The Last Song

It has taken some time but I have finally decided to think like others.

First, a detour with one or two points. 

One, I wanted all international travellers, starting from January, locked up for a month. The rest of us could have carried on with normal life if those 1.5 million people had gone into institutional quarantine.

Two, I thought the government would at least act fast from March 1. Residential colleges in North India had already closed by the end of February. If only the first three weeks of March were used to get India and its people here and abroad ready for a two-month lockdown.

Three, back to the present, all we can say now is that India is too complex. And, that economics might be more important than health. A bit of eugenics can be tolerated, I am told. And, who knows, we might even achieve the elusive herd immunity, they say very intelligently. 

It took a long time to reach point three. Without a tremor in my voice, I can say along with others that 10% of the population might get infected (like the great Sweden), that is about 130 million; and, about 3% of that set will die (about 4 million). 

Now, I won’t even think of point four. I think it is about the migrant workers heading home. I think it was about treating them not like some poor idiotic mass. Surely, someone must have asked them, “What will keep you safe and sound in your place of work for three months or so?” Surely, the charity or human/humanity part could have been handled well by the Adanis, Ambanis, Bajajs and the rest of the lot in the Sensex and Nifty. (1 million kept where they are reasonably safe and maybe even half-employed with about Rs 10000 per month; that is, about Rs 3000 crore for three months...surely they can give that even if it is not in electoral bonds.) I hope there will be a plan to avoid such needless (they will be back soon) and harmful mass migration when we have the next emergency.

There are points five, six, seven,etc. We should stop airlifting our people out of other countries during times of crisis. We should not give a damn about so-called Indians who gave up Indian citizenship. We should get used to thousands of deaths. Start by saying that about 4000 die in traffic accidents every year in Kerala alone. Get used to it.

By the way, if you know people who went on foreign trips in February or March, sing a song on a balcony along with them before throwing them from there. Oh, please continue singing.