Coronavirus Part 20, Days of Creativity, Conferring Knighthood, 'Year For Poor' and Good Times to Reach Out

               It has been many months since the start of the remote work from home and I am restricted to home by sitting in front of the system. My official work involves using a laptop for longer hours. Though it is a challenge in itself and involves some strain, I am not restricted to just doing it since the past 5 months. My main challenge involves doing some work other than official work. It might be called as cover up of original work or anything but it has been like that. It is difficult to create some work every day and I have been creating outside chores since the past 150 days or more on a regular basis. To be true, I don’t have any work outside but everything I did was out of creation. Even these series of blog posts are out of sheer creation. This is how I am running the gauntlet of trying to keep myself busy, amid nothing and even in times of pandemic. This is how I am trying to capture the imagination of public, keeping them nervous, anxious and inspired at times. This is how I am taking up lot of challenges amid the pandemic challenge. This is how I am being creative at multiple frontiers – be it chores or blog posts and upping the highness in my life.

               But a drawback is the outside work is limited and can’t be taken for granted forever. I cannot create forever and there might be moments of joblessness. People may say easily that I am a fraud or went bust or I am completed or anything which please them. This might be partially true since it is in my nature and go through these phases occasionally.  One might remember that I am a mere follower and not by nature creator all my life. I can do a same job every day repetitively but not hunt for different things regularly. This phase of few months is deviating from this basic essence. The crux of it all is - I am in the times of extreme creativity and how far I will go with the tools in possession is not in my view.

               This pandemic is meant to ease the life of people like me by putting me in a safe house arrest but I am toiling on the road for greater good. I am continuing doing what I know the best. I can be viewed as someone who prepares a ground for people to play. I create the environment and aura for people to feel and do everything. I lay new inroads for people to travel. I prepare the nation for leaders to come in and rule. There are many leaders like chief ministers, Prime Minister, President who are making use of the ground I prepared and hitting sixers in it. Not just the leaders, there are people from all walks of life who get the cover under the umbrella. It is symbolic to Lord Sri Krishna lifting hill Govardhan and providing shade to all the people or a Bahubali doing unimaginative things of grandeur for the sake of his country and people. I am the creator of environment for good people to evolve and do good work.  

               A person with precisely these traits who creates something out of nothing for people to make use of it and acts as torchbearer in the society is conferred with a knighthood elsewhere. I will put a ‘Sir’ in front of my name. Indian government should also start a program to recognise these Sirs in the country and encourage people to become one. If it is an English word, we have our own ancient culture where we recognise such people with title ‘Acharya’. The government should start bestowing these titles to all the eligible people beginning with me. I might be hiding without coming out in the public domain but that should not deter from getting my ‘Acharya’ title. I am the kind of person who government should search for, find out, come to the house and deliver the title. Then only it will do any justification to my work, augur well for the society and encourage one and all. Of course, people like me don’t work for titles and awards. We do our work irrespective of recognition. But the government should start this tradition in the good being of the society. Let there be many ‘Acharyas’ in this huge country who guide the society in the right direction and to the pinnacle. This is how the pandemic has distinguished me as a Sir or ‘Acharya’ and brought out those qualities.

               The past year and more, there has been a lot of work done in the country and elsewhere towards reaching out to the poor and their financial inclusion. I can see a lot of indicators in the affirmative which signify that the time for the poor has come. In that light and to seize the moment, let us all put forward the year 2020 to be the ‘Year for Poor’.

                 In addition to the pandemic which stole the year, there has been an upending of the existing state of affairs and a new wave to hit the poor and change their lives has started to emerge. This year is significant for this story running in the background which will really benefit the poor. Government should designate as ‘Year to benefit the poor’ and should work at all levels assiduously rising to the occasion and make it a reality. The slogan ‘Garibi hatao’ was given 50 years back and the country is yet to get rid of the problem. We are good in increasing the population uncontrollably and bad in controlling the poverty. Going by the conservative numbers, if 5% are poor, it translates to 7 crore people living with less than enough means. The time has come for this to reach zero if there is proper action. The wind is blowing in the favourable direction and the sails need to be adjusted and boat has to pick up the direction to reach the destination.

