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Hope against hopelessness–Where the mind is without fear of Covid<\/strong><\/span> 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 Significantly, the world was never globalised as it stands today. Wuhan, the source of origin of the deadly virus, even though it had a Worse still, the prime ministerial diktat to bang thalis and utensils Nitish Kumar’s negative leadership traits to turn his face away when Whereas the humongous tragedy, during lockdown, had witnessed the Vivekanand Jha is an author and a Public Intellectual, greets mankind<\/strong><\/span> 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\u00a0 \u00a0New 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-top-stories-of-madhesh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Shri-Krishna.jpg?fit=720%2C842&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paS11m-yB","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n19–into that heaven of freedom on earth, my father, let mankind<\/strong><\/span>
\nawake–Happy\u00a0 \u00a0New Year 2021 to all of you.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nthan the overwhelming fear reverberating across the world, suggesting
\na homogeneity in thoughts that has so inextricably bound the humanity
\nin a unified chain: All, irrespective of religions disparities, racial
\ndivides, geographical distancing, have a single binding factor: the
\nfear of the deadly Covid 19. The world, barring 2020, had never
\nexperienced such an unanimity in the expression of a sense of
\nbelongingness, from a sense of togetherness in fighting the common
\nevil, an evil for the entire mankind, which was such a humongous
\nchallenge that had come to unite the mankind, as no time in centuries
\nhad witnessed.<\/p>\n
\nTherefore, the Spanish flu, which had taken a huge toll of almost 500
\nmillions in its octopus like grip, despite being far cataclysmic in
\nits implication than the Covid 19, which, notwithstanding the dread it
\nhad caused in the mankind, yet appears a minnow when compared with the
\nSpanish flu. The pivotal reason for the same would be: that the world
\ntoday, in stark contrast with what it had looked like in 1920, has
\nshrunk to become an inextricably linked as a global village and,
\ntherefore, the contagious nature of the virus invariably and
\ninevitably gets exported across the world in no time.<\/p>\n
\ncascading effect across the world, was remarkably contained from
\nspreading it across the Chinese mainland. Apparently, as the virus was
\nunleashing a tandav across Europe, especially the apocalypse that it
\nhad caused in Spain, Italy, Germany and other parts of Europe, it
\nappeared a distant happening, without the least of expectation that,
\nsooner than later, the virus was destined to unleash its own terror in
\nIndia. A while later, our own country had witnessed a series of events
\nof unprecedented scale and magnitude, when the Prime Minister had
\ndeclared a Janata Curfew, a precursor to an unceremonious lock down. A
\nlockdown, declared without any time given for the people to reach
\ntheir homes from different places–A barely five hours given for
\nmaking preparation for staying indoors–reflected a complete out of
\ntouch with the reality, euphemistically dubbing it as a poor planning
\nand lop sided implementation.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Shri-Krishna.jpg?resize=640%2C748&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
\nfor scaring away the virus, was the vindication of yet another stark
\ndeficiency of thought at the leadership level. Incidentally, the
\nknockdown eventually imposed, was considered a moratorium for the
\ngovernment to make the sundry preparation for boosting up the
\nventilators and increasing the number of hospitals for providing
\nmedical facilities, too came for a cropper. Regrettably, with the
\ngovernment going hammer and tongs with its rigorous imposition of
\nlockdown, those at the bottom of the pyramid ended up as the
\ncasualties to this botched up plans: Lacs of workers migrating from
\ntheir work place to their home states have no takers. The plight of
\nthese millions of workers was heart breaking, with both Union and
\nstate governments drastically failing up to live up to their
\nrequirements. Especially the role of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish
\nKumar, was absolutely despicable.<\/p>\n
\nthe workers were desperately seeking his attention, unequivocally left
\nmuch to be desired. Further, with the botched locked down plan, the
\neconomy was devastatingly hit: The melting of millions of jobs, in the
\nimmediate aftermath of lockdown, is the running commentary of an
