It Was All Fine A Month Ago..
How India’s current health crisis is devastating, to say the least.
I was about eight or nine years old when I took part in my first writing competition. The central theme was to think of a vision for 2020. It was enthralling to imagine what the future would look like, what nifty gadgets and advanced technologies would throng our daily lives. As a happy-go-lucky kid with rose-tinted glasses, I couldn’t have thought of the current situation even in my worst nightmares.
Yes, the year 2020 was nothing visionary and 2021 is turning out to be even worse, even though experts were convinced otherwise. India reels from the impact of over 300,000 Coronavirus cases in a single day. Patients and families struggle to scrape together resources, the health infrastructure is collapsing, crematoriums and mortuaries are filled to the brim. How does it actually feel to be in Delhi at the epicentre of infection? Here’s a glimpse of how quickly the situation worsened and what it currently looks like.
It was all fine about a month ago. 29th March, 2021 was when I was frolicking with my cousins on the festival of Holi. Doused in a heady mix of water, colours and sweets — life seems idyllic in hindsight. The next day, I heard that a close friend tested positive. I had met her a week back, followed by at least a dozen more people in the build-up to the festival. The guilt of infecting my near and dear ones overtook my senses. Thankfully, I tested negative and came out of isolation triumphant in a single day. But others weren’t as lucky.
In the following two weeks, Delhi witnessed an exponential rise in cases. Numbers turned into names, and names turned into families, friends and relatives. The privileged frantically hoarded up medical resources, stocking up life-saving injections before the need even arose. Others adamantly refused to get tested in spite of showing symptoms or coming in contact with infected people. Before we knew it, a third of the daily Covid tests started resulting positive in Delhi.
Grappling with the sudden spike were hapless middle-class families and friends — people just like me and my family. Just a cursory glance through my social media would be enough to prove how strapped for resources the common man was and continues to be. Oxygen cans, concentrators, complicated medicine names like Remdesivir and Favipiravir are now a part of our daily parlance. ‘Helplessness’ and 'languishing’ became the mots du jour, rightly capturing the present moment. Citizens lashed out at the governments in anguish, deeply critical of their lackadaisical approach. At a personal level, I continuously felt exhausted from dialling up and reaching out to scores of people for something as basic as a single willing Plasma donor. Even praying or singing songs refused to provide hope. And this was me as a member of the general public, let alone as a doctor or a frontline worker.
The entire picture isn’t gloomy, though. In these four odd weeks, one thing has proven to be true — that the most important thing in life is human relationships. The way that communities, and even society at large, have come together to support those in need is truly heartening. Long lost friends dropped decade-old feuds to check up on each other. The interconnected, webbed network of humongous WhatsApp groups actually proved useful. Every forwarded link or message was accompanied with real concern about the health and well-being of others before ourselves. Yes, people are being selfish, but there are a number of instances of selflessness that is quite refreshing to see in the world that we live in.
To conclude, I would simply say that the battle with Covid is still on. India starts vaccinations for a major chunk of the population above the age of 18 this weekend. Lockdown is in place in many parts of the country, with due cause of course. Meanwhile, if you or your near ones are feeling helpless in these testing times, trust me, you’re not alone. In spite of what the circumstances seem to be, we will all overcome this together. This ‘Guernica’ will surely draw to an end sooner or later, with people emerging victorious.
