#CoronaChronicles #4 Of Choices & Choicelessness

So let me admit "choicelessness" is actually NOT a word approved by Oxford, Cambridge, Thesaurus & co! There's noiselessness  and voicelessness that comes up as close choices! And yet I stick to a grammatically incorrect word... Because

That's exactly what the world seems to be okay with, no?

  • Incorrect actions of covering up a public health situation for months on end by one of the world's super power, 
  • Incorrect actions of a supposedly apolitical organization (that the entire world looks up to), disseminating this propaganda, downplaying the extent of the disease and possibly even delaying ordering a global health emergency situation, and
  • Incorrect actions on the part of governments across the world - Incorrect Decisions, rather the Indecisiveness that has led to a disruption for billions of people's way of life, caused millions of people unemployment and tens of thousands of families death of and / or separation from their loved ones!
Covid-19 has taken away for the next few months (perhaps years!?), our choices around:

  • How we spend time with our family - We look forward to spending time with our family and loved ones! It's left us choiceless with being LOCKED in with our family for weeks on end OR YEARNING to meet our family that does not live with us..
  • How we interact with other people - We humans thrive on socializing with, hugging and meeting new people! It's left us choiceless with SOCIAL Distancing - We now view every other person as a potential threat to our & our loved ones' health and well-being..
  • How we travel in our leisure time - We are explorers by nature and find joy in discovering new places, new routes! It's left us choiceless sat in ONE place scared beyond our wits to take any mode of transportation.. And for those that are still willing to, the vicinity/ locale / state/ country borders act as a deterrent!
  • How we celebrate milestones - We bring some people over, we visit some and we spread the joy! It's left us lonely and empty even when celebrating new year, birthdays and wedding anniversaries - it's almost like we must be grateful we're alive and get to eat some sweetmeats (which we are actually, yet no compulsions, please!)
  • How we view Life - We're positive beings that look forward to what next and how much better things can be! It's left us with fear & dismay and more Questions than answers, more doubts than certainties and more prayers than hope!
Thus leaving us absolutely CHOICELESS.. And hence, it's a word that we could form sentences such as: 

I'm CHOICELESS AND MUST
  • Stay inside my home, NOT visit my friends & family and I don't how NOT to do that!
  • Be home-schooled and I have no clue why while my parents figure out the how!
  • Choose between sweeping & swabbing vs. doing the dishes at 5:30 am every morning and I don't know for how long!
  • Shut down the thriving business that I ran with such passion cos of no fault of mine and I don't know what next!
  • Stay calm and pray I'll not lose my job and I don't know when!
  • So on & so forth....       
Which brings me to... Was there such high levels of CHOICELESSNESS at the place where it all began, when it all began, how it all began?.. Was it THIS difficult to contain it?  To Come out clean? To Close borders? To do whatever the heck it did to STOP this level of craziness?

And now what? Will anyone hold them accountable? When? How?

And what will the penalty look like, for changing the mores of the entire globe..

And when will life be restored to normalcy? What does the new normal look like anyway? Any clues?

Or may it's time to go to bed and wait for tomorrow.. For it will be another day of raised hopes and pacifying that ".... This Too Shall Pass!!"

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