By Dr.Prasenjit Sen
The awakening call, “Arise, Awake and stop not till the goal is reached” by Swami Vivekananda had its magic effect in the mind of the youth at the beginning of the twentieth century. The country was in slumber, rose to a state of new consciousness and indeed the goal was reached in achieving the Independence of the country.
Today, humanity is going through a crisis. Never before had such a helpless situation been faced. In the past the nations have fought singly or unitedly against various diseases, epidemics (scourge) and many have been eradicated from the face of the earth. Today, all are helpless before the blight novo Coronavirus or COVID-19. There is no known cure, no prevention like a vaccine, only home isolation is the measure for avoiding the invisible attack.
The world is one family or Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is the guiding principle of today. Thus, there is unprecedented cooperation among the nations to help humanity remain healthy. When it was known that hydrochloroquinine may help coronavirus victims recover, India galloped up the production and started sending it in huge quantities to so many countries without caring for the cost of the product or the logistics of delivery.
The virus has never before shown its traces on the surface of the earth – neither on human nor on animal bodies. There are guesses, conjectures and surmises, but no concrete proof as to how it appeared with such a brute-force capability to travel across land, sea and air to cities, countries and continents. Related to any issues concerning human health, it is a gross mistake (should be called a crime) to suppress data or to fudge or distort them. Data should be transparent.
The excellent spirit of courage and cooperation by the people of India has been manifested by so many acts by individual and team work. Our national carrier Air India operated by the dedicated crew and rescued the hundreds of Indian stranded in foreign countries, which were the Hotspots of the coronavirus without caring the risk of themselves getting infected.
They made several sorties to all possible places, where the Indian citizens were huddled up at the airports with hardly any support from the host country. And what a human touch they received on arrival! The medical checks and support provided by overworked personnel under pressure were exemplary. The hospitals, doctors and the nursing staff all are today ‘Arisen’ to battle this situation.
To arrest the vicious spread of the virus, the measures taken by Government of India to enforce ‘lockdown’ are unavoidable. It is the only remedy to arrest the spread of the disease. However, the distress of the millions as a result of this lockdown is a major concern. Fortunately, spontaneously hundreds of organizations have ‘Arisen’ to this situation and come forward to help.
We shall definitely emerge victorious against this menace, because we are Awakened and Arisen to make our country Coronavirus free.