AM I SCARED OF CORONA VIRUS?

June 01, 2020

“If it doesn’t challenge you,

it doesn’t change you.”

Fred Devito

“Sir, are you scared of Corona Virus?” asked my student, Vikram* while talking to me over the phone.

After being in a lockdown for over two months, and knowing clearly that it’s been extended for a month more – seeing clearly, 24/7, what is happening all across the world - here is my boy, asking me casually, “Sir, are you scared of Corona Virus?”

“Yes” or “No”?

“What about you?” I threw the question back at Vikram.

“No Sir,” my student replied without even waiting to catch his next breath.

“Where are you now, beta?” I asked even though I knew where he was.

“At home, Sir.”

“At home, where?”

“In my bedroom.”

“Is the AC on?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Where is brother?”

“In his room, Sir.”

“Mom and dad?”

“Mom is in the hall room, dad in his room.”

“All the ACs are on? The fridge is well-stocked?”

By now, my boy knew, that I was being sarcastic. He just wanted to know if I was scared of the Corona Virus… He was not, and I was beating about the bush!

Vikram was a dear student of mine and his parents were my close friends, too. So, I took the liberty to say this, “Beta, would you have asked me that question if you were one of those migrants on the burning highways? Or, would you have asked that question to one of them?”

“No one is scared of the Corona Virus… Everybody is scared of the consequences – the uncertainties of life,” I said, “For you and me, it’s easy to ask that question from our private air-conditioned rooms… Yes, I am very, very scared!”

The world, today, consists of two kinds of people… Those who walk on the burning roads, and those who cozy up to their AC rooms. Those for whom, the challenges of life are a reality, and those for whom, the challenges are virtual, a reality show – by sharing B/W childhood-pictures, or pictures of shaven heads, or in sarees or videos of singing, reciting poems, cooking dishes, etc., etc. I am not telling, that we should not engage in such lighter things in life… I am only telling this: as we accept these virtual challenges, we should not become immune to the real ones faced by so many millions out there, during these Corona times…

Reciting someone else’s poems is fine. But, these are the times to write our own poems, and live them!

Today, one of my friends had proudly shared a poem. It was a poetry-recital contest, and he wanted maximums votes. Yes, I voted… but, never before sharing some of the poems I was soaking myself in, over and over again, for last couple of days. Here are those poems…