In January PM came on TV.to address us.He has grown a long snowy white beard making him look like Bernard Shaw or Tagoreor Aurobindo Gosh..I hope he gets back to his trimmed beard days .He looks sad in that flowing white beard and flowing uncut hair.[dirty Chinese] unlike his smart confident look earlier on with a good hair cut and trimmed French beard.
He was launching the vaccination first for the Doctors and health workers and then for us in March.He was in tears when he recounted the sacrifices made by Doctors and health workers whilst combating the Corona ,moving me also to tears.
In papers after two days the news came that there was very poor response to vaccination in Tamilnadu .Doctors and nurses went on leave so as to avoid vaccination!
I couldn't beleive it .I became furious when this trend continued for weeks!Whist the illiterate and lesser educated health workers up North were getting vaccinated the highly rational, scientific and educated Periyaar's children were dodging vaccine.Wasn't Chennai and Tamilnadu the most popular location for medical tourism in India and from foreign countries as well?If they avoid vaccine how would patients trust them?What sort of message were they sending,?That the vaccination lacks data and hurried and hence not to be trusted?
Epidemoligists, virologists and the head of AIIMS were clearly explaining on tv that vaccinations were safe and they were made within record time viz 10 months as against the usual 10 years because there is world wide colloboration on all fields like research, raw materials, survey,sample etc with all beauracratic hurdles swiftly cleared , as the times were witnessing a pandemic.Those experts also made it clear that any adverse reaction would be only within half an hour of taking the vaccine and that could be tackled since innoculation was arranged only in hospitals.
I felt ashamed of these highly educated Tamiliyans .I felt that I was being insulted .They had hurt me with their obstinacy .I couldn't stomach doctors dodging vaccine.I couldn't believe it.How ever there are exceptions Our family doctors took it and I was glad to hear it.
The silver lining is that when vaccination was announced for 60 + in March the opposition leader then as well as the then CM , took it and beamed it on TV advising people to take it .They restored my pride and made me sigh with relief..
Soon I stopped fuming over Tamiliyan doctors for denting my pride .Ok my mother tongue is Tamil but it s at the hands of Tamiliyans I have faced maximum harrassment starting from my KG classes.
When we as kids would return home walking the distance from school ,suddenly a swarm of kids would descend on us from nearby slum in Adayar and start hitting us .We would try and shield ourselves ,hit them and run as fast we could to our houses.This was a regular farcas.
Next when i was joined in a primary convent school in IIT campus the dark Miss 'es [converted Christians]would constantly pick on me at the way I dressed , spoke ,ate ,studied the whole of 2 years I studied there.
Then in my early teens when I outgrew my younger Tamil friends[Non brahmins] and joined my age group North Iindian girls these Tamil girls who were still kids would band together and follow me chanting abuses against me in the Govt quarters we were residing in Hyderabad.May be they were furious that i had deserted them.This went for years and I would just ignore them.
Next in Delhi when I was joined a school run by Tamiliyans the boys all non brahmin Tamiliyans would band together as a big group and keep on ragging me calling me abusive and degrading names .I ignored this also .though it went on through out my 10 th and 11 th classes.I didn't complain about it in the school nor at home.When board results came most of my harrassers failed or just made it whilst I came first in the school and got a rank in the state merit list with scholarship for graduate studies.That shut them up and made some of them to make friendly overtures shamefacedly.It was too late as any how we were all leaving school.
Now back in Chennai the ragging i was subject to from 2012 onwards beats all of them down.It was and is Mega!In this harrassment there were not only Non Brahmins and scheduled castes but also Muslims, Brahmins and Christians.All Tamiliyans.!Everywhere i looked persons whether from persons known to me in these flats itself or from strangers on the road or train or bus or in the park or in the beach or temple or functions or shops from all theses communities would glare at me in a hostile manner spit on the road '.Neighbours would thump and kick my ceiling when i was blogging.
This time too i decided as usual to ignore it but complain about it in my blog Sujataism .And I did.It was of no avail.I was just another blogger who asked for it.
It was only as late as 2016 that i realised that I should reveal my lineage.in my profile and I did.Had i revealed my lineage when I first started to blog in 2008 'maybe' I wouldn't have had such painful treatments in 2012 and 2014 followed by groupstalking and ostrasication.Maybe.
It is not that i have a criminal past or non entity status to hide ,in fact I have a good past and a noble lineage .I saw many people never revealing even their names in their blogs who were scared to do so.I held back because I didnot want scare away the few viewers I had .I also wanted to test my individual capacity .and in the rush of things I just forgot about it.
So having received so much ragging teasing harrassment by Tamiliyans [Up north i was not ragged in packs by N.Indians it was Tamiliyans who were ragging me there.] why should i care about them who have no pride in me and fume over them for insulting Tamil pride by their obstinacy,ignorance and prejudises.?
So i dropped it and started calculating the date of my vaccination .
There are 30 crore seniors! Oof!The rate of vaccination per day then was very low, scarcely 2 or 3 lakhs all over India.
Even after seeing hesitation of well educated people I assumed that at least 20 crore 60+ would register on Cowin and I felt greatly dampened .What if Cowin regn was first cum first service basis.I would be left far behind for not having nimble fingers.
At the rate of vaccinations done then , I calculated my turn to come after 18 months.That would be September 2022,if I survived.It amused me when the Govt insisted that 30 crore seniors would be vaccinated by September 21!
As per my calculations based on rate of vaccination per day , I was sure that I was in for along long wait so I started to get angry over Govt's control over vaccine.
