It is a strange world out there. Some call it COVID, as if it is telling us to VIDu (விடு) everything that is co- (i.e. joint, together), or to stay inside the COsy COve that is your VEEDu (வீடு). Some call it Corona, because it has undeniably caused हम सब का-रोना, and some others say इसी लिए social distancing करो ना. Whatever we call it, it isn't hard to hazard a hunch that the world is going to remain hazardous for some more time now.
COVID-19 is often compared with the pandemic of 1918 and quarantine life with World War days. However, what sets the COVID-19 pandemic apart from these two historic crises is a great invention called the internet that supposedly saves us from social isolation that our grandparents or great grandparents might have faced back then. While one cannot deny the role the internet plays in keeping us informed and up to date, one also cannot ignore the inordinately discordant pieces of information we are inundated with every single day via social media and news sources, both legitimate and semi-legitimate. Opinions are frequently passed as facts as they get heavily circulated on Whatsapp. फेंकी हुई disinformation hardly gets called out as फेक news as folks gleefully share their daily quotas of inaccuracies with each other. After all, a little bit of मसाला causes no harm, they say. Per contra, we have constantly remind ourselves that distorted truth is worse than a lie. Alternative facts help no one, and are in fact very dangerous. Perhaps more dangerous than what COVID ஐயா originally planned for us when he decided to be our बिन बुलाया मेहमान.
Some food for thought.
COVID-19 is often compared with the pandemic of 1918 and quarantine life with World War days. However, what sets the COVID-19 pandemic apart from these two historic crises is a great invention called the internet that supposedly saves us from social isolation that our grandparents or great grandparents might have faced back then. While one cannot deny the role the internet plays in keeping us informed and up to date, one also cannot ignore the inordinately discordant pieces of information we are inundated with every single day via social media and news sources, both legitimate and semi-legitimate. Opinions are frequently passed as facts as they get heavily circulated on Whatsapp. फेंकी हुई disinformation hardly gets called out as फेक news as folks gleefully share their daily quotas of inaccuracies with each other. After all, a little bit of मसाला causes no harm, they say. Per contra, we have constantly remind ourselves that distorted truth is worse than a lie. Alternative facts help no one, and are in fact very dangerous. Perhaps more dangerous than what COVID ஐயா originally planned for us when he decided to be our बिन बुलाया मेहमान.
Some food for thought.
But the internet has certainly been a boon to keep in touch and even perform activities that would have been otherwise impossible in quarantine times.
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