Hope against Hopelessness–Happy New Year 2021

Hope against hopelessness–Where the mind is without fear of Covid
19–into that heaven of freedom on earth, my father, let mankind
awake–Happy New Year 2021 to all of you.

Vivekanand Jha,Ranchi. With the curtain down on 2020, a ray of new hope takes a tangible shape in the minds and hearts of mankind: A Covid free 2021. For there would be seldom any other expectation or hope stirring the mankind
than the overwhelming fear reverberating across the world, suggesting
a homogeneity in thoughts that has so inextricably bound the humanity
in a unified chain: All, irrespective of religions disparities, racial
divides, geographical distancing, have a single binding factor: the
fear of the deadly Covid 19. The world, barring 2020, had never
experienced such an unanimity in the expression of a sense of
belongingness, from a sense of togetherness in fighting the common
evil, an evil for the entire mankind, which was such a humongous
challenge that had come to unite the mankind, as no time in centuries
had witnessed.

Significantly, the world was never globalised as it stands today.
Therefore, the Spanish flu, which had taken a huge toll of almost 500
millions in its octopus like grip, despite being far cataclysmic in
its implication than the Covid 19, which, notwithstanding the dread it
had caused in the mankind, yet appears a minnow when compared with the
Spanish flu. The pivotal reason for the same would be: that the world
today, in stark contrast with what it had looked like in 1920, has
shrunk to become an inextricably linked as a global village and,
therefore, the contagious nature of the virus invariably and
inevitably gets exported across the world in no time.

Wuhan, the source of origin of the deadly virus, even though it had a
cascading effect across the world, was remarkably contained from
spreading it across the Chinese mainland. Apparently, as the virus was
unleashing a tandav across Europe, especially the apocalypse that it
had caused in Spain, Italy, Germany and other parts of Europe, it
appeared a distant happening, without the least of expectation that,
sooner than later, the virus was destined to unleash its own terror in
India. A while later, our own country had witnessed a series of events
of unprecedented scale and magnitude, when the Prime Minister had
declared a Janata Curfew, a precursor to an unceremonious lock down. A
lockdown, declared without any time given for the people to reach
their homes from different places–A barely five hours given for
making preparation for staying indoors–reflected a complete out of
touch with the reality, euphemistically dubbing it as a poor planning
and lop sided implementation.

Worse still, the prime ministerial diktat to bang thalis and utensils
for scaring away the virus, was the vindication of yet another stark
deficiency of thought at the leadership level. Incidentally, the
knockdown eventually imposed, was considered a moratorium for the
government to make the sundry preparation for boosting up the
ventilators and increasing the number of hospitals for providing
medical facilities, too came for a cropper. Regrettably, with the
government going hammer and tongs with its rigorous imposition of
lockdown, those at the bottom of the pyramid ended up as the
casualties to this botched up plans: Lacs of workers migrating from
their work place to their home states have no takers. The plight of
these millions of workers was heart breaking, with both Union and
state governments drastically failing up to live up to their
requirements. Especially the role of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar, was absolutely despicable.

Nitish Kumar’s negative leadership traits to turn his face away when
the workers were desperately seeking his attention, unequivocally left
much to be desired. Further, with the botched locked down plan, the
economy was devastatingly hit: The melting of millions of jobs, in the
immediate aftermath of lockdown, is the running commentary of an
ensuing global economic crisis. However, the biggest spectacle that
Covid 19 has presented was that of the complete restriction in the
movements of the people from one place to another. The bustling
streets almost looked forlorn; with animals, in some places freely
roaming, far confident, taken in by surprise by the complete absence
of humans on the road. Incidentally, the rivers, almost polluted
beyond recognition, including that of Mother Ganga, remarkably stood
cleansed of its impurities: The waters of river Ganga, which looked so
overwhelmingly contaminated before the lockdown, remarkably stood
clear and pure. All this was possible, because the humans were
confined within their homes, thus sparing the rivers of their
inordinate exploitation. Now, as we are standing on the precipice of
bidding the goodbye to the most turbulent year the mankind has
witnessed in the last two centuries, while welcoming the new year of
2021 unfolding before us, we have the benefits of the hindsight: We
can look back with a tinge of deep pain, yet richer by the magnitude
of tragedy we have successfully negotiated with, the loss we suffered,
and even some gain that ensued.

Whereas the humongous tragedy, during lockdown, had witnessed the
calamitous effects on our brethren traversing thousands of kilometers
on foot, resulting in the death and scores of injuries, the tragedy
even witnessed that how a poor girl Jyoti Paswan, emerging from the
shadow of her personal grief, took a cycle ride from Gurugram to a
village in Darbhanga, sitting her ailing father on the pillion. This
was a unique act of bravery, which was exhibited by the despairing
girl who, in the wake of massive tragedy befalling her, bit the bullet
to stand up to the severity of the challenge. Long back, Gurudev
Tagore, in his Nobel winning work, Gitanjali, had envisioned a world
where his fellow countrymen could walk fearlessly with their head held
high. Those were the time when colonies existed, with imperialism
ruling the roost. During such time, for instance, the Red Road in
Calcutta, incumbent Kolkata, was reserved exclusively for the English
people, prohibiting Indians to enjoy walking on that road. No wonder,
Gurudev Tagore, beholding the extent of subjugation of the vanquished
people, had exhorted upon the Creator to show mercy upon the
subjugated people, warranting them the freedom to walk on the road
fearlessly with their head held high. 2020 was the year that the
entire mankind was subdued, their minds and hearts filled with fear,
speculating on their safety, laid low while being in solitude, almost
cut off from each other, and stayed indoors . Regrettably, to add to
the further woes of the already harried Indians, Chinese had let loose
its jingoistic design by inroading into the Indian territory in
Ladakh. China, having arrested the spread of Covid 19, sought to
capitalise on the vulnerability of Indians, afflicted by the pandemic
Covid, resulted in adding to the further discomfiture of the citizens.
.
No wonder the mankind, while bidding the goodbye to 2020, with the
benefits of the hindsight, fervently believe, purportedly against the
hopelessness, that 2021 surely will be a year they can look forward to
with hope, for the hope provides the premise for mankind to live and
dream for the future; to hope, even though ground situation may not
hold such prospect–with economy in doldrums, substantial job erosion,
mortality almost reaching 2 lacs in India alone–a sense of
hopelessness overshadows the hope of a better future. Nonetheless,
hope, despite the hopelessness, is the most potent weapon for mankind
to survive. Japan, despite being nuked in the 2nd World War, it
survived; it built up from ruins. The resurrection of Japan, from
ruins, is the burning example of the robustness of the human
determination to survive against the biggest of human catastrophe. We
will survive, grow from strength to strength. Hence, let us look up to
2021 with a profundity of hope and optimism, while humming a tune, ‘
We shall overcome, we shall overcome Covid 2019, in 2021, deep in our
heart, we do believe, we shall definitely defeat it soon’. Let us all
make 2021 a better year, a year of human glory, human resilience of
rising from Phoenix to rewrite the story of human triumph and glory
for posterity to hail the spirit of human triumphalism against all
earthly odds. Let us look forward to the vaccine, another glorious
human invention to defeat its enemies with hope.