Unlocked India – Week - 1

Unlocked India – Week - 1

 The Unlocking phase started on June 1 after a long lockdown of 65 days in the run up to fight the deadly corona virus. I am writing this today on June 7 to assess and keep ourselves aware of the situation to ward of the negative fallout, if any.

The situation remained serious, as expected, with about 2, 50, 000 infection cases and 7,000 deaths. The daily increase is whopping figure of more than 10,000 which is a matter of concern.  India has left behind Spain and Italy and stands at No.5 in the world with regard to the menace. The redeeming feature is that the recovery rate in India is good at about 60%. People are getting aware and

educated to deal with the situation. Governments are trying their best to control the virus and take care of corrective steps and procedures in the aftermath of the virus. India is a large country with a huge population of 130 crores with problems of poverty and development and as such the task is too big. It seems that we are on track but it needs to be careful and vigilant.

The trains are back on rails. The internal flights are in place. Economic activity has started slowly. The hospitality and service sector that is hotels and restaurants are opening up tomorrow, June 8 and more relaxed regime would be introduced to look forward to slow and gradual normalcy. Many more steps and decisions are to be taken in the coming weeks – opening of schools and colleges, settlement/employment of migrant work force, improved and streamlined health facilities and more importantly to save and preserve our social and cultural edifice with a matching political will and moral attributes – Gyan and Sheel as underlined by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, father of our constitution.

The immediate issues which need attention of the governments and other stake holders are many besides dealing with the deadly menace of corona – deal with our immediate neighbor China who is engaging us unduly with nefarious agenda on our border, cross border terrorism, internal communal situation, emerging issues on our federal setup among others. Obviously we need to address these issues with pragmatic approach and foresight. I am reminded of a poetic expression of Allama IqbaL:

छुपा कर बिजलिआं आस्तीन  में रख ली हैं गुरदु ने;

अनादिल बाग  के गाफिल न बैठें अशिआनो  में !

Let us put our act together in a confident and relaxed way. The joke industry will keep us going in the fight against corona virus.

भारत में विश्व के मुकाबले कोरोना संक्रमण कम है!
क्योंकि हमारे यहाँ हाथ मिलाने से ज्यादा टाँग खींचने की परंपरा ज्यादा है

The poets are also active to capture the sense of the situation. Here I share the latest addition of my poet friend Paramjit to conclude my take on the subject today:

*यही जज्बा रहा *

*तो मुश्किलों का हल भी निकलेगा*

*जमीं बंजर हुई तो क्या *

*वहीं से जल भी निकलेगा*

*ना हो मायूस *

*ना घबरा अंधेरों से मेरे साथी*

*इन्हीं रातों के दामन से *

*सुनहरा कल भी निकलेगा*