"In Covid times, patience, self-care and compassion should come in the first-aid kits for everyone!" writes my friend from Norway.
And right she is!
It wasn't so long ago when in the capital city of our nation, on one hand people were dying of oxygen shortage, on the other there were ruthless profit-mongers hoarding the cylinders and clandestinely selling them at exuberant prices. So much so, that the mounting incidents of oxygen being sold in the black market in India, became the butt of a joke on Trevor Noah's The Tonight Show on NBC. Yet, what didn't hit the headlines was the generosity of Manoj Gupta, the owner of Rimjhim Ispat Factory in U.P., who was filling up the empty cylinders for a rupee each to help towards the treatment of Corona positive patients.
Similarly, the private ambulances in the capital region were all out making a buck by maximising on the emergency situation and charging desperate people tenfold the usual amount to ferry them from point A to point B. And, if that were not enough, the rate could increase by manifold if the hospital did not have a bed readily available and the patient were coerced to wait it out in the ambulance.
Yet, the 34-year old Javed Khan of Bhopal, a small-time autorickshaw walla decided to equip his vehicle with an oxygen cylinder, sanitizers and over-the-counter medications in order to haul Covid patients to the hospital, for free. When Javed saw the havoc being unleashed by Covid, he just stopped carrying passengers for business. Instead, determined to do something to address the worsening situation, he converted his three-wheeler into a small ambulance using up his own savings. And now he devotes his time and energy taking patients to the hospital for free, and in an emergency situation, even administering oxygen and paracetamol.
The Jain International Trader's Organization (JITO), in association with the Greater Chennai Corporation, has launched Oxygen on Wheels service, a free facility for patients in critical condition, queuing up for admission outside the government hospitals. Buses laden with oxygen concentrators, each able to handle six patients at a time, are deployed along with an operating 24/7 helpline.
The year 2020, which could also be termed as the year of the migrant worker, witnessed the generosity of common people towards those in plight. Several names come to mind, such as the two Pasha brothers, local banana merchants from Kolan district in Karnataka, who sold their plot to feed jobless daily wage labourers, returning home to penury.
Even though many such stories of the everyday people rising to the occasion to help their fellow-beings abound, amongst the celebrities, the one name that has flashed oft and again across the television screen is that of Sony Sood. Sood, a Bollywood actor, stole the limelight with his remarkable outreach program, carried out with the aid of a growing team of 45000 volunteers. Not only did he succeed in organizing buses to help ease the stranded migrant crisis in the wake of the sudden 2020 lockdown, but he is right at this moment actively involved in saving thousands of lives of those circumstantially left out by an overly burdened healthcare system.
If people, rich and poor, can step out of their comfort zone to help those in need, imagine if our Central and State governments had the far-sightedness and will to do something to alleviate the suffering of the people, we wouldn't have been in this supreme quandary we are in today.
If our government were not so preoccupied with the foundation- stone-laying ceremony of the formidable Ram Temple in Ayodhya, or in getting the plans for a brand new Parliament building and PM's Residence passed by the Supreme Court, maybe we could have turned more spaces into Covid-treatment centers, manufactured more ventilators, and erected more facilities to fill oxygen cyclinders. Then our ambition, to be recognised as a force to reckon with, would truly have been fulfilled, all while saving the lives of thousands of people.
It is high time we realise that it is not by owning state-of-the-art fighter planes, hi-tech submarines, and a world-class competent army, along with a billion dollar space program, will we achieve Superpower-hood, but by ensuring that 1.3 billion people of this country have access to potable water, food, clean air, green and invigorating environment, and basic health care. And yes, a functional garbage collection and recycling system.
The acceptance that the fulfilment of the basic needs of every citizen should figure as the topmost priority in every government's agenda, demands not only
vision, but also patience and compassion.
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