BENGALURU : I refuse! I totally refuse to fall down this ‘Alice in Wonderland’ abyss with no light at the end of the tunnel, to sink slowly but surely into a mad and unfamiliar world or have the Queen of Hearts lop your head off !
It is really a good time to trash all those schadenfreude people (sadists who derive pleasure through cruelty or pain to others), who shamelessly try to distract our attention from the abysmal failure (read: support, infrastructure, finance) of the central government to quell this genocide that is happening around us.
A big mouth from the south of our city opened his orifice long enough for everybody to see the hole between his ears where his brain should have been.
Even the sycophantic lady from the hills with her exceptionally grating voice and even more ludicrous utterances had herself successfully thrown out from a popular social media platform where she has been spewing her undiluted and bigoted matter unchecked for some time now.
A virus ran amok in our country because we were made to believe that the government had conquered it. Why? Because power and complete dominance over the ballot is worth sacrificing millions of lives for.
People burnt on their 'pyre of power'... all those who want to change this narrative and cry hoarse about conspiracies and divide this nation on the basis of caste and creed should commit ‘harakiri’ (an honourable way of the Samurai of taking one's life with one’s own sword).
The key word is 'honourable'. Do it yourself before the people of this nation do it for you! Through this haze of abject misery and despondency, leave it to the youth of this country to show us the light.
They have seamlessly organised themselves into COVID warriors, sometimes achieving the impossible. Take our city alone. Thousands of cases on a daily basis! The afflicted are being fed by the beleaguered restaurants who themselves are in a financial bind. There are no rich, poor, caste and creed here.
Cardi-V has spared no-one. The young people... multi-hued and multi-cultured have all congregated under one Universe to help. Their social-media platforms are abuzz with what’s available and where to go. It works on a well-oiled platform of identify, verify, amplify and source.
Schedule drugs, oxygen, ICU beds, and home conversion into isolation facilities, identifying and cohesively bringing together people who help people is being done on a war footing every day. I am a verifier and amplifier. It’s important because there are so many nuts with fake numbers and sharks that will make a buck off their dying uncles!
I want to focus on the bright sparks of our city, who till some time ago had their noses buried in Instagram checking out trends, tik-toks and gossip. Now is it sourcing, verifying and amplifying. Kiran Soans, the food warrior packs hundreds of food parcels for everyone who needs it. It’s not only the ones who can’t afford it but people who are left alone at home isolating, sick and in need to sustenance.
Young restaurateur Bikash Parekh pledges food everyday still valiantly trying to keep his establishment and workers afloat.
The young and dynamic Sonalika Pawar has her Instagram full of amplified messages for help. Her young friends Tara, Mehul, Sayesha and hundreds of others are at it non-stop. No one can stop them and they have shown us what 'atmanibhar' really means.
The state has failed, conned and abused our trust on so many counts. The youngsters and fellow Indians have shown us how to generate our own light. I was bereft losing a 29-yearold who I tried to get an ICU oxygenated bed for.
In the end he lost the fight and I wept hot tears of anguish for a total stranger. The young brigade didn’t accept my defeat. I am identifying, amplifying and verifying even more now.
(The author's views are her own)