News reports are nightmarish. The images are fearful and frightening. The inner call is that this will pass; the eyes and heart are afraid that this might not pass without a cost. The days are stressed and nights are bleak. The positive thing is the daring of human being to make it a time to look for better all around. We see them taking cautions, sharing precautions and look pro-active in the face of this pandemic.
Corona has transported us to something deep inside. Our fears have come true but so are the grounds of trust we have preserved since ages. We hope we shall be able to make it to the other end but we must acknowledge the reality with honesty. Less panic and more precautions are required. Honesty is not about telling the truth and then get into a fight with everyone. It is about the credibility of the information we get. We are trapped between Hope and Honesty. The hope lies in the fact that all are sweating hard to safeguard the planet but our honesty puts a question mark on our own fellows all around. The callousness has caused much to us, being honest can help in corrections.
Depression is a real threat and stress is the colour of the day now. We have a phobia from our own hands. We can surely pretend with confidence that this won't happen to us because we took all the precautions. But, we know we might fall into the trap of the disease. However, the silver lining is the expansion of the canvas of Mental Health and Depression Free life. With education and literacy; with internet and social media, we have got a possible network of connections. That has to be kept active and firm amid this downfall. We need to stay ALERT to our own fumbles and slowdowns. I shall suggest that we keep some people and deviation agents to support us to move out of any initial feeling of loss.
To Hope is not wrong but the honest acknowledgement is that there are losses on the cards. To expect a downfall of the economy and the social connection is not a wrong syllogism. But the need is to work for corrective and preventive actions. We have seen that our governments, to say in exact words, our political parties, have not given health and education a preference much deserved by the duo. The results are not just eye-openers but also alarming that we had depreciated to a fatal level of healthcare for citizens. By investing billions in weapons and in 'decorative and appeasement focussed missions, less was left for the development of the health sector. The virus has left us naked in front of everyone. We have been caught UNPREPARED and Unalarmed. We knew that such things can happen because they always happen, but we did not keep the Honesty with which we could have had HOPE.
Still, we can forget finding faults for now and move on to save the habitats. Once rescued, we will hunt for answers within first and then ask our leaders, why we were living in a Utopian dystopia. In the pursuit of hope, by any means, we missed honesty as our virtue. What is real is real and only after acknowledging the necessity of a 'lockdown', we shall be able to hope that something will be cured.
I am also willing to bring in a reference to what people around me, fellow teachers and capable ones are doing with the times they have at their disposal. After working on the long-due household chores, they must have been left with their internet-powered Smartphones. What they are doing with and on the modern gadget is quite surprising. This would have looked normal in the times of weekends or some seasonal vacations. But in the times of most unreal calamity, if I cannot see the teaching community desperate to teach the students, I feel they are somewhere lost. Either, they did not make them teachers or the organisations have failed to develop them into one. What use are the billions of money that have been spent on -'Capacity Building of Teachers' by the governments and even the institutions. Do not forget that the teachers possess certificates that make them eligible to ask for handsome appraisals. There are ways to make a connection as well as an impact in the lives of our students.
The hope is already rooted in them and the honesty is what they need to live with at this stage. The Corona impact will not wash away easily. We shall need to initiate a war-footing response to re-build the hearts and spirits of the children and adults. They seem to have seen something unreal like they used to see in the games and sci-fi movies. They need support, strength and somebody to listen to them. They need caring interventions and diversions. If, as teachers, we are able to divert even one single mind to the positive side of the struggle to live for betterment, we shall have some contentment. But, we are not looking at that side of the crisis. Please read about what PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorders) are and what havoc it has as its history all around the world.
The unsocial use of social media fault is applicable to the teachers too. We are not supposed to be running after 'our interests'. We cannot put forward this weak logic that we too have interests and alignments. A Soldier cannot afford to state this to recuse himself in the times of war. And, this COVID-19 fight is more than a war. It is not a force against the force of another geographically marked country. Rather, it is something threatening the existence of the whole planet- read it again - the WHOLE PLANET. So, can we exist, in the absence of life on earth, of course not? So, the right action would be to move to the right side of awakening.
This Awakening shall come through our honesty. The panic has to be transformed into our preparation and through our introspections, we shall help the world heal. Our honest journey 'within' shall take us to the real hope that we can win over this as well. But, do not forget that we cannot do it alone. In these days of Just Stay Home, nourish the goodness in you and be a Human, again!
