We cannot wait for that day

The poet Bharati wrote an iconic poem celebrating the dawn of India’s freedom. The poem is permeated with that tumultuous joy experienced after years of struggle. The irony is...he wrote it entirely out of imagination, for Bharati passed away in 1921. In his mind’s eye, India had already attained freedom and he gave voice to it...in words that were portentous.

In some ways, in these Corona times, we are going through a similar freedom struggle. It is not a struggle restricted to one country. It is as if, mankind as a whole, is struggling for freedom. This is a movement like no other, a do-or-die battle against an oppressor who can scarcely be seen, but still threatens our very existence. Like the freedom fighters of yore, chained in the dark dungeons of Andaman, we sit in our quarantined homes, and like Bharati, imagine that day, when we will get our freedom back. We cannot wait for that day.

 Sometimes, we understand the value of something dear, only when we lose it. It is as if ordinarily, we take things for granted and there is a certain casualness in our dealings. A loss is like a kick in the back. The Corona crisis is one such kick. We needed it. What would we not do to get back those good, old, carefree pre-Corona days?

That moment, when we retrieve something, which we assumed was lost and gone, is like no other. A person who suddenly gets back his lost cell-phone understands that special feeling. The one who goes through the throes of viraha-taapa, experiences that heightened emotion upon meeting his beloved once more. So too with Corona. These dark days will pass away. The sun will shine once more...and every pore and cell of ours, will be alive and awake to that moment. We cannot wait for that day.

Pictures at the end of World War II flash before our eyes- those black and white photographs of soldiers flashing the victory-sign and coming home to a rousing welcome from one and all. The entire town is lined up on the streets to greet the heroes. Those are historic images.
The heroes at the front-line of this Corona war are our doctors and nurses and paramedics. They put their lives on the line so that we may live. When this war is over, we will line up all along our roads and cheer these heroes. Our prayers will go out to the numberless soldiers we lost in this battle. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They will live in our hearts forever. In a way, we helped in the war too, by staying out of harm’s way and not complicating the situation more. That quiet pride shall be ours. We cannot wait for that day.

The corona war is over. The TV no longer displays those dismal corona numbers. The masks and hazmat suits are gone. No more hotspots, quarantine and lockdown. No more social distancing. No more national borders, no more barbed-wire fences, for we have won this war together, as one global family. Near and dear ones stranded across continents are finally back; we melt into their arms. We throng the malls and theatres, markets and streets and stadium, filled with joie-de-vivre, the joy of life! There is a new spring in our steps, cheer on our face and a song on our lips.
But this time round, we will grab life with both hands and play the second innings with more responsibility. We understand our debt to the environment, to our caregivers and domestic help,  and to the wellbeing of other life-forms. We let our quarantined wild animals back into the deep jungles. We know what it means to be in quarantine. We appreciate the need to simplify our lives and avoid the excesses that led to this malaise.
Once a year, mankind as a whole shall come together to celebrate this day, as one global festival. Generations to come will be regaled with our stories, stories of tears and triumph and of the indomitable human spirit. As Bharati says, “Ananda sutantiram adaindhu vittom” ”We have gained our freedom back! Come! Let us sing and dance!” We cannot  wait for that day. That day is today.

Summa iru- just be!

"dil dhoodhta hai...phir wahi...fursat ke raat-din"- is a song that is amongst our favorites. In the hustle and bustle of our jet-set life, we often caught ourselves humming this line and wistfully wondering- if only....if only...we could find some leisure...some escape from this never-ending rat-race. "To what end is all this? To what end?" we questioned. Someone answered our prayers.


We took time off and went for an annual holiday to a hill-station or to a beach getaway. But it could not be for long. A corner of our mind was forever racked with guilt that while we enjoyed, others worked. We had to stay current and on "top of things" and not rendered irrelevant and dispensable when we got back to work from vacation. So, we took that occasional "important call" lounging in the hotel-room though it was holiday-time. Someone took care of this aspect too- not only do we have leisure, so does everyone...in fact, the entire world, freeing us up from even that guilt-trip!


The impossible is now a reality. The city that never sleeps has actually slept. May be, it needed that sleep. May be, it was unnecessarily awake and wearing itself down.
We were certain that the 6:38 local-train had to be taken each morning, else, the world would come tumbling down. Now, both the local-train and the commuter are fast-asleep,  happily...in their respective sheds. We grew up...fed with the belief that corporate culture was akin to riding a lion- "sher ki savaari hai". It may be tough riding it, but getting down...is never an option. We wonder what happened now. The rider is standing on the ground, and as for the lion he was scared of...it is nowhere to be seen. We dashed across continents to attend those critical meetings- meetings where our physical presence was a make-break to the deal. Suddenly, deals can wait, meetings can be postponed and even if we had to attend them, our virtual, on-line presence is more than adequate! Deadlines that constantly hovered over our heads like the Sword of Damocles, where are those swords now? At least, at this moment, when I glance up, all I can see is the bare ceiling...or better, the blue of the sky!
It is as if...an entire edifice of power and pelf and pomp was totally built-up, more imagination and less a necessity. That edifice has come crashing down. Three weeks of home quarantine has burst the bubble. It is a humbling experience, but a necessary one.


