Journey from staying positive to making ends meet…

Stay positive, think positive, be positive is the guru mantra every motivational speaker sold no end till end 2019. Come 2020, everything changed, all predictions went haywire, all analysis of ‘Where you see yourself in 2020 and beyond’ went totally wrong, Ms Corona changed mindsets in no time.

The ‘stay positive’ team has not given up (How can they? Advocates of ‘Stay positive’ cannot and should not) and is competing closely with the ‘stay indoors’ preachers in occupation of the social media space. Good for them, both have a job to do and a family to feed.

The population at large is confused whether to stay positive or stay indoor to stay negative (Corona negative). Stay indoor, you have high chances of losing your source of income (unless you are a government servant or a big business tycoon), venture out and Ms Corona waits to hug and kiss. While the stay positive preaching may keep the upper middle class entertained for some more time, but no amount of lecturing can instill positivity in the mind possessed with the fear of uncertain future.  How can a daily wager or even a middle-class family man totally dependent on a private company or a middle-class self-employed businessman stay home for four months and stay positive? Food is not an issue, people will manage, but how about the pending school fee, the stuck college admissions, the payment of hospital treatments, the home loan instalments. How long will the waivers help, finally payments have to be made?

The savings are dwindling, people have learnt to live with the least, desires have been put on back-burner, needs are being barely met. Staying indoors will make things worse.

The slogan must change from ‘stay indoors’ to ‘stay safe’. The earning members in the family have to move out, practice discipline and get back to work. The old, sick and kids can stay indoors. The News Channels got to change their narrative, get more imaginative and sensitive. Daily display of increasing number of patients does good to none. More absurd is comparisons being done between cases in different countries, each country has its own dynamics. Grow up, give up this act of making money from body bag counts.

We got to prepare to live with the virus, improve the medical support system and enforce social behaviour to deal with it. Concentrate on the recovery and lowering the fatality rates and not on the number of positive cases.

“Fear will not put an end to the pandemic; discipline is the only answer”