I understand that it’s a tough time, and I am sorry if my posts made your lockdown a little more difficult. I genuinely feel your anxiety, restlessness, lack of normality and a deep sense of uneasiness about the future.
I feel for you. You might have forgotten, but I too am in the same lockdown and am facing the same emotional upheaval.
But that’s where the statement, “We are in the same boat“, ends because while you have been facing the above-mentioned problems, I have had to additionally witness Islamophobia and disappearance of empathy during this pandemic.
As calamities bring unexpected opportunities, for some, COVID-19 brought along with it the opportunity to weaponise Islamophobia and blatantly spread it at a speed which would even put the coronavirus to shame.
Ignoring the usual apathy the acting government shows, which we have become used to, it was surprising to see the viciousness adopted by the mainstream media. Perhaps the most saddening was the extent to which this hatred swept into the masses, as if waiting for an outlet, which COVID-19 gave them.
Criticism of the Tablighi Jamaat was but a mere veil, used to criminalise and demonise an entire community, so much so that the people I have worked and studied with, were openly advocating the economic and social boycott of all Muslims.
While you have had to face the struggles of increasing body fat and have had to work from home, I have had to face fake (laughable) news on a daily basis. I have struggled to make a simple point, “Why would Muslims willingly spread a contagious disease by getting themselves infected? It would in fact kill them first!”
And along this came the complete and total lack of empathy.
While the world is fighting this pandemic, the fence-sitters, whose lives are at stake as well, instead of asking the government (city, state and central) what they were doing to fight and prevent the total collapse of the economy, grabbed their popcorns and preferred to watch Muslims being bashed.
But old habits die hard, and you have grabbed your popcorn once again while starving migrants are walking thousands of kilometres on foot to reach home.
Incidentally, the only question you have ever asked is, ironically, to ‘me’!
Why are we so negative? Asking questions and thereby disrupting your perfectly glamorous feed with stories/posts/news of people dying of hunger or being run over by trucks/buses or being hosed with bleach.
Me asking questions is your biggest worry.
You resolutely ask me to appreciate whatever little is being done and blindly support the powers which caused this humanitarian crisis, a man-made disaster due to improper planning to combat a natural disaster.
So, I am sorry for bringing “negativity” to your life. But I am not sorry for the questions I have raised or will go on asking because of this negativity in the world you and I reside, which, in your deep sleep, you cannot see.
You might be okay with it, but I will not let bigotry be the defining ideal of this Republic.
Thank you!