Corona Virus Part 9, Supporting Priests, Goddess Durga, Good Story From A.P.

              The lockdown provided a much needed respite to many people. But as mentioned, it increased the work load to some extent for me for some unknown reasons. The reasons might be many but the pandemic fit the slot of what I had to offer very well. I think that I just hit the rough patch of going through hard work and then came the pandemic. I might need a period like this and then came the pandemic. I might need a house arrest (which I mentioned just before) and then came the pandemic lockdown. It is a different story I did not follow the home quarantine. I need to work at home after a lengthy stint at office and then came the pandemic. I am in the correct position to write weekly blogs and then came the pandemic. I am stationed in correct position to solve a mighty problem and then came the pandemic. I need a cause to work at and then came the pandemic. I am prepared for the gigantic moment and then came the pandemic. It is a co-incidence of supply from my end and demands of the pandemic. It is a terrific intersection of two mighty forces called corona virus and me and I had taken down the virus so well.

               If not, the past two months would not have panned out in the way it has happened. It might not be the same some other time. If not, the problem would not have been solved so quickly and everything become smooth after just two months. If not, I would not have worked relentlessly in lockdown and slowly force upon the issue to bring the situation to a meaningful conclusion. The cases might rise in containment zones but the rest of the country has nearly opened up. Giants are born and bred to fight the gigantic threats and I fought the corona like a fire fighter fights fire. In front of tenacity of people like me, the virus will eventually recede. The timing of the pandemic is very apt that I am perfectly placed to raise to the occasion and write the weekly blogs to influence the real-time policy and decision making to mitigate the pandemic.

               Though the lockdown can end very soon if people are responsible, there are some things which cannot be reversed so soon. While people don’t want the lockdown to end any soon due to the raising number of cases, it has to be understood that India implemented the world’s biggest lockdown. It cannot go on forever without facing serious repercussions. Government must act very tough on the containment zones and let the nation run normally elsewhere without large scale group gatherings. The two month lockdown has pushed a minimum 12 million into extreme poverty. Just think about the millions of poor migrants and daily wage earners, they have been displaced permanently for the time being with no hope of job and source of income in the near future. These already poor people will be pushed to further poverty, the result of which is the decades of good work done erased in a single stroke. It is only the poor and the unorganised sector which has lost the livelihood because of the super spreading virus. The migrants were never given confidence or the government failed to communicate the message properly. Because of the uncertainty and no proper communication, they went on the long march back home. Now all these businesses want them back. It is the loss of businesses and the loss of migrants. No one would have gone back, if they are promised bright future in their work locations. This simple assurance was a big void.

               Along with these poor people, another set of individuals who are really affected by the pandemic are the priests. As a person who visits temples on most of the days, I saw that the temples are shut with no visitors during these days. Due to this, the income for the priests dried up and they really suffered. The Brahmins who work as priests are thought of as the bridge between devotee and God or they are revered as Gods themselves by several people. The priests occupy the foremost place in the society, because by worshipping deities and performing other rituals as per the scriptures, they are ensuring the peace, prosperity and welfare of everyone. If their welfare is in question, our own welfare will also be in question. It is important that the people who perform duties for universal peace and prosperity are looked after well by the common public for their own good. But these lockdown times are really tough on them with the closure of temples and other rituals, with many of them struggling to make ends meet. Anyone who takes up priesthood need to be looked after well by the society and on their well being depends our own well-being. Any responsible entity must take care of their needs in these trying times.

               As someone who visits temples frequently, I pray for universal good of all. Recently, I am also praying for the virus-free world. Goddess Durga, the mother of all, is the one who removes obstacles and help us overcome difficulties and find solutions to problems. Durga is the Goddess of war, who combats evils and demonic forces that threatens peace and prosperity. Visualising all the women as Goddess Durga is a trait of our ancient dharma. The society which hangs to the dharma will not get defeated by any demonic force or virus. The word ‘Amma’ whose synonym is a goddess, refers every mother as an incarnation of Goddess Durga. The entire credit for the man’s work goes to his mother, for she is the one who gave birth, feed him and raised him with all the toil. Man is nothing in front of these super-mothers. In fact, our struggles pale in front of the hardships every mother goes through. We are all indebted to these living goddesses, for our very lives are due to their self-less tapasya. Getting fixated to these valuable living assets, values and doing something to make them happy, peaceful will go a long way in easing the pain of the lockdown times.

               Coming to the virus statistics, there are a total 59.00 lakh confirmed cases and 3.6 lakh deaths worldwide. In the past week, 7.25 lakh new cases are added and 27 thousand passed away. The past week has seen a surge in the number of new cases being added, which is 6 lakh till recently and climbed to 7.25 lakh. This surge points to the resurgence of the virus after the world-wide lockdown is slowly easing. U.S, Brazil, Russia, India have become new hotspots for the virus. There are theories that a second wave of attack is also possible but the administration need to take care that they are restricted to isolated hotspots and no new locations get the spread of virus. Meanwhile U.S.A. registered 1/3^rd deaths or clocked 1 lakh death this week. This is 33 times bigger than the 9/11 attacks and still not over. I feel ashamed that I lived for two years of my life in the country which cannot protect its seniors. This count should be kept beside the famed count of highest number of medals in Olympics or most number of Nobel laureates. As put by someone, corona virus didn’t break the societies; it exposed how weak the societies have become. The worlds most powerful and richest country is weaker than the poorest of the African countries.

               This past week also marked one year since new governments are formed in centre and state of A.P. While a lot has happened at the centre, speeding up with many improvements, some of which are already mentioned in this space. Let me tell you what has happened in the state of A.P. The state government also did a decent job in living up to its promise through which it came to power. I would like to share a story which I came to know recently. One of the students of an hostel where I teach intermediate subjects was placed in a Government job in engineering section by virtue of the employment opportunities provided by the Govt. In A.P. Though the hostel is in Telengana, his native village near Bhadrachalam was transferred to A.P. during division and thereby became eligible to get job in A.P. He is the first generation person in his family to pursue engineering. There are few others earlier to him in the hostel who studied engineering and living without a proper job. The point to note is he is the first student in my 9 years experience as teacher in the hostel to get a decent job after education. We can teach them, inspire them to get better degrees but without proper job, their education does not have full meaning. I am thankful to the government of A.P. for identifying the correct person who deserves the job. I wish all these students from tribal background are placed suitably in jobs after getting educated. This is an impressive outcome of the work done by those concerned.

               I hope the Government has given out employment opportunities to the most eligible persons through its several other initiatives like village volunteer program etc. Though I can contradict on some of the C.M’s policies on paper, these are giving results on the ground. I am a huge fan of his father Y.S.R. and hope he will tread his foot steps in serving the people.  I am a beneficiary of Y.S.R work as well by way of getting job in some of the organisations set up in Hyderabad during his tenure. Y.S.R. really worked for the poor and his son is destined to carry on the uncompleted work of serving the people. I have a simple request and an analogy to draw. The present government should carry on building Amaravati without any second thought and looking for other options. His father continued building Hyderabad on top of Chandra babu’s work and his son should carry forward the tradition by continuing to build Amaravati on top of Chandra babu’s work. This would categorise the duo as ‘Like father, Like Son’ who left a deep imprint in the construction of modern Andhra Pradesh.