Quarantine: The month the Earth stood still.

“Spit on, yelled at, attacked: Chinese Americans fear for their safety”, reported the NYT. We couldn’t help overseeing such news headlines midst the coronavirus outbreak, but did we choose to ignore them?


Have you ever wondered of the possible ways by which this world could end? Nuclear war? Global Warming? AI attack? Something from the universe crashing into the earth? Yes, we’ve all seen that Instagram post. We don’t know about the plausibility of the Third World War but what we surely know is that a pandemic is enough to annihilate all of us. It can be traced back to 17 November 2019, when according to media reports on unpublished Chinese government data, the first case of someone suffering from Covid-19 was reported. Since then, a total of 423,621 cases have been reported from all around the world with 18,912 deaths and 109,154 recovered. The statistics are horrifying and up-surging.


With the world on lockdown, even some of the most powerful economies are suffering to control this spiralling catastrophe. India having entered the most crucial phase recently, declared a 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the novel coronavirus with essential services remaining operational. While some are strictly adhering to the quarantine guidelines midst the outrageous panic, maintaining social distancing, disinfecting the surfaces around and effectuating practices for maintaining personal hygiene; a portion of citizens still chooses to be ignorant and step out of their homes, making all the enduring efforts of the government, doctors and police forces futile.


As the prejudiced privileged continue to snap at their social media handles about the boredom they have to face, some people are horrendous enough to tell their workers and maids that they will not be paid for this quarantine period. These innocent unprivileged beings survive on a mere daily wage and are risking their lives by coming at our doorstep even during this chaos. What we forget is this is not only all the more problematic for them but us as well. Making them aware of this disease and asking them to stay at home and staying safe is our responsibility.


With people hoarding food items, street animals dying of starvation and us creating the foundations for a new water crisis in the future, this global pandemic saw yet another unnoticed side. Students and citizens are being racially assaulted as people continue to say “we don’t want your coronavirus in our country”. Racism is not stupidity, its hate and even during this petrifying crisis, racists are constantly expounding their hatred. The frenzy of such mass hysteria and worldwide panic isn’t entirely a surprise. Because it is not the first time that during a global accident, several accounts of racism and xenophobia have been reported and documented on social media.


Blatant Arrogance remains unacknowledged. If we go deep down to the roots of this crisis, the ongoing pandemic will seem no accident. Just like past global plagues, it’s the planet retaliating to mankind’s proclivities of destroying it. It is nature’s response to the suicidal human practices. This outrageous virus is on the verge of sweeping the planet. It has successfully managed to threaten the ultimate eradicators of nature. It all makes sense. Visibility has improved, nitrous oxide emissions have reduced, lakes have become cleaner and the environment is flourishing. It was probably because nature realized it was time that it nurtured its own self because delegating it to humans has proven costly enough.


It's the dichotomy of this crisis, we have to be together to fight it but can't be together exactly. In such a dilemmatic scenario, we're unaware of what is yet to come. Will the statistical graphs become flatter for once or will they rise even higher than at the time of the Spanish Flu? Will this be the end? Or is it just the beginning of something far more worse? Will humans steer through such precarious times?
Don’t let this be the end. Fight. Fight for life. But by staying at your homes. Fall in line. Or our corpses would. So stay at home, stay safe and stay tuned.