We have seen worse!

I remember vividly, one fine morning I was all set for work, having my breakfast and my dad was channeling the news. The newslines caught my attention-“A new string of virus that causes respiratory difficulties, fever and severe cases might result in fatal, has been identified in China. It has been named COVID 19/ Corona Virus”. At first, I thought it would be just a normal rant from China! But, little did I know that this will lead the whole- world to a hard-stop. Not even in my wildest dreams, I never thought that the temples would close down, the roads, the government offices, places and institutions that held records for the nth continuous working day getting shut to the bone. It was indeed a sight of astonishment for the present millennials like me!

Since the first case, a lot has changed. The new normal is strangely different from what we knew all our lives were pre-COVID 19. All the number of affected and the passed have skyrocketed in a shorter period to horrific figures. A small introverted so-called nobody like me happened to know two hundred people including my friends, my family have been affected or lost a dear someone.

Being well informed of the trouble and toil the human race went through, thanks to Covid. Knowing and personally witnessing the world coming to a stop and realising it may never get back to the normal for a few more years ahead. All I say is – IT IS NOT THAT BAD. Yes, you read it right! I think we are overreacting and making a very big fuss. Before you swear or close this, let me explain my statement!

Before this Covid, we have seen much worse things. 

The World Wars

World War I, the war to end all wars combated between 1914 to 1918 throughout the world. There is nothing worse than being in war. I have fairly read and watched quite a lot of war related factual stories throughout my life. Wars have fascinated me. There were a whopping 20 million deaths and 21 million injured just in a span of four years during WWI. Note, only 32 countries were involved in WWI. 

World War II, between 1939 to 1945 when all the powerful nations were involved. In a span of six years, 70 million human beings perished-out of which 30 million were combat soldiers and the rest were innocent civilians. Imagine being in Berlin back then, you kiss your kid’s bye which might be goodbyes for the day and there is no assurance that you are going to see them again.

Wars are bad. I have read things and watched movies that have given me sleepless nights, no living being deserves to endure all that. I will someday gather strength and courage enough to pen down a separate blog highlighting such events. 

The Great Depression

Of course, depression is a much more common phenomenon compared to the wars and we must admit there are few regions in the world where depression is normal. But one that is an epitome of an event is the Great depression that started in 1929 and lasted for four years. Over thousands died of sheer hunger. I would strongly recommend you give a try to the book – “The Four winds by the American Author” by Kristin Hannah, although it is fictional, it depicts how life during then went from high fly to poverty and no one could do anything about it!

Holocaust

Even though it is a part of WWII, The merciless, inhumane genocide of the Jews is one of the most notorious mass murders the world has ever seen, It saw the killing of the European Jewish population, it was reduced from 9,740,000 to 3,642,000; the world’s Jewish population was reduced by one-third, from roughly 16.6 million in 1939 to about 11 million in 1946. Imagine being brutally murdered in masses at the ghetto just because you were born into a particular religion, caste or your sexuality. Around 6 million people lost their lives and they were all innocent playing victims. Schindler’s List (1993) and The Pianist (2002) are must- watch to understand the terror of that time.

The Previous Virus Siblings

Viruses the Spanish flu/ influenza virus were pandemic and were really brutal. They took the lives of over an estimated 90+ million people in the 1920’s. The great plague, my great grandfather was a victim. I have been told that they all left their homes, abandoning their livelihood, their livestock and ran for life. They had come back home twenty years later, my grandfather was three years old when they came back. He said “Our parents left our homes for twenty odd years and when we came back it was like remains in the deserts”. As I started looking up for such pandemics, there are more and more forever the next one!

I haven’t included the natural calamities like the tsunami, hurricanes, earthquakes, forest fires and so on. Leaving out the cruelty of smaller wars like the freedom struggles, the Palestinian war, the Afghan war, the Indian partition, Indo-Pakistan war, various migrants throughout the globe were killed while they were on the run for a better life!

Am I justifying my point by graphing the higher death tolls of much worse calamity be it man made or natural than the Covid? Absolutely not. Death is sad, no matter what the cause is! A loss of life is no way a solace even if it is just one. By saying, we are better off with covid all I meant is, firstly we are more equipped and technically sound and advanced than ever before. We have the ability to send a message to the entire population of the globe in no time. Sometimes the fact is real or it’s not, that doesn’t matter, the thing is we are all connected. Secondly, we are all fighting the common enemy. More significantly, we have a tremendous quality at our disposal, something the human race has never seen before at such a scale – UNITY!

So, tell me!? Aren’t we grand!? 

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We might have never faced the water crisis, but we took a nap!

We might have never faced the water crisis, but we took a nap!