Page 10 - E- Connect 2021

The realm

of

(In)sanity

Dr Parikshit Mahankal- Assistant Professor, IMDR

oday, as I sit down to pen this article, I still continue to gather for religious prayers,
am reminded of a quote from The Movie: festivals etc.
FACULTY ARTICLES
Batman: The Dark Knight, in which the
Tlegendary Heath Ledger, who essayed How will our own countrymen left stranded
the role of The Joker tells Batman, “Madness, is
just like gravity, all it takes is a little push” in many parts of the country safely make it
home? Then came the sad story of some
families of migrants continuously walking on
train tracks, slept on it in exhaustion overnight
and 16 of them were run over.

Slowly, the country started responding. Funds
were setup to help the needy in this hour of
difficulty and we started engaging ourselves
in mundane, meaningless activities which at
that point of time served as a great medium
for keeping ourselves together.

For a little time over a year, that is what we are
living with, a new “normal”. When the Wuhan
virus popularly known as the Covid-19 was
declared a pandemic by WHO, it resulted in
the Government of India launching a nation-
wide lockdown on 23rd March 2020.

As a result, schools, colleges, hostels,
eateries, hotels, buses, trains all shut down
in a matter of hours. The worst affected were
the migrants, who in the hope of a better life
had migrated to other states/cities. They were
left with a Hobson’s choice of staying on and
risking starvation or taking the long walk back
home with the risk of dying on the way.

We all went into a mixture of emotions, joy
of being home, relieved that we were not
affected/infected and also a bit of helplessness
and at times apathy as to how could people
be so casual, how could we be safe if people
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2021-2021