Lessons from the lockdown #4

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Lessons from the lockdown

Stay home: the lock down has forced many to stay home and we may have mixed feelings about it. Some love it; some hate it; if you read the papers today some are dying in an attempt to reach home.

The story of the goods train running over exhausted migrants trying to go home has now been overlapped by at least three road accidents where vehicles carrying these people have met with fatal accidents, worse some callous motorists have run down migrants going home.

Many religions teach that home is the end to the journey of life and many yearn to go home. Yet there are some who are unhappy to be home for various reasons starting from livelihood issues to boredom. Only a person who cannot understand or refuses to understand that staying home is not possible to all will say that he is bored of it.

The migrants may not have homes nearby, there are others who are at the forefront of the pandemic who leave their homes daily in fear and isolate themselves at home from their families for the greater humanity. The medical fraternity, the police, the civic services, the sanitation services, the newspaper vendors, the milk vendors, the provision shop keepers, the list goes on; these people cannot be home because their lives and the lives of others depend on them.

Staying home has shown me many positives and I can safely say that they outweigh the negatives. One thing that I am unable to understand is the apparent improvement of health in the city. Have you noticed that hospitals especially the private ones have stopped the OPD? The usual long queues that used to be a common sight in many hospitals disappeared overnight.  I went to donate blood in a leading hospital a few days ago. The usually cramped visitors lobby was empty and only the limited staff was to be seen.  A person I spoke to was advised by his doctor over phone to take medications for a not so minor illness and stay home as it would not be possible to treat in the hospital.Staying home may have health benefits too among many others.


So unless it is absolutely necessary stay home.

P.S. Today the 14th of May in a show of solidarity leaders of all faiths are requesting the faithful to pray, fast and do acts of charity so that the world may stand united against the pandemic.


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