Trauma the virus causes

Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful: These words, pronounced by Estragon in Samuel Beckett’s seminal work ‘Waiting For Godot’, reflect the mindscape of many in the country, and the world, traumatised by the Covid-19 pandemic. That way, actor Amitabh Bachchan was stating only the obvious when he talked about his life as a Covid patient in a Mumbai hospital. The patients never get to see another human for weeks, he says. “There are the nurses and the doctors on visit and medicine care but they ever appear in Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) units.” Lakhs of people who are either under treatment, quarantine or isolation face the same fate of being denied human contact for days.

Most discussions on the pandemic revolve around the impact it has on the economic conditions of the people, especially the poor. But the psychological impact is borne by the rich and the poor alike. The isolation is complete if the near and dear ones, fearful of the virus, keep themselves away. There are reports of people committing suicide from across the country unable to bear the pressure of isolation.

Even those who have been successful in keeping themselves away from the virus talk passionately of the past and grimly about the future. They compare their days when they walked on to the streets without a care, hugged their friends, and ate their favourite food. Or pat the railings on the escalators in their favourite malls. Social media reverberates with the anxious question if humans will ever return to those good old days.

Logically speaking, an end to this life in the cabins will end once a vaccine appears on the scene. But the waiting is too much for too many people, the rich and the poor alike. Amitabh Bachchan reminds one and all about the importance of being considerate to each other.