Why can't it it be made available to Chemists?Why shouldn't I ask Medical labs workers who come to test my sugar at home give me this vaccination at home itself?If I can pay 3000 Rs per blood test once in two months would I shirk spending that much and even more for the much needed vaccine? Why shouldnt private hospitals , companies etc be free to purchase vaccines and make home or apartment visits ?An ambulance can be stationed to tackle adverse reaction if any.
What is this Cowin?Are 60 year old's adept in apps?Why burden us with this digital or net mania?Why can't the officials or those incharge at vaccination centres make a entry in aregister after seeing our identification and allow us to have our innoculation.
Doesn't the Govt trust its citizens that it insists on Net Or do they want statistics?Then those making entry in register books can enter it in the computer.Thus i was thinking, dejected at the prospect of not getting a jab quickly.
Then came the January 26 th horror that made me nearly to sob .The scaling of the flag post that PM's down the line since Independance have hoisted our flag.That monkey that ape committed the worst sacrilege .Why didn't the police stop him?At least with water cannons?As he kept scaling and skidding till he reached the top I kept hoping that some policeman would pull him down or thwart his attempts by using a helicopter..It didn't happen.When he took away our flag and planted some other flag I felt so totally violated that i closed my eyes and hid my face in shame with my hands ,unable to digest it.
I wasn't much bothered about the Redfort being over run by this mob.It has seen plenty of violence and bloodshed in the past .It is time that flag hoisting on Independance day is shifted to a pleasanter place like a garden.
By February the fear of Corona had nearly evaporated .The Govt declared 'we are pandemic free 'and I greeted this news with joy.
We patted our backs.'We Indians have built in immunity. since we have lived through scores of epidemics down the ages .The dirt around us to which we are so used since birth also has immunised us.where as in Western nations and US people were dying because of super cleanliness.And our food full of spices is another factor.The pepper , jeera , in our Rasam which we take daily kills that wretch when it tries to lodge in the throat.We have beaten it and driven it out.It has also got scared of our crowds and so on.
I saw busses plying with full capacity during my morning walks.Though I was a bit hesitant we even attended a wedding .All were moving around happily without masks.
Suddenly in the middle of Feb it was decided that we visit Tirumala for a special darshan .for which one has to pay 10,000 Rs .This would allow us to very near the sanctum.It was not my decision as i wanted to move out to crowded places only after vaccination.Any way I complied.
During lockdown svbc channel was showing Tirumala .There wasnt a single person .It twisted to see this temple thus .There were minimum 50,000 devotees every day that it would always be a sea faces .I felt sorry for Srinivasar .He must be missing his devotees , thier ferverent prayers and the chant of Govinda Govinda ripping through the air and reveberating this valley by dashing off against the hills sorrounding it.I heard that leopards and bears were regular visitors in and around the temple in those days .They had Srinivasar all to themselves.Lucky beasts.Evey dog has its day.
There are hundreds of Vishnu and other deities temples in Tamilnadu that are bigger but do not draw this crowd .Srinivasar has this fame that if one prays for something and promises to pay for the results in any manner ,viz tonsuring head , walking up the steps ,so on, they are sure to get it.It has worked over the centuries hence this temple sees so much crowd.Even Krishna Deva raya the 15 th cent king would shower Srinivasar with land,gold and money after each victory in his battles .He must have prayed for victory .
I stepped into the tourist car with trepidation spraying my seat etc with disinfectants. We stopped at a hotel for breakfast Washes hands before and after,Then to loo an unavoidable place for diabetics Again sprayed my hand with a pocket size sanitiser.Several people around.All were cool and normal.Only I was cautious.The papers were still giving numbers of Covid patients .Though very less, what if by chance viz my bad luck I happen to come across one of them and contract the disease?It is a possibility. Reached Trichanur .Again needed the loo My husband pointed to a public toilet saying that they were clean It was. I used it.
When I came out I told myself drop this fear .No one is fearing except me.So I very casually entered the Temple holding the rope held by many before me, jostled with the crowd for darshan, bent down on the ground in obseice my hands and forehead touching the ground trampled by the crowd of devotees.Did what every one was doing.Joined the crowd.
Went up to the hills.I disinfected the bed, door ,handle etc in the ashram.My husband laughed at me.Then we proceeded towards smaller temples.There was ahuge crowd on the steps leading to them.One chap coughed near me.I thought Oh my god I had it.Any way I would know it in 2-4 days time so forget it and enjoy the moment.
Next day reached the queue at 5 AM after bathing etc.I was in for a shock.The RS 10,000 per head special darshan queue was serpentine!There were nearly 2000 people.Most were of our age and well to do.I thought This is not aVIP darshan .The queue is as long as RS 300 ticket , the ordinary darshan queue.A small temple priests observation came to mind'last week there were more than 3000 at this q'.
I was amazed at the pull of Srinivasar.All those standing patiently in the line were seniors who must be having energy sapping life style diseases like BP , sugar etc leading a comfortable life but are up in this cold ,have bathed and were standing for hours in a queue for a darshan!
The q moved slowly .We were showered with disinfectant near the gate.Hardly a few seconds were allowed near the sanctum.The rude Jargandi viz Move Move by security guards was substituted by a muted Jargandi by volunteers.That was the only difference .
How many ever times one visits this temple the magical moment of seeing the diamond studded gold crown and the face of Srinivasar with thick white Thirumun when He suddenly appears into view at the bend near Garuda's sannidhi is renewed freshly every time .Nothing can match it.
Then back to Chennai with stops at hotels.After leading a extremely hygenic life for nearly 11 months , all the precautions went for a toss in this trip .I stopped sanitising my hands after awhile.
I waited for 4 days .No fever. No cold.wow! So we made it .We beat the Corona or we were lucky.
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