Epidemics have been spreading before since the beginning of times, death has always been frightening, funerals have always been tragic, but this time horrible shadows of fear have strengthen their claws and humans are not just afraid of death but from their fellow humans.
When thousands were thrown to the darkness of soil only then the secret was revealed to us that no one should touch anyone, no hugs, no tender kisses, no showing of affection by holding hands, if we are to sit together, the sorry reality of social distancing would have to stay intact.
Epidemics snatched lives before, but Corona has wreaked havoc. This epidemic has taken away love. The aloofness between humans has increased, the distances are doubling, and the disease seems like an uncatchable bird.
They say don’t do anything, stay locked in the house. As it came, so it will go. What an easy recipe. If that had been the case, those living in Italy and Iran would have been at peace by now, no?
What a pity that if there are some permissions then there are some restrictions too. If you want to run with the idea of exercise or if you want to walk, you are allowed to run, but run alone, walk alone.
If you go to open fields, do not set foot among the crowd. Stay away from others because it is beneficial for you and good for them as well.
I still cannot come to terms with this, earlier the diseases were treated with medicine. But now, loneliness is the answer. If this ruthless corona virus has already taken hold of your life, lock yourself in a room, you should not go out, no one should come in. So what to do? Human is disgusted with one another. It is not a disease, it is human enmity, and it is a slayer of affection.
I wonder what if a flying saucer came from somewhere and brought this epidemic with it. This disease has brought with it surprises. Strange things are happening everywhere. Despite gulping thousands of lives, it seems as if people are listening to the news from one ear and blowing it from the other.
Like a strange madness people seem so sure that this disease might affect others but nothing will happen to them. Curfews are being imposed, lockdowns are taking place, and still people are coming out from their homes to see the lockdowns, the empty streets and the painful scenes. Authorities are shouting that it is a lockdown, not a public holiday.
People are laughing when they hear this. Somewhere a woman with a pocket full of currency notes came out of her house in a rickshaw. She started distributing cash among the day laborers. People wandering on the streets for no reason crashed into her and started snatching money from her hands.
Annoyed, she tossed the currency notes in the air and headed home. So were these looters really poor and helpless? If there is an epidemic in the city, then like human beings, does the affection and warmth also die? Do germs flying in the air also break the rules?
It reminded me of Gabriel novel, Love in the Plague. In it, a boy and a girl love each other, but the girl’s father does not like it at all, he takes the girl somewhere far away from the boy.
But their love kept its strength despite the distance. Meanwhile, the girl’s father meets a well-to-do doctor who is trying to control the cholera epidemic. The father marries his daughter to this doctor. Two lovers have been separated for fifty years. One day the doctor falls down the stairs and dies.
Time should have stopped there, but love turned out to be more powerful than the plague that spread everywhere. Cholera is dead, love is alive. Everything in the story is a sign of the changing times.
The purpose of passing of this time is for people to mold themselves into the form of time or to mold time into the form of people. Well it depends on the times and the people, this question is left unanswered in the novel. Today we also have a question on our heads. Will the torment that befell us in the form of the Corona Virus pass like a gust of wind or will our attitude change after today?
Will our way of thinking and understanding evolve? Will the value of human life, which is falling like the trends of the market, be dearer to us after this resurrection than ever before? Will we retreat when the currency notes are being distributed? Will we give way to those needier than us?
Will we start loving our planet and our fellow humans after today so that no new virus can emerge? This is the time to think about whether we will mourn over the corpses falling everywhere or will we evolve in to better humans so the coming generation may forgive our mistakes.
