One of the tiniest organisms in the living world is challenging the most intelligent social animal in a way that everyone in the world is fighting against the virus as a human being, not as a Hindu, Muslim, Christian or any other religion. We humans must realize now that its high time to forget religionism, casteism, communism and fight against the world’s most serious crisis at the moment.
The COVID-19 crisis made me realize that human beings around the world, no matter what religion, caste, creed or community they belong to, are fighting the disease together. After a long time, our identity comes as human beings. Huge buildings, good communication, shopping malls – the symbol of a developed city – are now closed down, all good modes of transportation have been closed down, cities are locked down. At this point in time, the most important thing is patience and learning to live with limited resources. From the time I remember, human beings have never been as helpless as they are now.
I’m a citizen of a country where people prefer to go to temples than a hospital. But now that temples have closed down and everyone is looking for a vaccine that will for sure come from a science laboratory, it’s high time we believe in science to secure our present and the future. We have seen Italy, the country with the second-best healthcare system in the world facing one of its worst disasters because of a little bit of carelessness.
All I want to express is the deep sorrow that I have been carrying for a long time after seeing people of my motherland fighting against religion, fighting against the community, fighting against political ideologies, fighting against caste. Within these two months, it is crystal clear that all these fights are baseless when it comes to our life, when it comes to saving the human race, we all belong to the same family. Other human beings also need to realize the fact that no matter what surname we possess or which religion we belong or which caste we posses everything is meaningless at this time because for a virus we are just a host. Just imagine, India’s biggest problem of recent times like CAA protest, riots in Delhi, Shaheen Bagh, Hindu-Muslim debates of Indian prime news channels, statements about Pakistan by Indian politicians to hide anything and everything looks so meaningless in front the crisis called COVID-19. As soon as we realize the same is good for us.
The only good thing about COVID-19 is that at least for some time, people of my motherland including politicians and media are talking something other than religion, Pakistan and spreading hatred. I hope that after this, we will fight for hospitals and schools instead of Mandirs and Masjids, I hope we will not question spending taxpayers money on research. I hope we will win the fight against COVID-19 by learning from each other and supporting each other because it’s not only about me, it’s about us.