Good morning, Bangalore.
The world is our cocoon and we are infecting each other to a point of extinction! It is amazing how we never learn from our past mistakes. Rampant and unchecked commercialisation has brought us to the edge many times. We eat everything on the planet, go to far flung places and watch as they fry and serve us anything that crawls, flies or slithers. We watch with morbid fascination as live octopus, bugs and fish are swallowed alive while they still squirm to free themselves.
I have watched with horror as a live cobra was slit with a deft stroke of the knife and his still beating heart was swallowed whole by a gentleman, who wanted to enhance his libido. I remember being led kicking and screaming out of there by my friends who were afraid that I would be arrested in a foreign land. They patiently explained that the bathrooms in the prisons were horrific and that piece of news had an instant calming effect on me!
Yet, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that every decade or so we are over-run by newer strains of viruses that cause death and despair on our planet. Like the Coronavirus (fondly called Cardi V by the youngsters), there have been other strains of deadly viruses that seem to be immune to any medication that our medical fraternity comes up with. My friends who are doctors claim that the viruses mutate themselves to be resistant to new vaccines. It’s like they have a life of their own! Darwinesque theories have come into play; ‘Survival of the fittest.’ Fittest may not necessarily be the best, but it looks like ‘The meek shall inherit the earth’.
While we are driving ourselves crazy by running around like panic stricken chickens (oops! Maybe that’s a wrong analogy to use now that the bird flu is threatening to engulf us), our leaders and religious heads are propagating their own cures to the gullible. Some of them are so ludicrous that they are hilarious and some are downright unhygienic. Hapless cow P&P (poop and pee) are widely being touted as miracle cures and the icing on the cake is one quack claiming that one should cover one’s derriere with wads of cotton to ward of the virus! If only he would cover the orifice, that is his mouth, and stop spouting such nonsense, maybe we could not suffer from noise and idiocy pollution!
I have decided to go ‘cold turkey’ for a while. No more attending parties or gatherings even on work, to do my bit for containing this virus. I genuinely feel we must act responsibly. Stop air kissing and hugging and maintain basic hygiene and cleanliness. Spread awareness to the staff that work for you, avoid travelling and meetings, both professional and social (this is the Age of Aquarius, video conferencing is in!), and enjoy the time off by being at home, re-assessing, spending quality time with family, reading and not panicking about the global financial meltdown, because this too shall pass.
One of my last outdoor activities was being on a panel discussion for Women’s Day for a duo of young entrepreneurs, Shruti Agarwal and Prachi Mungali at the RMZ Galleria. The topic was wide ranging, with inputs from fashionistas like Sarayu Hegde, Husna Sait, jewelry designer Chitra Pathi and make-up artist Gouri Kapur who spoke about sustainable fashion and the conscious consumer. Moderated by the lovely Nirmala Balakrishnan, the debate had interesting insights given by these smart and savvy ladies. I was there to talk about body imaging and low self-esteem of women because of stereotypes endorsed by the fashion industry. Why is it, those men with waistlines the size of the equator, balding pates and bad breath still think that they are Romeos? Points to ponder with a Salaam and Namaste!
Rubi Chakravarti writer, actor and funny girl