English, asked by britneycruliox, 10 months ago

Write a reflection that covers any events, anecdotes or interesting reflections that you and/or your family experienced during the Corona Virus lockdown period.
( please anything I don't know what to talk about )

Answers

Answered by aryankarade04
0

Answer:

A German writer recounts the alienation, prejudice, frustration, amity, spirituality, and acceptance he has discovered in India, his home away from home.

To be stuck at home during the coronavirus lockdown is one thing. To be stuck in a place you consider home and be treated like a carrier of the virus is another awful thing. | S.S. Kumar

On the second day of the lockdown, I drove 6 km to Periyamudaliyarchavadi to get water. Coconut water. A Tamilian friend who runs a tiny guesthouse in his garden had just harvested his trees. I wasn’t there just to fill my bag with heavy and delicious coconuts. He was helping me out and he needed my help too.

All guests were long gone after what had been a dull start to the season. The quiet atmosphere in his otherwise lively abode matched the awkward silence of the vacant streets. Two days into the lockdown and he was struggling to buy milk and vegetables for himself and his three children. I had brought some cash along, which I could lend him — a little drop of hope to ease his more urgent worries.

We spent the afternoon together and I left at around 5 p.m., totally unprepared for what would unfold over the next 30 minutes. The police had blocked several roads, making it impossible to go back the way I had come. I roamed around the village to find a way out. Luckily, I was on my motorbike. The villagers who saw me immediately covered their faces. They screamed at me, Po! Po! Go away! One man pretended to pick up a stone to chase me away, like I was a stray dog. Dozens of people sprinted into their houses and huts. One woman cursed at me like I was the devil himself. It was surreal to say the least. And frightening. I could not believe my eyes and ears. Yes, I have heard the stories of foreigners being beaten and chased away with sinister “Corona Corona” choruses, but those were stories from Goa, Delhi and elsewhere. Now, those hostile realities had reached my home as well.

I had returned to India in early December, long before the term COVID-19 was even crafted and when most of the world didn’t know that a city named Wuhan even existed. I consider Tamil Nadu my second home. This land has raised me to be the man I am today. I have been coming to Periyamudaliyarchavadi for the last 18 years, I have seen the temple wither away and be renovated, I have seen houses and shops come and go and children grow into adults, but none of that mattered any more. The news on WhatsApp or Facebook spoke a clear language: The white travellers and tourists from Europe had brought the deadly disease into India. Even the Puducherry Chief Minister had taken to the TV, promising his frantic people isolation and COVID-checks of all the ‘vellekaras’, or the white folk, in Auroville.

Nobody was allowed to leave the international township any more — a township born from the idea of human unity. Rumours spread quickly. It hadn’t taken many ridiculous and utterly false social media posts to create the hostile environment that I just witnessed. Obviously, I have encountered isolated instances of xenophobia before, having travelled across India and many other parts of the globe over the last two decades. We are human apes, not gods. I understand that. But fear and animosity from the men and women I consider my brothers and sisters, virtually right in front of my house?

As I type these words, ten days after my trip to Periyamudaliyarchavadi, a nationwide lights display has just come to a close — and the country has changed once again. The rage and scapegoating has shifted, since it has come to be known that almost half of the COVID-19 cases across India can now be traced back to a Tablighi Jamaat (an influential islamic missionary organisation popular mainly in South-East Asia) meeting in New Delhi. Inter-religious tensions are on the rise again, tensions which had hardly even begun to subside. The high-stakes drama over the Citizenship Amendment Act is still an open wound on a vulnerable subcontinent that is trying to find a pathway from a diverse past into a diverse future. It’s hard to imagine that the indignation will be directed at the Tablighi Jamaat alone and that all other followers of Islam will be spared. Strange times indeed.

Yet, on Day 12, the animosity towards foreigners is still palpable. I am making sure I stay at home until things cool down considerably. I was supposed to fly back on April 1. (In hindsight, I wonder if I knew that my plan to fly out of India on that particular date would turn out to be a great joke. But, of course, my ticket has long been cancelled). The German government is making great efforts to bring home its stranded citizens from all corners of the planet, including thousands in India. Last week, I twice had the opportunity to fly back to Frankfurt. I declined.

hope it will help

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