It was lockdown 1.0, and the panic was high. Like always, people worried more about their future than the present. The sense of helplessness of an unknown future was haunting them badly. They knew one thing was right and it was the lockdown 1.0 for 21 days.
People followed it sincerely giving open hearts to the Government, who were ruling them. They clapped when asked to clap and lit candles when asked to light the candles. They surrendered to what we can call a good start to a bad pandemic.
The excellent start would have been great if the lockdown had focussed just on holding people inside their homes and nothing else. It was hardly a day or two into the lockdown; various WhatsApp theories began to float. My favourite was that more people would die out of hunger than that of COVID. I could not stop smiling at it. It was hardly a few days into the lockdown; starvation became the centre point of discussion and not the virus.
By all means, I believe in humans more than the virus. Humans can save his fellow beings from starvation, but no one can protect you from the virus. If not any human, the Govt should have put the onus on itself to make sure no one dies of hunger. I am sure it would cost just a fraction of that 20 lakh crore stimulus.
By the way, it was the PSU banks who are giving that 20 lakh Crores and the end recipient are not the ones dying of hunger, but the pot-bellied businessmen who might have a dry season for some time to come.
Hardly a week into the first lockdown, the finance minister takes up the stage with her first appearance with her series of fiscal stimulus. In a day or two, she revisits with furthermore incentive. It seemed they panicked more than the people. It seemed to me that the panic was in store for the stock market than anything else.
She came again with another dampener to the lockdown. It was 500 Rs credit to all the govt account holders. Rush seemed uncontrollable in front of the PSU banks, which suddenly appeared to be an essential activity during these lockdown days. I wonder what these five hundred rupees can get them in these lockdown days.
I am a great believer in our Government, but I felt let down by these panic measures. The Government needs to do one thing at a time and do it entirely, unlike its people who have the habit of messing under panic. I know there were a lot of factors which were beyond the Government's control, especially in a country called the United Nations of India. The best mode of thinking is to stay away from the clutter and think or else one might end up thinking just like the clutter.
Generally in any field or circumstance, the winner is not the one who takes on the pressure but the ones who lives above it.
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