#DayOne

First Covid then Hantavirus, now earthquake in Russia and tsunami in Hawaii. #HavanKarenge

-Just another unreliable sauce

The morning of #DayOne started with reading this status on WhatsApp, leading me to fact-check, and believe me, I haven’t laughed this hard in days! No offense to this one guy as there is a plethora of forwarded unverified information in the last fifteen days or so, compensating for my extremely slow network and providing me a lot of content to roll eyes at.

Well, even though this blog is less of an information source and more for sharing my thoughts, I will still try to provide you with some reliable relevant links pertaining to our discussions in the side bar. To summarize the new Hantavirus and tsunami alerts, the only way for us (assuming all my readers follow good household practices in their houses) to get infected with the Hantavirus is to participate in Khatron Ke Khiladi and do tasks with rodents. As for the tsunami and earthquake alarms, Russia and Hawaii are more than capable to face the non-existent giant waves. What we should be more concerned about are the giant waves of false information we are already facing, which started pouring in even before the start of the lockdown.

Come to think of it, is this the first time there has been a false alarm of a tsunami or an earthquake or a sporadic viral outbreak in some corner of the world? Add to it the WhatsApp messages with the header: Iss message ko banane me 15 din lage hai; kripaya forward kare—then, why is it so that each and every crisis, however small—teeny and tiny—is now being connected to end of the living world? What’s the working mechanism behind this social psychology? Do people really crave drama? Or should I say tragedies? Is that why the Mahabharata and the tragedies of Shakespeare are still the bestsellers?

(That took a sudden dark turn for sure.)

Coming back to the discussion of this whirlpool of information we are being subjected to, the simplest reasoning behind its generation would be boredom. An empty mind is the devil’s workshop. As one of my friends EGo  (https://medium.com/@egodbole) worded, in fact it makes this whole situation war-like, much worse in fact, in many ways. First, people are not allowed to go outside, even during the day, more like participating in Bigg Boss but for survival instead of prize money. Second, they are to limit the interaction with the outside world irrespective of who it is, contrary to the basic principal of sociology—humans are social animals. Third, there is no visible or traceable enemy, turning it into a war against visibly no one, bound to psych people out. Imagine the number of infected cases swelling up beyond a limit, which may lead to slightest suspicion of infection translating into something bad, like two people committing suicide after thinking they were positive. There is no movement of patriotism, on which Indians are always high in my opinion, to motivate or distract people.

Especially in a country like India, where a large chunk of the population does not have an occupation which can be converted into a work-from-home format, we are left with no choice but to read every forwarded message on WhatsApp, to watch every news channel flashing the same breaking news all day long and formulating their own conspiracy theories, adding to this whirlpool.

All the reasons stated above makes the role of media all the more crucial for responsible release of information, which they don’t seem to understand yet, not reporting appropriately and trying to colour the news in a certain way. So should the media be held responsible? To be honest, after watching certain channels covering the mass gatherings on 22^nd March’s sunset as acts of appreciation and hence promoting people to sabotage the whole point of Janata Curfew further, I am almost compelled to say yes. But as responsible educated citizens (as we like to call ourselves otherwise) my recipe of copypasta and sauce might help you out to carry out your share of duty towards the nation more effectively as well. (Yes, verification and analysis of information during any national crisis is indeed the duty of its citizens. Let’s not limit it to banging plates and lighting firecrackers amidst a curfew.)

Allow me to ask you a simple question: do you enjoy your pasta without sauce (unless you have poorly developed sense of taste, that is), ever? I guess the majority of answers will be no, with further specifications about its types and methods of preparations. Then why do the same with the content you are feeding yourself through all kinds of social and mass media! So the next time you feel like the content you are being subjected to is just another copypasta, ask for the sauce. And if you don’t find the sauce reliable (by that, I mean source, for readers who are still wondering about the relation of pasta with COVID-19), chuck the pasta in the bin, and I totally mean it!

Let me also assure you, if you find yourself stuck with some query, not finding any reliable source to satisfy your doubt, the comments section is always available to you. See you tomorrow, till then, stay the f*ck inside and stay safe!

P.S. Leaving you with a Marathi poem by Anil Dravid written during the national emergency in India which also comments on the ambiguity of news we receive during crisis situations. I hope y’all find it interesting as well.

नाव नसलेल्या झाडाच्या

प्रचंड पानावर बसलेला विदूषक

घरात आला.

म्हणाला : खऱ्याखोट्या आवयांचे

बिछाने करा आणि त्यावर

झोपी जा.

कातडी बदलून फार दिवस

झाले नव्हते तरी मी म्हणालो :

हल्ली मी उगवतीच्या फांद्या

गोळा करतो आणि दाराच्या

चौकटीला टांगून ठेवतो.

तो दाराशी गेला

फांद्या काढून घेत म्हणाला :

मी यांची सुरेल वाद्ये बनवीन.

तो गेल्यावर मी दार

लावून घेतले

सर्व दिवे पेटवले आणि

सुरांची वाट पहात

बसून राहिलो.

~अनिल द्रविड