A sweet-sour saga during Corona times

The worldwide figure of Corona infected people has crossed one million. More than 50,000 people have fallen victim to the virus. America alone has more than a quarter millions infections. Health service workers are protesting against the lack of medical facilities and personal protection equipment. There is shortage of ventilators, masks and gloves in America. Doctors are forced to use the same mask for days on end. Can you believe it? These are the scenes usually stalking the humanity in poor countries. Corona appears to have melted all differences across the globe. Let’s accept the force of temporariness and avoid the mistake of taking things for guaranteed! This much of collective sense will smoothen the path after this testing phase is over.   

   

Things are getting stretched between two extremes. You have people worshipping doctors like warrior gods against the deadly enemy. Then you have frustrated mobs attacking lady doctors doing their routine testing in suspected Corona case households. People are decorating the poor sweepers and municipal cleaners like grooms by putting flower and rupee garlands around their neck. Then you have Markaz Maulanas, who have been quarantined to save their own and others’ lives, misbehaving and even flashing in front of female medics. Can you believe it? NSA has been slammed against these people. They deserve it. It is nothing short of sedition against the country.

To make it more serious, a little group of mischief-mongers among the Muslims is doing the dirty trick of flaring the people’s emotions. While 99% of the Muslims are right there in the mainstream of our common pains and collective happiness, the little rascally group is trying its level best to turn the situation communal. You have the video of a blinded jihadist brave heart rubbing currency notes against his sneezy nose and proclaiming that it’s Allah’s scourge against the kafirs for their sins. What a moron! This Corona hardly knows whether it’s a Muslim or a Hindu cell.

As you have the Markaz Maulvis flouting all norms and almost deliberately spreading the virus, you have heart-melting pictures of a haggard old farmer wearing mask while riding his bullock cart. Well, nothing too newsworthy about it. Love for life is the primary instinct. To make it a remarkable affair, even the pair of bullocks pulling the cart have their muzzles covered under green masks. It’s a lovely picture of having compassion and love for life during these testing times.

The seemingly overworked PM again addresses the nation, for the fourth time in two weeks. People appear to pay heed to his words. He carries a moral power and speaks with honest conviction, which melts many a careless heart. The night is dark. He has exhorted the people to wage a war as the soldiers of light on the night of April 5 at 9 PM. He has asked people to switch off all bulbs and light up diyas, candles and even mobile torches as a symbol of mass support against the dark period. Such symbolic moments go a long way in sowing the concrete seeds of substantial action against the pandemic.

Isn’t it surprising that we can survive on the basic minimum, just at a tiny fraction of all the food, wealth, cars and consumer items we have ended up pooling and cramming to the ceilings in our households as well as in our minds! I think this is the time to realize the fine line separating need from greed.

The soldiers meant to defend borders are running community kitchens. The most flamboyant fashion houses, whose one weirdest most flimsy dress goes into building a momentum of millions of dollars, are working on making doctor coats and other medical clothing. Stadiums where million dollar players would kick the ball into the netting are being changed into quarantine shelters. Thousands of mammoth metallic birds, which boom across the skies, scaring all the lesser birds, have gone silent. It’s the time to reflect and go into acceptance of some hard facts and wrong choices.

Amid all the horrific tales of the Corona pandemic, the non-human part of nature finds it eerily quiet. On the spookily silent roads, a herd of mountain goats climbs down from the surrounding mountains and does a cautious goat parade on the smooth tarred road. Their hoofs clanking with a strange tip-tapping music, playing like a drum beat to finish the parade before the owners of the road come rushing down again in the mad race.

The spring sun is smiling with full brilliance. In my courtyard, the potted plants have happy healthy flowers. We may have lost our smiles for the time being, but the flowers try to put up a lesson. There have been storms, quite powerful ones, during the recent weeks, but the flowers haven’t lost their spirit. They continue blooming. Lesson for us! Of course, we will overcome the odds. It would be best if we emerge as a positively changed species once the dark night is over.

A purple sunbird is feeding on the nectar. It’s a little story of balanced give and take. No greed involved. Hovering over the flowers, it gathers its late morning breakfast. The flowers are getting their kissing pollinators in return. Under the late spring’s harsh sunlight, its glossy black color gives metallic blue iridescence. The little foot-soldier of Mother Nature with its down-curved bill is busy in its duty to survive and fulfill its role in the larger scheme. Its rapid ringing notes send a message of happiness and contentment. I stand mesmerized. My restful happy look doesn’t create panic ripples in the air around. It goes on with its job on the flowers just three feet away. I am transfixed. I feel honored to be there in the selfless arena of Mother Nature not as an intruder, but as a respectful spectator.

    

Somewhere in India, in the oddly silent and uncrowded premises of a gated colony, a cobra lays claim on a bit of life and living on the abandoned stage. Don't panic and don't get offended. The roads are empty and the vehicles are free for a ride. He wants to go for a joyride! The people staring from balconies and by their gates are scared. It has got into the headlamp guard of a scooty. It lops out its tongue, sensing the danger running through the human blood in the form of panic hormones. People are making videos from a safe distance. A snake catcher pries open the covering. And there it pops out. Its hood taut, ready to take on the entire group of people around. It hisses and sways with confidence. It has to create fear. It’s hardly interested in wasting its precious venom on something it cannot eat to survive. However, our inherent fears turn us blind to its mock threats, taking it as an assault on humanity. No wonder, mobs run to kill a snake with the wildest enthusiasm. Thank God, there is a snake catcher on the scene. Moreover, the humanity is on the backfoot right now and they don’t seem too eager to get it killed.

