Talking shop: Changing semantics

I have changed. I was affable and gracious as a host, a friend to anyone who wanted help or sought my ear to appease or assuage their innards. Things have changed. Damn, I have changed. The moment someone remotely 'suspicious' now enters the personal and safe space I have learnt to create over these two last miserable years, I yank up the certified N-95 mask dangling around my neck, without a visceral thought for their feelings and sentiments. On that count, I have become obnoxious and heartless, perhaps that's my self-preservative streak kicking in.

And yet again, for the third time running in two years, I have begun staying indoors, well before any state-dictated 'shastras' are hurled at me by our authorities who seem to be searching for clues. I did the same in early-March of 2020, well before the lockdowns. Around that time, India was celebrating visiting idiot dignitaries. The nation's people paid the price soon after. I did the same again in April 2021, when we hosted massive election rallies (especially in West Bengal) and celebrated the wedding season. The deadly Second Wave followed.

Given this history, chances are rife that there shall be no stringent and timely action or diktats whatsoever this time too. The developments (the lack of them, actually) point to another phase of nonchalance, ignoring the possibility of a new deadly coming, of Omicron, the 15th letter in the Greek alphabet, the latest avatar of the dreaded COVID-19 virus. Little or no chance all, we are told, since most of the battered world and we too seem to have deciphered a new, deathly conundrum, one that knows that lockdowns achieve little or nothing.

Love your blessed kho-kho

Battered by the happenings of the last near-two years, the state and people at large seem to have decided that the old cycle of life has to be allowed to continue, if only to protect an economy that just can't afford another hiccup or enforced roadblock. Accept or avoid it, though, the truth stares us in the face. A lethal scourge has enveloped the world. What we witness now is a veritable see-saw, a game of 'kho-kho'played out betwixt modern medicine and a deadly virus, both desperately trying and beseeching to hold their ground. Equally, both are trying to survive. At a very basic primal level, both are twisting, contorting and mutating, focusing their efforts on staving off extinction. As Gabbar Singh said in the maha-epic called Sholay over four decades back: 'Dekhte hain kaun bachta hai' (Let's see who survives). Litany aside, mankind will eventually win; the only thing to watch out for is the price we end up paying for this arrogance.

Let's look at the number of cases reported mid-way through the week gone by. Global watchdogs reported that the United States had 2,86,307 active cases, with Omicron variants notching up 1,485 new victims. In just the last few weeks, Omicron cases against the total new infections jumped from 3 per cent to 73 per cent. In the United Kingdom, total active cases were 91,000, with 45,145 being Omicron. In Canada, the corresponding numbers were 29,555 active cases, with 1,848 Omicron cases. Norway scored 11,419 and 3,871, respectively, while Denmark notched up 10,082, with new Omicron cases jumping to 23,038. Alarming numbers, these, considering that Omicron didn't exist about a month ago...

The saving grace, internationally, which hopefully shall manifest itself across geographies, is that South Africa, which reported the first case of Omicron, has already seen cases of this variant plateauing and receding.

Time to revisit evolution

Thousands of years back, mammoths, sabre-tooths, wolves, soothsayers and other marauders ravaged mankind through mountains, hilly terrain and other geographical schematics. Over time, man evolved, became clever; so clever in fact that over some centuries, he learnt the art of killing them and their habitat, to get rid of their menace and to extend his own sweeping paw over the globe. Today, ironically, animals and other predator creatures are hitting back. They are evolving, perhaps having stolen a trick or two from our very own book of survival and longevity. Darwin, you say?

Truth be told, neither animal predators nor the worst animal on the planet – man himself – has really learned anything, leave alone evolved. Implacably, not enough to reach a state of sensible jurisprudence (should call it 'nirvana'?). Why do I pass a cussed judgment? Well, perhaps because I have been typing this article on my phone on WhatsApp, with paragraph after paragraph being sent to my wife's Android, from where I will stitch it together on my laptop. As I write, I look around and wherever I do, I see socially very-undistanced people waltzing around; drinks in their hand and no masks on their faces, or masks flagellating around their necks. Mouths and noses are exposed, as are their brains and sensibilities, and then they seriously discuss details of a new volcano preparing to erupt. Cheers, they exclaim. Indeed.

We all know Omicron has arrived in India and positivity rates are doubling every two-three days. It is changing and morphing, making us shrink yet again into the cocoon that we built for ourselves since March 23, 2020. Till recently, we had learnt to vent our angst and talk Hindus and Muslims. Now, we are scared again. Eight months later, the difference is that we are not mortified yet, though deeply concerned we are. But we are reverting to type.

One just hopes that in the process, we don't end up creating two more years of lost lives and livelihoods.

We badly need succor

A few weeks back, I wrote about this same Omicron, though my tone was different. It hasn't helped. And thus it is that, today, I mimic a parrot and repeat that sing-song, perhaps because I don't want to witness again what I did in April and May this year, when the Second Wave slammed us. As and when I do emerge from this latest hibernation, I don't want to be told that no one in India died because of the lack of oxygen, or be scared gutless by the wailing of ambulance sirens while I cower inside my four walls, looking at an equally worried missus and two very puzzled cats and two beleaguered dogs. Why are mommy and papa always at home? We have lived those desperate days twice and now need succor, as much as the country needs to move up the economic ladder to rebuild a nation, at least whatever's left of it.

In my research for this column, I waded into what the experts are saying. An Imperial College study says there is no evidence to suggest that Omicron is less severe than the Delta version. In tandem, Professor Francois Balloux of University College, London, says data pertaining to Omicron cases in Denmark shows that there are fewer cases of hospitalization due to this variant than because of Delta. An interesting breather (at least for our battered minds, for only time shall tell what really transpires) comes from Dr Ravi Godse of UPMC Shadyside, who insists that there will be no Third Wave of any significance in India. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also asked people worldwide to curtail any and all festivities.

As this plays out, India seems confused about Omicron. The Central Government has sent out a notification to states, asking them to stay alert and ensure that necessary curbs are put in place before 'thresholds' are reached. Logic says the powerful should instruct political parties to lead by example, for once, and call off the planned assembly election rallies in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. And the upcoming wedding and festive seasons, for only madness and mayhem surround these events. We need serious checks and balances to ensure India remains sensible and safe.

New Year 2022 is almost here. Let us learn from the mistakes of the last 21 months and not recreate the Year 2020 and Year 2021. Will we listen? Only time shall tell.

The author is a communications consultant and clinical analyst. Views expressed are personal. narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com