The lighter and sad sides of Lockdown

The lighter and sad sides of Lockdown

A.Q. Siddiqui

Lockdown has forced many within 4-walls for most of time, almost everywhere, except few affluent and richest who are holidaying in their farm houses and resorts. How did they reach there is any body’s guess? Daily updates on social media and newspapers have plenty of good and bad stories about lockdown. And now here is lockdown-3.

Barbers are doing home service. They are knocking door to door and asking if someone needs a haircut? One barber is claiming to have all sanitized tools. A Delhi man sent his selfie to a friend showing that he used barber’s home service and did clean shave his head, “You never know how long the lockdown will go on, so better to follow Anupam Kher Ji and save money.”

A social post said after losing case in UK high court, Vijay Mallya has abandoned the idea for appealing to UK Supreme Court and he is seriously contemplating to move to India. Prevention is better than cure. Safer haven for him.He knows that there are no reports of COVID-19 in Indian jails. And he can plan his own comfortin a personal cell. It will be less expensive, more comfortable and no risk.

But luck is not in favor of Bollywood singer Sonu Nigam. Remember what he tweeted in 2017? That his sleep is disturbed everyday with early morning Azaan from a neighborhood mosque. Everyone was surprised, including actor Raza Murad, that how come he was disturbed in the tranquility of his airconditioned bedroom. The singer in controversy, is in news again. This time the luck is really not in his favor.

He is forced to stay back in Dubai due UAE lockdown. An Islamic country where all 5-times Azaan (call for prayer) is sounded on loudspeakers. During eerie silence of lockdown, only call for prayer is loudly heard all over Middle East. No wonder, before anybody pull his leg, Sonu Nigam has deleted his twitter account. But fact remains that now he is hearing Azaan 5-times a day and much louder than what he heard in his bedroom in Mumbai. Here we have a lesson that teaches never indulge too much in something that really does not matter to you. The fate often corners such a person.

Much is said about increase in domestic violence. Where men are frequently targeting anger missiles on helpless wives. But nobody has said a word about oppressed husbands at the hands of tyrant wives. There are many men who only escape such wives during working hours. Now they are also at home and bearing all cannon fires 24 hours. Videos of wives yelling at husbands and dumping small kids in their laps are seen in social media.

There are more instances of lighter side of Lockdown but sadly, these Lockdowns are hardest time of life for thousands of poor who have no livelihood, no money in hand, no food. There are so many sad videos in social media that you will wonder do we still have a humanitarian concept among us?  

You are not a human being if your heart will not cry out when you look at the pictures of poor people searching for discarded vegetables in a garbage spot, migrant workers walking miles in hot weather with their meager belongings on their heads. I wish someone take a bunch of money and go on distributing them so they can buy food of their choice at least for a day. They are not beggars. They are most hard-working people. Let experts moot plans for resuming construction and small industries’ work.

The social media also has a heart-rending viral video of a political leader coming out of his air-conditioned bungalow and yelling at a vegetable vendor, “Do not come in this locality again.” Even he did not have a heart to see that a small boy is pulling the cart for his father. How much they make for the whole day parading in different localities?  My advice to this MLA, be it known to you that Creator for you and that vegetable vendor is same. And Creator was watching how you oppressed an innocent person. Think in line of your faith what if the Creator decides that in next birth you will be the vegetable vendor and he will be in your place?