               Many of the earlier leader dreams were realised in recent times. This one should not be prolonged for too long and Indira Gandhi’s 50 year old slogan and plan of action should come true in our living times. There has to be a sense of urgency in that direction. When you mean poverty should die, it is no one should live without food, shelter and decent living standards. It is up to the government if it dole out freebies or make them earn the desired kind of living. Government should act like a bridge between the rich and poor, and we are fine if all the tax money is properly distributed to the poor for their welfare schemes. The time is about right for financial inclusion and a socialist form of governance. This pandemic has dropped the income levels of lot of people and might have pushed many into poverty.

               The free food grain programme in these tough times is estimated to cover 80 crore people at an expense of 1.5 lakh crore till November. Several pro-poor measures are also taken up like transfer of Rs 31,000 crore to almost 20 crore poor families, Rs 18,000 crore to over nine crore farmers, besides 50,000 crore on providing rural jobs for returnee migrants. Lakhs of crores is already spent on the covid welfare schemes but it is still not enough. How come a poor family sustain on Rs 500 – 1500 cash in a month. Elsewhere people in need are being given Rs 2 – 3 lakh per month(converted to local currency) if they file for unemployment benefits. India should be in a position to increase the amount it gives by at least 10 to 20 times. I am happy if someone in need makes good money even if it is freely.

               The main constraint to the rise in income levels is the volume or size of population. The budget allocated is a big number in itself but given the crores of people, the number falls way short of requirement. It is not just the government, an average Indian should do a lot for the below average person to step up the ladder. You need to plan for the poor, act for the poor and implement for the poor which makes you a socially conscious person and living a life worthy of living in Indian context. Each one has to reach one in these times for a harmonious co-existence. You need to do a lot more to involve the fellow countrymen in your journey and take them along in your fortune. Impacting the fellow Indians positively with your actions is the ultimate living as they are the living gods to be served.

               For the times we are in, the year 2020 should be earmarked as a ‘Year for Poor’ or ‘Year of Garib Kalyan’ . This year should serve as a launchpad for the future and in next 5 years, the ‘Yes Indians’ should make a dedicated effort to improve fellow Indians, thereby earning the respect and dignity of the world. The government and the relevant stakeholders must come up with a host of measures in the next few months before the turn of next year. You may not know when time elapses, the wind may change direction and with it the opportunity to reach a fulfilling destination will be missed.

            

               Coming to the pandemic statistics, there are a total of 253.38 lakh infected cases worldwide and 8.49 lakh people dead. In the past week, 19 lakh new cases came up and 34 thousand passed away. The week has seen more than 19 lakh cases which is the highest number of cases registered in a week.  The number of cases is still reaching the top and the curve looks frightening. This is particularly worrying since there is apparently no end after suffering for so long. India is slated to reach the second place soon, in this week, in the number of positive cases. A quarter of the worldwide cases is registering in the country and is a major cause for higher caseload. Looks like the dreaded scenario of getting things out of control is slowly unfolding and from here it might be difficult to arrest the spread, given the limited resources and frontline workers.

               The numbers in India is particularly worrying and the government is progressively unlocking and relaxing the norms which is a paradox for any right-thinking individual. Almost nothing is done to bring down the numbers and the concerned authorities seem to have given up on the task and waiting for a billion vaccine doses to come to rescue. The nation slipping into this state is worrying. Something seems to be terribly going wrong and before it reaches greater proportions I pray to God to control the virus. It is feeling like I am the only one concerned and no one seems to be bothered about the virus or the big picture. Everyone is roaming freely and roads are full of traffic jams. In the past week, I am on the road with my bike on most of the days and I could do the work uninterruptedly because of the absence of any rules. This is particularly noteworthy and praiseworthy boldness from the government helping in returning the things to normal when the numbers speak otherwise.