BE RAPUNZEL
By: Nisha Bhatele
Tags: Covid Diaries, Coronavirus, Lockdown, Lockdown In India

BE RAPUNZEL

There shouldn’t be any kind of dilemma that we won’t get caught up with COVID-19. We are having a second wave of Covid-19 in India, and many people are still unaware of or taking it as a joke. More than 20% of global cases have been reported from India. However, this number is not going to stop anytime soon. Although the recovery rate is quite high compared to the death rate, that shouldn’t make us any less worry about it. There have been 1.4 million deaths so far globally and the rate is still increasing at a very high pace. In India alone, 140 thousand people have died and this number is not a joke.

I have heard people saying even in my own family “Death comes when it comes, you can’t fool it, it will happen if meant to happen, etc, etc…that so-called dramatic line.

But when it really comes, I can guarantee you, you would have a pang of guilt with “I wish I had done that”

We are forgetting the fact that if we won’t be taking these precautions, and by precautions, I mean the most popular word right now #quarantining ourselves. We will be damned. No?

Now you would be thinking, quarantining is nothing better if it slows down yours and the nation’s economy.

Yes. You are right. it can no longer be a choice for us. Since we all have work, not all of us can be a part of the “work from home” campaign.

So what’s left as an option that suits everybody?

You know the answer.

Precautions are better than cure.

No matter what happens, do not let your guard down when it comes to masks and sanitizing yourselves.

Without these protective tools

We would have been damned.

We are damned.

and we will be damned for the incoming days.

The death toll could have gone to billions or so as mentioned in that book’s paragraph which was going viral in the days when covid was shaping into a hazardous pandemic panicking a lot of us.

It still can reach it’s predicted number if we don’t caution ourselves.

No doubt, we are damned and in the worst way possible.

The world is us and the world is damned.

And yet, yes we are so advanced that we can outrun this disease but

we are acting more or less like cynics.

So what if it’s not reached your region yet?

So what?

Are you gonna take it lightly when more than half of the world is fighting with it and searching for an escape out of this?

Are you?

We absolutely shouldn’t wait for it to happen in our region.

If your region isn’t infected yet, you must be glad but not too glad that you don’t take primary precautions.

The world isn’t crazy to make itself quarantined in vain

There’s a reason and if you are reading this you know that reason but still, you are so involved in your eccentricity that you wanna knowingly ignore this.

I am shocked Why? and How?

Of course, there is a lack of awareness especially in developing nations like India.

India is gonna have these issues for now.

And we can’t blame the people who never went to schools or never heard about things going on overseas.

They don’t care unless they are affected and their livelihood is at stake.

We can’t blame them because they are brought up like this.

But what about you?

What about the fact that you are a part of this youth who is educated and literate enough to act wisely at times like this?

You are the youth

Make yourself responsible

Have this responsibility to act like one

Don’t be an asshole

It’s your world

Don’t ruin it.

Save it.

Why should Greta be the only one concerned about the climate?

For what reasons she dealt with the occurring changes this way and we didn’t?

She still is continuously putting in the midst of her efforts of this pandemic.

She is a teenager.

She has all the rights to go to school and to enjoy her days

but she chose something different.

She chose to be different.

She chose to be self-less.

Not that I am some scholar or something,

I haven’t done anything

And I am taking full responsibility for that.

I am responsible for not being able to convince others.

How can I expect you to get convinced when

I can’t convince my own family sometimes.

They say, “I am too much”

Well yes, I am.

Sometimes I feel I am exaggerated me

I have been called the same, many times.

I have been told to act upon rather than just talk

I agree I am just talking.

But someone told me,

if a single soul can be influenced

I won’t be a dammed soul.

Words have power

So yes, I am writing for a change

I demand change

and I am done changing myself now

I am done.

Be responsible for what you say to others

and your deeds.

Understand yourself and make others understand too.

Make them aware and alert

and start with your own family

start talking about taking days off

and sanitizers and masks all along.

Just make them aware of what we are going through

and tell them that we are in this together

Make them understand the value of their lives

and how a little carelessness can create havoc

in other’s lives as well.

Tell them it’s not selflessness to have caught up in this

It’s more of a selfish desire because

knowingly or unknowingly

you are gonna responsible for other’s life.

And how can someone live with that?

They have to understand that

they are saving a lot of lives

by saving their own for the very first time.

Make them understand

the real definition of a selfless act

Even if a single soul is ready to act differently

You are good to go.

Just make them understand.

And let me know how you do it

so I too can be a part of this change.

You don’t know what lies ahead

so make it count

Be like Rapunzel

Quarantine yourself

Quarantine isn’t just a word

It’s a need

A dire need right now.