A curse called Corona

 Sir,

Many have already said almost everything about this merciless, pandemic called COVID-19.  I am also truly trying to share my feelings with many of my friends on this curse called Corona. It has not been easy for me to understand the terrible destruction of many aspects of our life and life itself. 

As always I came to USA, to spend some time with my children and grandchildren, in last November, never anticipating that I would be locked down here for how long, only the Almighty knows.  It is a blessing (that is, the extended stay) because I am with my loved ones. 

I am keenly following the emerging picture in Mysuru through ‘SOM’ and other Kannada news channels. Hopefully, people all over the globe will behave, think and understand the values of human relation, liberty and discipline once the dust settles down totally. If that does not happen alas, then all the suffering and sacrifice by the Police, healthcare workers and other Social Organisations will go in vain. 

But I am, like others, already seeing in people admirable willingness to support the trade off between preserving Civil Liberties and measures taken to arrest the rapid spread of the COVID virus.

Well, the authorities have spared no effort to contain the spread of the virus, by forced quarantine of the positively tested cases for medical treatment, implementing social distance and enforcing with a heavy hand (wherever necessary) a total lockdown.

 Yes, it is very much a  war-like situation. In spite of all these strict measures, we are very sorry to note some irresponsible people gathering in large numbers for some reason or the other. Certainly not at a time like this. 

At the same time the bright picture is that people have opened up their hearts by donating crores of rupees and also are involved in helping the poor and the needy by systematically organising supply of food and medicinal needs.

The result of the positive efforts by Police and scores of doctors and other healthcare workers (and we should be eternally grateful for them) and the public co-operation have dramatically brought down the spread of the virus  in our country avoiding a dreaded explosion. This certainly is an awesome performance in a country of 1.3 billion people, where much of the population live in dense clusters even in big cities. Let’s us be proud of that and be patient to wait for the lockdown to be lifted in stages. Let us remember that we earn this freedom to move about freely after a very hard and co-operative,  self-preserving effort. May God bless us ALL.

– Prof. K.V. Satyan, Camp : Dallas, Texas, 28.4.2020

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