By Shruti Pushkarna
This time last year, there was hope that the new year would be somewhat better than the ‘lockdown’ year. People thought things would change miraculously at the dawn of January 1, 2021. Sadly, it was only meant to get worse. India was hit by a worse second wave, losing numerous lives to the deadly virus.
This year there isn’t any pretense. Going by the latest news reports of rising coronavirus cases and the new Omicron variant infecting people at a ghastly rate, so far there are no indications of a better 2022.
Sigh.
Looking at the year gone by, it seems as if once again we are standing at the helm of where things began. In February 2021, fears of another wave were rising despite the accelerated vaccination drives across the country. And here are we are again. A third wave now.
Ending and starting on a similar (dreary) note, seems like this year was a total washout. Perhaps best classified as ‘The Year That Wasn’t’.
The Top 10 words that defined 2021 were:
1. Vaxxed- Social media was viral with selfies after taking first and second jabs
2. Oxygen- or the lack of it! It was a battle for air at the end of the day
3. Anti-viral- Drugs like Fabiflu were going off the market for thousands of rupees. Little did we know if they helped at all
4. Plasma therapy- Donors were being lined up by families in the hope that patients could benefit from a treatment which was eventually scrapped by medical experts
5. Variant- Delta was the D-word, if you had it, you were doomed
6. HDU- Patients recited horror stories from their time inside a High Dependency Unit in hospitals
7. Black fungus- Mucormycosis, a serious fungal infection that was presumably a fallout of steroid overdose
8. Medrol- Hardly anyone with a severe Covid infection went without a prescription of this steroid. Many developed serious conditions from overuse
9. Anti-vaxxers- Those who haven’t yet taken the first shot, at a time when boosters are due
10. Mass graves- The summer of 2021 witnessed thousands of bodies cremated/buried without a proper closure for their family members
It was a year of survival. Not just battling death and illness through most quarters but also surviving insensitivity, bordering on apathy. Personally, I struggled with my health, job and emotional sanity. It was tough to be playing against so many odds. But as they say, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. I learned to sail through, it was the greatest test in resilience.
A trait that so far, I only observed in the people I work with. Persons with disabilities fight with several adversities, both physical and mental, to survive in a society which is bereft of equality. And yet they sustain and thrive somehow. Since the start of the pandemic, the general population has been given lessons in adjustment, patience, survival, accommodation, things that come naturally to the disabled community. With tables being turned on the majority, one hoped that the world would become more empathetic. Especially when an absolute cliché, ‘one when door closes another opens’, became a personal reality for many.
Despite aligning our ways of living to a ‘new normal’ which had immense potential to be more inclusive, the disabled population remained invisible for the most part.
Vaccination drives sidelined the vulnerable groups, mindless of their specific needs and challenges.
Workplaces resumed operations without considering the travelling issues faced by persons with disabilities, in a socially distanced scenario.
Olympic champions were cheered and Paralympians merely made it to the national headlines, despite a historic tally.
Many Covid survivors experienced invisible disabilities and chronic conditions, and yet no sign of empathy for the 15 per cent global population.
Collectively bracing through a year ridden with morbidities and economic slumps, sections of society failed to negate their differences. Instead, we saw a dark, selfish side of human existence. From hoarding medicines and essentials, to fighting for hospital beds and oxygen, people were erroneously engaged in self-care. Even in death, they were seen bargaining for a ‘better’ spot for incineration. If sickness of such magnitude didn’t help us equate our fears and troubles, one wonders what will.
Recently, I started reading this book on honing the art of storytelling. Before getting down to the tips and techniques, the author talks about the power of narrating stories with respect to breaking down feelings, sharing pain and trivializing the whole ‘victim’ psychology. Just by a mere act of filtering emotions through words, we can step aside from the problem that seems so big in our heads, otherwise. Working in the disability sector, I have realized the need to focus on solutions rather than aggrandising the problems.
The preamble also got me thinking of what the Dalai Lama once said, “The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.”
Going into another year of possible lockdown, disease and misery, we need to be mindful of equal opportunities and protection for all, included the disabled. Let the defining words of 2022 be, ‘equity, equality, equanimity’.
Shruti Pushkarna is a former journalist who now works as a programmes and media specialist for the inclusion of persons with disabilities. Shruti writes for MxMIndia every other Thursday. Her views here are personal. She can be reached via Twitter at @shrutipushkarna
The yearend is right at the corner. 2022 is waiting to be welcomed. It went fast like the shortened IPL season, and you never could anticipate what would happen next. Oh yes, there were trendwatchers (not analysts) fishing in the chaotic world trying to make some sense of it. They knew everyone was for themselves and that predicting a trend was becoming dangerous. And even if one did pick the right trend, predicting when it would hit the shore and with what capacity was challenging. Predicting a typhoon and tornado was decidedly more straightforward.