\nensuing global economic crisis. However, the biggest spectacle that
\nCovid 19 has presented was that of the complete restriction in the
\nmovements of the people from one place to another. The bustling
\nstreets almost looked forlorn; with animals, in some places freely
\nroaming, far confident, taken in by surprise by the complete absence
\nof humans on the road. Incidentally, the rivers, almost polluted
\nbeyond recognition, including that of Mother Ganga, remarkably stood
\ncleansed of its impurities: The waters of river Ganga, which looked so
\noverwhelmingly contaminated before the lockdown, remarkably stood
\nclear and pure. All this was possible, because the humans were
\nconfined within their homes, thus sparing the rivers of their
\ninordinate exploitation. Now, as we are standing on the precipice of
\nbidding the goodbye to the most turbulent year the mankind has
\nwitnessed in the last two centuries, while welcoming the new year of
\n2021 unfolding before us, we have the benefits of the hindsight: We
\ncan look back with a tinge of deep pain, yet richer by the magnitude
\nof tragedy we have successfully negotiated with, the loss we suffered,
\nand even some gain that ensued.<\/p>\n
\ncalamitous effects on our brethren traversing thousands of kilometers
\non foot, resulting in the death and scores of injuries, the tragedy
\neven witnessed that how a poor girl Jyoti Paswan, emerging from the
\nshadow of her personal grief, took a cycle ride from Gurugram to a
\nvillage in Darbhanga, sitting her ailing father on the pillion. This
\nwas a unique act of bravery, which was exhibited by the despairing
\ngirl who, in the wake of massive tragedy befalling her, bit the bullet
\nto stand up to the severity of the challenge. Long back, Gurudev
\nTagore, in his Nobel winning work, Gitanjali, had envisioned\u00a0 a world
\nwhere his fellow countrymen could walk fearlessly with their head held
\nhigh. Those were the time when colonies existed, with imperialism
\nruling the roost. During such time, for instance, the Red Road in
\nCalcutta, incumbent Kolkata, was reserved exclusively for the English
\npeople, prohibiting Indians to enjoy walking on that road. No wonder,
\nGurudev Tagore, beholding the extent of subjugation of the vanquished
\npeople, had exhorted upon the Creator to show mercy upon the
\nsubjugated people, warranting them the freedom to walk on the road
\nfearlessly with their head held high. 2020 was the year that the
\nentire mankind was subdued, their minds and hearts filled with fear,
\nspeculating on their safety, laid low while being in solitude, almost
\ncut off from each other, and stayed indoors . Regrettably, to add to
\nthe further woes of the already harried Indians, Chinese had let loose
\nits jingoistic design by inroading into the Indian territory in
\nLadakh. China, having arrested the spread of Covid 19, sought to
\ncapitalise on the vulnerability of Indians, afflicted by the pandemic
\nCovid, resulted in adding to the further discomfiture of the citizens.
\n.
\nNo wonder the mankind, while bidding the goodbye to 2020, with the
\nbenefits of the hindsight, fervently believe, purportedly against the
\nhopelessness, that 2021 surely will be a year they can look forward to
\nwith hope, for the hope provides the premise for mankind to live and
\ndream for the future; to hope, even though ground situation may not
\nhold such prospect–with economy in doldrums, substantial job erosion,
\nmortality almost reaching 2 lacs in India alone–a sense of
\nhopelessness overshadows the hope of a better future. Nonetheless,
\nhope, despite the hopelessness, is the most potent weapon for mankind
\nto survive. Japan, despite being nuked in the 2nd World War, it
\nsurvived; it built up from ruins. The resurrection of Japan, from
\nruins, is the burning example of the robustness of the human
\ndetermination to survive against the biggest of human catastrophe. We
\nwill survive, grow from strength to strength. Hence, let us look up to
\n2021 with a profundity of hope and optimism, while humming a tune, ‘
\nWe shall overcome, we shall overcome Covid 2019, in 2021, deep in our
\nheart, we do believe, we shall definitely defeat it soon’. Let us all
\nmake 2021 a better year, a year of human glory, human resilience of
\nrising from Phoenix to rewrite the story of human triumph and glory
\nfor posterity to hail the spirit of human triumphalism against all
\nearthly odds. Let us look forward to the vaccine, another glorious
\nhuman invention to defeat its enemies with hope.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG-20201215-WA0013.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1\")
\non the occasion of unfolding of the new year of 2021.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"