Year 2 of The Coronavirus Pandemic

 It was around a year ago that we first heard about this new virus. Never imagined that it could have such a profound impact on lives. Historically, humankind has lived in jungles with predators, ill-equipped to deal with them. The way our ancestors survived was by using their brains to develop tools that they could use to protect themselves and also to hunt for food-non-vegetarian food. Today, with an excess of humans on the planet, nature may want to restore the balance-and man is helping, with chemical or other weapons, biological ones too. These have been used in parts of the world, to carry out mass killing.

Anyway, the point is, this is not the only pandemic we have to worry about. We have a few vaccines, and will invent more, and it will pass-in a year, maybe. At least the life-threatening part will. It may morph into another virus like the common cold virus, which also has no cure. But it has forced us to re-evaluate what is important for Nature and for Humankind, I hope. Why can't governments around the world concentrate their energies on Healthcare for all, at a low cost, even if it's not free? Why are natural disasters man-made, more often than not? Why do we almost always focus on the non-essentials, except in a pandemic or other emergencies/disasters? Are exams really important? This last is a question for the education sector, particularly in India. Learning can happen without necessarily having so many exams. At least, that's my theory, and it can be tested. I once worked in an institute of management where, due to time pressure, we admitted students without an entrance exam, only through a personal interview and they were as good as any other subsequent batch of students. Prior academic performance indication was already available through some other certificates they had. Just an example of how it did work.

I also wonder how the world, with so many resources-particularly human resources-at its disposal, cannot organise itself to focus on the essentials. Among world leaders of this century and the last, I can only recall Gandhiji advocating simple living. What would he have thought of the world in 2021? I wonder...

Relevance of Gandhiji

We often miss the woods for the trees, and get caught up in what Gandhi did instead of what he could do for us today.

Even if 20% of us in India (or anywhere, actually) could think about issues like he did, got set in our beliefs after trying things out, and stuck to them in the face of tough odds, we might be a different people. Instead, what we focus on is whether he married (or abstained), whether he was a vegetarian, and what he wore.

These are irrelevant, and contextual. He may have done several things, and wisdom is not in imitating them, but discovering the truth for ourselves.

I urge everybody to do so. I know I am not Gandhiji, and I don't have a zillion followers, but maybe half a dozen may pay heed. If not, well, I have made my case anyway.

Gandhiji and His Relevance

Firstly, let me clarify that I have limited knowledge of the details of Gandhiji's life, so the following observations or thoughts could be termed half-baked. I also do not agree with him on everything he did or inspired. Now, you may read on.

He had a sense of humour, which I don't see around in too many people, who are self-righteous about trivial things, and easily offended.

He had an interest in reading and writing. My autobiography is a lift (inspired?) from his- I just called it half-truths instead of truth. Not sure if anyone does any of these two things these days.

He lived simply. I know no one wants to these days.

He walked a lot. Car manufacturers may have a tough time if more people learn to do so.

He tried to be truthful. Need I say anything on this?

Of Censors and Other Ships

Ships come in all sizes. People mistakenly thought that 'size matters' in all matters related to ships, until the Titanic sank. So that was that. But one cannot deny that in the history of mankind, ships have played a major role- losing their way to the Americas and starting the Wal-Mart and McDonald's revolution, so integral to the progress of mankind. Where would we be without consumerism , and burgers? Dosas are just not enough to drive a giga-trillion dollar world economy.

So this is a historic analysis of various ships and their contribution to mankind. On a serious note, before we get hilarious (or delirious), Neil Armstrong died yesterday, the guy whose moonwalk was a giant step for mankind. The Star'ship' Enterprise too, went where no man has gone before (some people joked, like to the women's loo).

Anyway, let's get back to some mundane earthly ships, rather than take starry flights into celestial territory. Ships are of different kinds. The most beneficial are those like censorship- these are ships that stop a thousand launches (reversing the Cleopatra paradigm). You may well ask- how? Well, before you launch your face(book) stuff, you need to clear it from about ten different members of this ship. So, that's creating a new job opportunity for ten very creative and hitherto unemployed people, who will think of new reasons why you should not be twittering or facebooking around. After all, birds are supposed to twitter, not humans of five feet- something height. The number of jobs thus generated would boggle the mind, and the word 'unemployment' would be banished from common usage. Maybe left to discover a new home, in space, on a ship created to cart it out, along with other undesirables.

Well, the other forms of ships may include trusteeship, which is something the Mahatma talked about. But since nobody remembers what it is exactly, we will defer a discussion to a later date. In fact, until Raju Hirani made his second Munnabhai film, we were not sure who the Mahatma was either!

Coming to ships we are more familiar with, we have ownership. This is not a ship at all, but something that establishes that Man A is the owner of a thing B. This is to be strictly avoided, because according to all philosophers across ages, from Confucius (he was actually very clear, not confused at all), to Buddha, it puts you on a trajectory away from self-realisation. So if you want Mukti, Nirvana, or Eternal Bliss, think of taking a voyage on any ship but this one.

More later, as this analysis will take much longer than I thought. I don't want to miss my ship..rather, bus!