Love in the time of Corona

     So the virus is in town, the corona virus which gives rise to the symptoms termed COVID_19 and we’re in lock down mode. The whole world is more or less in the same situation, everybody cooped up at home. I don’t know how long it will last… it’s not bad, I do my yoga, play shuttlecock in the evenings followed by zumba, cook/ bake something in between, watch documentaries about our universe, black holes and all the massive energy explosions happening out there where everything is in constant motion; a cauldron of intense activity as compared to the eerily deserted streets on earth today.

I wonder about the people who have no homes or enough food, migrant people caught up in the lock-down, unable to go home or rest anywhere. What about the daily wage earners… I do hope they are getting their due share from the government which has rolled out many PDS (public distribution system, commonly known as ration shops) relief schemes. I don’t know what to make of the situation, it is the law of nature to do as she pleases. Chaos is the order of the universe. Saw a documentary about Mass Extinction and apparently we are in the sixth mass extinction phase (no, not the virus), just this age of massive changes in the geographical nature of the world which in the previous mass extinctions took about billions of years to occur. The current rate at which animals are becoming extinct is a dire case, because even though many animals and species have become extinct (the mammoth, the dodo, the saber toothed tiger and the like), the process that led to their extinction has taken billions of years as compared to the current rate of extinction. Another point in the documentary is that mass extinctions have been occurring since before humankind came into existence. The universe is not exactly quiet and gentle as it seems to be on a beautiful starry night. Right at the center of our galaxy, the milky way, is a black hole where gravity is so intense that not even light can escape it; everything is in constant motion around a black hole and that’s how you know it exists. What with the energy from black holes and the energy in supernova explosions, the universe is quite violent.

But it is this sort of explosive violence in the fabric of space and time that created the earth we live on. Initially the earth was not suitable for life, it was filled with toxic gases and inhabitable terrain like any other planet, and there was no concept of life, until all the changes in the cosmic landscape led to the creation of the essential elements required for life. And that’s how I sit here typing this out, because the universe is constantly changing, creating and destroying with abandon. Like Shakespeare says, ‘Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.’ That’s how life is I guess, without the madness in life how can any meaning be found. Wallace Stevens, the American modernist poet says, ‘the imperfect is our paradise’. As crazy, strange and exasperating as the whole situation seems, things are going to be good. How can it be otherwise… all the violence in the cosmic realm did bring about our existence, and likewise all the violence unleashed by this little mutating virus will lead to good things too… in the months and years to follow.

For starters, I see love seeping out everywhere, through the cracks and niches, as people come up with novel ways to show they care. From the grandparents who stood below and saw their newborn grandchild from the fourth or fifth floor hospital room window (simba style), to the Maths teacher who carried a board and marker to explain a few sums as the student watched from a distance at home, to the person who created opaque masks so the hearing impaired could read lips, to the impromptu dance and music sessions on balconies, to the neighbourhood that stood in their driveways and waved and cheered as a cancer survivor made her way home after the last chemo treatment, to the children and adults who leave colourful and cheerful chalk messages on walkways, to chefs whipping up easy dishes online to keep the whole family entertained, to dance, fitness, and yoga trainers organising free online sessions, to people stepping up and helping the most vulnerable in society… the list is endless. Love in the time of Corona can be difficult too, there are adverse reactions and the newspapers are rife with them. But the stories of love that come out from every corner of the globe, never ceases to amaze me. Love begets love…