SU ENDARE SUKRUNDE


















"Fear is the lengthened shadow of ignorance.”

— Arnold Glasow
Some forty years ago, when I came to this one-of-a-kind city, Bombay – now Mumbai - my uncle and aunt (dad’s younger brother and his wife) were kind enough to accommodate me in their small house for seven long years. I lived with them as their own son. I learnt to be more responsible, disciplined, and, above all, more adjustable while I lived with them. I loved my aunt’s funny one-liners. One of them was my favorite: ‘Su endare sukrunde’… Translated from Kannada, it meant: Su means Sukurunde!


Well, ‘sukrunde’ is the name of a local (Mangalorean) sweet-laddo. So, just a ‘su’ is enough for a gossip-monger or a rumour-monger to make a nice ‘sukrunde’… It was her pet one-liner, which she used every time she would hear someone around her spinning baseless stories – gossip and rumour (Today’s ‘fake news’, which, in our local Tulu, we called ‘Ge Suddhi’) - my aunt had her one-liner ready in Kannada: “Su endare sukrunde”… Su means Sukrunde!


Does it ring a bell, today?


I am tired of the Corona news… The rumours, gossips, fake news – the ge suddhi’s – yes, they spread not only faster than the Corona virus, they also are more dangerous!


Fear and panic are more pandemic than any kind of virus in this world… The human mind is more susceptible than the human body, you see!


Am I underestimating the danger we are faced with?


No, I am not. It’s not a laughing matter or something that should be taken lightly. Yes, I, too, am concerned and serious…


But, I just get put off when all and sundry start making sukrunde’s out of su’s… Well, it may sound blasphemous to say this: when they make a mountain out of a molehill!


The problem faced by us – the Corona Virus – is real. And, the other problem faced by all of us – the Sukrunde Virus – is also real!


Luckily, there is a lot of humour floating around… Most of it is very creative. I really think, that humour is the best medicine, if not for the Corona Virus, it’s the best medicine to cure ourselves from the onslaught of the Sukrunde Virus!


“I would have died by now,” I just told my friend, Joe, over the telephone, “without these funny Corona jokes.”



They say, that the tragedies and the calamities, come to teach us some valuable lessons. It is true and false, both... 

 What have we learnt from all the natural or man-made disasters in the past – earthquakes, tsunamis, wars or riots? 

 What have we learnt from the social ills like Apartheid, Holocaust or Untouchability? 

 What have we learnt from the religious and racist bias? 

 What have we learnt from all the epidemics and pandemics of the past – Small Pox, Cholera, Swine Flu, Bird Flu, Leprosy or whatever?


Are we not already distancing socially?


Yes, after some time, the Cororna will go. But, the ‘ills’ plaguing our souls… I doubt they will…


Am I being too pessimistic?


I am not.






GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.:news.imitate.com

Video: Gaiea Sanskrit


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