How I wish it showed its majestic hood at our place! In this episode, he has graced Bhopal where my sister stays. It’s adventurous to look at its typical Cobra fearlessness. Its instincts to stand face to face against all odds. A symbol of Lord Shiva's destructive attributes, which are as important as the forces of creation. A beautiful creature! I once remember walking outside my village. There it came, the majestic black shiny cobra. They say it's very confident. And why won't it be!? It will not change its path. It raised its hood from a little distance. I marveled at its confidence and majesty. I gracefully backed out, looking at it, lost in its sweeping powers to hiss furiously for survival.

Faraway in the Amazon forests, a Jaguar pounces on a crocodile basking under the sun on a sand bar in a river flood plain. If at all you can't help being predatory, then try messing up with a bigger rascal than you! If you engage with a bigger villain than yourself, without trampling the world of feebler hearts than you, and tame and trample the idiot, even the biggest moralists will hardly have anything to condemn you for your bloodied ways. Beyond the equation of right or wrong, on the impartial raw stage of life and living, the gutsy predator fights the huge reptile right there in its own territory and earns its meal in a fair and square way. Probably, it bravely walks on the tightrope of life and death with equal probability for each every second, every moment.

In the desert state of Rajasthan, around a public fountain a mother monkey trains her little son in the art of becoming a man. Water basin is a narrow rectangular diving pool. A tall aesthetically done, decorative, stone-worked column overlooks the narrow diving pool. The little monkey has to dive to join the league of prestige and manly entitlements. It hesitates. The pool below is quite narrow and height is quite daunting for its small frame. Mismanage your jump and there can be severe injuries or even death. The mother but pushes from behind. The little coma of hesitation is deleted by her to write the success story of her upbringing her kids with a fine balance of maternal care and hard teachership. All we need is a push from behind by the mother to conquer our fears and take on life and be a man of character, the trophy of her tapasya!

In the tropical grasslands somewhere, with spring air singing the songs of love and passion, the marvelous game of life and living unfolds. The grass is tall. The black shiny widowbird has to jump higher and higher to beat all rivals. Its long tail is swaying as its insignia of manhood. She watches from a high branch. Keep hopping and hopping. High jumps and the ability to last till the end when there is no rival left are the formula of success to sow the seeds of propagation from their individual end. And the hero nearly draws out the last out of his strength to dive into the pools of ecstasy later on. The field is left for him to gather his fruits in the form of her reciprocation to his passion. Keep jumping, keep jumping. Catch her attention! Persistence is the success mantra! Jump higher than the rest! Give your best. Tire yourself out. If nothing else, your aching, exhausted body will fetch you the grandest of sleep at night!

In the luscious green and buxom serenity of a Papua New Guinea forest, the Bowerbird's grand performance takes place beyond any disturbance and ripples from the human society. It’s beautiful bird with blue beak, yellow eyes having dark pupils, dazzling red throat and head, and shiny yellow black-fringed wings. A little feathery bouquet of multiple colors. Love is in the air. It dilates its pupils. It starts with an introductory jarring chirp of its overflowing passion and confidently begins the show. He puts up a mesmerizing show. The princess to be wooed is spell bound. Look into my eyes he says and deliciously dilates his pupils like a mischievous wizard. The feathered hypnotizer lets out wheezy weird calls and waves his wings like a brave matador's cape. She is transfixed. The show is so eye-catching. She can’t help it anymore. Her interest is aroused with a sweet feminine surrender. She drops him a hint. Picks a wild berry in her beak and drops it on the ground. It’s a bouquet of love, her reciprocation. He picks up the bouquet and continues with the rhythmic steps which soon progress into a foreplay. He head-butts her bosom. Intimacy builds up. It’s the opportune time to take the experience to its peak. The rival but arrives at the worst possible time. What a loss. The lovemaking moment is lost like a shape of clouds disappears on the infinite blue of the vast sky canvas. O thou crestfallen lovebirds, never lose hope. Disappointments are written large everywhere, especially with love. Give your best, like him, woo your woman to the core of your soul, and leave the rest to destiny. Sometimes things don't work even if there is consent written largely in her eyes. Keep flying. Keep smiling. Don't lose heart. Maybe you haven't yet come across your soul mate!

In an African jungle hut, an Orangutan is sawing off tree boughs like we humans saw logs. She is totally wild. The saw dust flies as she expertly saws it off, using her legs to steady the log. She manages to make smart pieces. O thou pausing humans, give them some more time to make their own huts. They are entitled to this support because you have been through this stage earlier.

Now tell me, with so much of life and living still going on with majestic ease, will Mother Nature be that merciless to keep we humans away from such bliss for too long? It certainly will not! We have been put into quarantine just as a mild punitive assignment to mind our behavior.