This Lockdown Is Proof That We're Animals, Not Humans
30.04.2020, 1.19 pm
Mumbai, India
It’s my second cycle of period during this lockdown, just thanking my stars that I turned to menstrual cup just last month. I mean sanitary napkins just got included in the list of essentials finally. Until March 30th, that wasn’t the case, which is surprising enough since menstruation probably happens every month for at least 25 million women in this country and more. But then, who am I kidding? What’s even making sense at all these days?
We’re in the second month of living like this. Living like prisoners when we’re not. Living like criminals when we’re not. Living like there’s a little secret we need to hide, when we don’t. Living like getting infected by covid19 is a crime when it’s not. Living like wild animals in a society where there are no rules, no humanity, no courtesy, or empathy - letting our survival instincts take over and acting like there’s an apocalypse occurring as we go on about our days during the lockdown.
As much as the world is applauding us for how we’re dealing with coronavirus, this is the one place where I feel we went wrong thanks to its irresponsible national media - we’ve been able to convince the citizens of this country that getting covid19 in and around you is a crime and you need to do everything it takes to fight it.
Whereas other countries talk about coronavirus’ treatment, we, on the other hand, talk about FIR lodged against a family where there was a positive case and an infected doctor being buried in the neighbourhood. We talk about infected people running from hospitals or migrating from their city to another to protect themselves, as if they’ve attempted a murder.
Why are we acting like this? Why are we acting like criminals when we’re not? Maybe the definition of journalism needs to be redefined in the country. Maybe, we need our own covid19 heroes to be rewarded and talked about. Maybe, our leaders need to set examples through their informative speeches rather than just calling it “Mahamari” to freak us out a little bit more.
Is this the new normal? Or are we ready for this new normal? Recently, many shops were opened, where they have to work at 50% capacity in terms of their staff. The thought of slowly opening the economy has now started to give me anxiety. Especially after what happened in Chennai just the other day. How many more dead bodies will we attack in the following days to save ourselves? This sounds as ridiculous as some humans actually justify it in their heads that it’s okay to execute that dreadful plan.
As we are prepping to open up the lockdown slowly with terms and conditions, we’re left in a dilemma. A country that has shown no signs of logical reasoning during these times will be trusted with an eased out lockdown.
With a heavy heart, I’ll have to say that our post-corona existence has reminded us that we’re not human at all. There was a reason why were named ‘human’, a reason that was nicely covered up pre-corona. This lockdown taught us how we were really good at hiding and normalizing our greed, inequality, hate, disconnection, and inhumanity. That’s not the case anymore because we’ve been forced to pause and come face to face with the raw versions of ourselves.
Do we like this raw version? I don’t know. Can we live like this a little bit longer and take this opportunity to introspect and be a better ‘human’ version of ourselves? I think so, I know so.