Write essay on curse of corona
Answers
Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, the crown prince of the United Kingdom, having tested positive, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson contracting that scary ailment in Australia and the Canadian prime minister’s wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, being one of the patients, are a few examples of how the corona virus has turned out to be an equalizer.
That pronouncement by a close friend stirred my analytical faculty. The prescribed cure and precautions too are the same for everyone, he went on to say. He was right on the money in saying so because the advice on precautions pouring in from every corner is essentially the same. Having a home, and state protection in such circumstances, are propositions, we tend to take for granted. The homeless and the stateless don’t figure anywhere in our imagination. The homeless in this extraordinary situation is the main theme of this column. However, let’s look into the socio-economic differences within the category of those possessing a home before we proceed to discuss the homeless and the vulnerability they are consigned to.
After having tested positive Prince Charles will stay in isolation at Buckingham Palace with the best of medical care at his disposal. Similarly, Justin Trudeau and Sophie will be confined in their palatial residence in Ottawa and those living in katchi abadis or slums in the Third World will be incarcerated in their shabby houses. The seemingly straight forward suggestion to ‘stay home’ very conveniently precludes these unfortunate beings, not blessed with a home or a shelter of any kind. The smugness in assuming that everyone inhabiting the world has a home is symptomatic of how preposterous our analysis and how narrow the remit of our understanding of the social realities around us has become, is disconcerting.
How can the dispossessed and the marginalized fend for themselves if corona hits them is something that figures at the very bottom of the priorities set by the people at the helm. The plight of the poor does not seem to bother many. What will become of those hapless creatures condemned to live on the streets? The homelessness phenomenon too is quite universal. The Indian cities of Mumbai and Patna present the starkest of examples where whole generations of people have been born on the streets, lived all their lives on the streets and died on the streets. From these cities, as big and affluent as New York, London and Vancouver, large numbers of homeless people at the street corners or the main entrances of the train stations mock at the social system that looks the other way instead of ensuring that everyone has a shelter over one’s head.
In times of adversities like this, just the sort of social hiatus whose spread traverses across nations, continents and cultural divides, presents the biggest impediment to stemming the lethality of the corona curse. How will the victims of the virus be quarantined or be rendered in self-isolation if they have no home, is a million-dollar question. It is among the phenomena that testify to the veracity and validity of several Marxist assertions. Despite Fukuyama’s pronouncement of the eventual triumph of the liberal democracy and end of socialism, Marx is relevant and the questions he raised have not been addressed. Rather, those questions have been shoved under the carpet. An excruciating sight in Pakistan, particularly in Lahore, is a beggar woman holding a child. Seeing their number swell with every passing day compounds the agony. Given the lockdown, these women appear regularly at their assigned spots to earn their living by begging.
Answer:
Ever since the lockdown started, I feel lonely at home. I do have a brother but soon realized that talking to a person or doing the same thing consistently can get monotonous. Sometimes, I even feel that it would be better to go to school, which a month-back I could not have thought of in a million years. At my house, both my parents are doctors. Not that they do not have holidays, they do! Somehow, the holidays do not seem enough. My parents are treating COVID-19 patients and often discuss their healthcare. At times, I nd their conversations scary and mom calms me down by saying this will end soon. Yet, I am hardly convinced with her explanations. In the little time that I get to talk to my friends, we discuss the current situation due to pandemic and its advantages, especially on the environment, as us human beings are in lockdown. A few days ago, when my father and I were sitting in the balcony at night I looked up in the sky and saw a lot more stars than I usually get to see. Even my mom told me that Yamuna river is getting cleaner amidst the lockdown. I also feel that my friends have their parents at home, spending quality time with them and all having fun times, together. While they have fun, my parents are at the hospital treating patients and, of course, this is something that makes me very proud. Still, it is not the same as having them at home. However, the advantage of not having parents at home is that I do not have to do any work until they are back. A few weeks ago, I panicked thinking that I would not get to celebrate my birthday on its due date, just as it was not celebrated the previous three consecutive years on the birthday day, since my parents were busy treating patients of either typhoid, pneumonia or dengue. A sigh of relief, this year it does not matter that much as long as my family and I are safe.
I am also anxious about school; I hope that they do not take away our summer holidays to make up for the missed school days. I always enjoyed attending Bharatanatyam dance classes but now, due to the lockdown, we have these classes on Zoom, which I can only imagine, must be hard for the teacher as she tries to make it look eortless. These classes, on the other hand, do us some good, as we do not get to copy someone if we need to. On weekdays the school gives us work, which I sometimes nd overwhelming, but it is more work on their side, so that is impressive. Another thing I like is the kind of eort the teachers are making to teach us by newer methods like making videos of concepts and even dance steps, so hats o to them for that! On days when we do have homework, my parents when home check it, which is good because after the tiring day at work they still spend time with us. Out of the many things I have learned during the lockdown, one main thing is that my parents keep reminding through their example that we should keep hope and stay positive.