corona-ji. It has led to many countries going into lockdown, sanitary curfew or couvre-feu sanitaire as we have called it here.
Essentially, this means that, except for people working in essential services or going about to obtain essential items of food and medicine, everybody else is by law obliged to stay at home.
The result is that families that may include grandparents, parents and school/college-going students are now housebound for a number of days. Of course, as far as the children go, this is just like being on holiday. Except that it is not.
In a matter of weeks, from its origin in Wuhan, Corona-ji has spread all over the world causing respiratory disease and death, known as a pandemic, which is taking away loved ones, leaving families grieving, and shaking to the core national authorities as they attempt desperately to stop its spread and limit the damage.
At the same time, though, it has forced us to learn – or re-learn – certain fundamental lessons that humanity seems to have forgotten in its frenetic pursuit of the pleasant (in Sanskrit: preya) at the expense of the good (shreya).
I have come up with a few lessons. Readers may add their own to the list. People clap and clang utensils to show gratitude to the helpers and medical practitioners who are working relentlessly to fight coronavirus in Kolkata on March 22, 2020.
Pic – PTI Families of roadside shopkeepers ring bell and clap to cheer health workers following coronavirus outbreaks, in New Delhi on March 22, 2020.
Pic – AP, Manish Swarup ‘As we grow older we let go a little at a time: a bad memory, a negative habit, a toxic friend. Bit by bit we shed what no longer serves us until we reveal we who are underneath it all. We soon discover that even though we gave up many things, there is no feeling of loss. What we have gained in return is far more valuable’.
Let us therefore use these days of togetherness fruitfully, to bond even more strongly among ourselves, to rediscover the strength of love and affection, and to ponder how our lives have been truly enriched during this Stay-at-home imposed for our own protection. Thank you, Corona-ji.
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