Sufferings Surrounding Me

Month of MAY

As this month begins, certain experiences from previous months weren’t going stale…

The intensity of feeling fear, helplessness was increasing.

The fear of getting infected, even the query with seasonal sore throat/allergies was tiring at times, the fear of infecting our loved ones, the fear of spreading infection were increasing.

Though the days passed, they weren’t either fulfilling or satisfying. Never faced so many dark days together at a stretch.

I started my duties again. The hospital I work in, got converted to Covid- Only hospital with obstetric ward and neonatal ward being still functional along with our blood-bank: the emergency ones.

Lockdown 3.0 got imposed for next 15 days

While travelling in a local train to work, before this whole pandemic thing, I usually read books and prepared myself for day''s work and, while returning after work, tired ,used simply sit and stare others or doze off (and latter was very often). I hardly noticed what’s going around me, but now with bus travelling I got closer to the world I live in

The days as they passed, saw more infections, more deaths. Never seen world so closely through the windows of BEST buses, that I use nowadays to commute. Started witnessing the road side life from other side of these bus windows. In a trip to work, I saw in addition to poor beggars, a clueless homeless family also staying at road side. I thought to myself although government had arranged a center for them, why are they staying here. Subsequently they weren’t in my return trip. Might be they have moved into these centers or started walking to their homes.

The migrants (technically I am also one migrant, but I m one with domicile, but they were without one in this state) wanted to return to their state, their home. With no transport available (as government wanted to reduce contagion’s spreading rate) innocent clueless people sought their feet, to cover the distance of thousand’s of kilometers, in this scorching heat ( month of May), just to reach their home. Perhaps destiny had something else for few, saw many media people covering news, of how people reached their destination, only to be in quarantine center and how few died, due to dehydration with no help.

Neither their death was due to pandemic and nor did they reach their home town. They died in between their working place and their home; somewhere in middle, where they have no one to identify them.

Lock down 4.0 began in continuity, my Mumbai was still in red zone.

The mid of month May, seemed worse. The government efforts were constantly seen and felt .

The beds were increased. In my hospital, I saw many patients getting discharged and returning home and also saw patients dying. Anyways, empty beds were replaced sooner by new patients.

The government started Shramik trains. Various buses travelling for migrants began between states. And now during bus travelling I started seeing the long queue of people waiting for their turn to complete the paper formalities and go home. For a day liquor shop were opened, let me tell you the queue for this was longer (really started in one end of one road ,twisted with turns in the road and ended in a liquor shop) than the migrant travelling home.

As days passed by, I still saw migrants queue getting longer and longer, I saw people with their families standing in queue, some were carrying the little ones on shoulder and some were making them sit or lean on the trolley bags. Just realized may be our Mumbai is full of migrants. My Mumbai gives opportunity to anyone who comes here. I hardly know people who are original inhabitants of Mumbai, there are people from interior Maharashtra, then we have from people from other states like Patels, Sharmas, Kapoors, Iyers, etc. The only difference between these migrants and us is just the fact : possession of  domicile…maybe ….

Buying essential commodities with social distancing and long queue was a curse, that too with time limits for shops that are selling essential commodities. Thus, conclusively people were afraid and hence precautions were followed. Although the people were doing whatever they could do, this disease was still spreading. 

News of border tensions were an add on to the existing troubles.…

Recently saw a video by media personnel showing how an infant was playing around his dead mother’s corpse in a railway station platform. It might gain someone fame, but doesn’t that show how much humanity we have already lost?

Blood-banks were and are running out of stock. Encouragement of the volunteer blood donors is required. Blood camps were and are conducted with all the necessary precautions. Kindly donate blood. Money can't replace blood, only blood can replace blood!

These jolting feelings of mine as I write down, may be due to closer view to the world we live in…., to which I never paid any heed before.

Me, my family, my books and my work – were all I knew before entering this phase of life. 

So much of suffering around me, so much of fear to live with…

Maybe it's the way of life teaches us. I can now relate to wiser Buddha’s preaching’s: “The Noble Truth of suffering (Dukkha) is - Birth is suffering; aging is suffering; sickness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the pleasant is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering – in brief, the aggregates of attachment are suffering.”

Things have changed a lot for me. All I saw this month was:

“Pandemic claiming lives

‘Migrant worker’s woes

Common man’s miseries.

and Suffering around me”