COVID — 19 — A CHALLENGE FOR THE SOCIETY
Well, ‘positive’ and ‘2020’ is a pair of words as similar as Mt. Everest and Mariana Trench nowadays, right? The most and may be the only social being of this universe (we never know when aliens pop out of nothing bringing a highly developed non-abusive social media platform) are forced to be locked into ‘cages’. Compare the weekends now vis a vis a typical Bengali household full of relatives and relatives’ relatives bustling around in festive Sunday mornings (like for Bengalis the word festive is not needed when a Sunday is mentioned). It’s more than lifeless.
Speaking of what my neurons are conversing these days, we might not have understood the meaning of ‘social distancing’ properly. Social distancing is basically preventing the spread of the Covid-19 by physical contact while efficiently carrying out social (media) interactions even more than what it was before this pandemic happened. However, since the lockdown’s early days social media has become a stage for flaunting skills (which is a good thing for gratification of course but till that time competition starts to arrive in the scene!). This greed of instant fame draws us inwards when the need of the hour is reaching out to others.
Though it tampers the body, Covid-19 must not be allowed to trample the soul.
Universally, this pandemic posed a challenge for the society. Focusing on the problems and not arriving at a conclusion to conjure a solution (solutions don’t have feet walking to us, hence require conjuring) will only aggravate the problem. We must make it a point to reconnect with our near and dear ones. In the daily hustle and bustle we often forget to smile at and have a bit of small-talk with the people around us which causes mental health issues. While we are at ‘it’ we must not only just interact with friends and family, hail the doctors and nurses and other frontline workers but also give a call to the people like watchmen, domestic helps, drivers, owner of the nearest Kirana store and help them in whichever way we can. Believe me, it will put a smile on their faces and leave you with a never-ending bliss. This will be the way in which we accept the social challenge Covid-19 is throwing to us and emerge victorious out of this pandemic. After all it’s just about converting threats to opportunities!