The irony is, now, we have leisure, but miss the madding crowds. It is as if, we asked for leisure, but not so much of it that we should swim in it! We forever miss the missing! It is like the parable where the fisherwoman cannot sleep without the fishing-basket beside her. So too, we have got used to the smells and sounds of our urban rat-hole. There is no remedy for this madness. "Akele mein mela, mele mein akela"..."to find joy of a fun-fair in oneself, in one's quarantined life....and likewise, in the commotion of the fun-fair, to find that inner-leisure"- this is the only message relevant for all times. Storms may rage one day, another day, the silence may be deafening, through all that, we hold on to that inner fulcrum.


Our spiritual tradition has several pithy aphorisms. These are like the Japanese Haiku- just a little suggestion, which conveys more than volumes of verbiage. One of them is "summa iru" in Tamil- "just be". In these quarantined times, we understand the import of this aphorism, the joy of doing nothing, the joy of stillness, the joy of simply being.


The Corona days will end. Decades later, with the grandchildren at our knees, it will be a favorite conversation piece. "You mean to say...for a slightly complicated case of cold and cough, you had to close the whole world for a few months? What age were you in grandpa? Stone-Age? And what did the whole world do for two months sitting at home?" Gazing into those innocent eyes filled with absolute wonder, we will answer, "Nothing! We did nothing! We just were!"

What goes around comes around

"Yaanaikkum adi sarukkum" - "even the elephant can slip" is a popular proverb in Tamil. It denotes that even the strong and the mighty can topple over and be brought to their knees. It is just a matter of time. Needless to say, in these Corona times, this proverb pricks us...as if it were meant for us- the human-species as a whole.


We prided ourselves as the roof and crown of all creation. But uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Scepter and crown must tumble down...and what a tumble it has been! Till now, we called the shots- ruled the world with impunity and quarantined hapless animals for food and fun. The shoe is now on the other foot. The hunter has become the hunted. Humankind lies chained and quarantined in continent after continent. And that too, by a nemesis, who is too tiny to be even seen. It is your proverbial David and Goliath story.


Locked down, there is now a lot of time at hand. We leaf through our favorite childhood comics. We settle down with the "Jataka Tales, Elephant Stories". Through its rich illustrations, it tells the tale of the Buddha, as Bodhisattva, who took birth in different lifeforms, and once as a wise, white elephant. A man loses his way in the thick jungle and is racked with fear. This compassionate elephant comes to the man's rescue. It provides him with food and shelter for the night and eventually takes the man by the arm and shows him the route out of the forest. In his city, he befriends an ivory sculptor and realizes he could be rich if only he could get an elephant's tusk.
He retraces his way to the forest, meets the elephant and explains his predicament. The elephant is too nice and allows the man to saw off his tusks in half. The man is back in the city with the prized possession. He now leads a cushy life. Greed gets the better of the man. He mulls over...if only he had sawed off the tusks till the end, he could be even richer! Unabashed, he returns to the elephant and makes a repeat request. The elephant relents. This time, he yanks off the tusks from their root. Without the slightest sympathy for the elephant which doubles up in pain, he abandons it and clasping the booty to his chest...tries to make a hasty exit from the forest. Karma eventually catches up. The ground under the man's feet gives way, the subterranean flames engulf the man and he meets his end.
The story is gory in some sense, but has a hard hitting message. It is not the story of one ungrateful forester, as the title of the story reads;  this is our story, the story of humankind as a whole.


For too long, we ravaged nature with abandon and bulldozed our way mercilessly...often at the cost of all other lifeforms. What goes around, comes around. It is now payback time. Our cellphones are filled with little videos of deer roaming the city streets, civet cats crossing the road, peacocks dancing on roof-tops and even mountains revealing themselves over and above the city-dust behind which they hid themselves all these years. Ironically, we watch all this squinting our eyes behind our facemasks, sequestered in our homes.


You and I may howl and protest that we did not wrong nature in any way. Why are we paying a price? Being part of the same ecosystem makes us equally culpable. It is like school. When the offenders are too many, the teacher has no time to mete out individual punishment. She takes a ruler, goes around the class and gives a whack to everyone! We are all taking the same mass-beating today! Not all is lost. Nature is not vengeful. It is just. It hits back hard so that we may learn. Learn we must. It is as if Nature is speaking to us in Amitabh Bachchan's baritone- "ab tak tum bolte rahe aur mein sunta raha. Aaj mein boloonga aur tum sunoge!" "Till now, you kept talking and I listened. Today, I will talk and you will listen!"