Restaurants are open after seventy-five days!

For the middle class families, teenagers, single people, travellers, etc. one difficult part of the restraints due to the COVID 19 pandemic was the closure of the restaurants for the last seventy five days in India. 

Anna and I visited a restaurant on the first day, when they were re-opened. This picture on display in the restaurant(photo above) a was its story in a nutshell. This is a restaurant well known for its South Indian vegetarian menu. 

There were five dining at the time when we visited the restaurant. We were the fiftieth or so visitors around 6 pm since the morning. Their normal number of guests in a day would be about four hundred in a day. 

It would take several weeks for them to return to their normalcy.

The COVID 19 infection on its course of destruction on one side and the economic distress on the other side together create a synergy of despair within us. 

There are periodic distressful occasions in human history, which would redeem the history of humankind from following an aggressive path of success and social domination. There are more millionaires in the world now than history had ever known. So also more refugees, displaced people, migrants,  immigrants, economically weak, etc! It is a world of paradoxes. 

The self correction which occurs through periodic devastating events might appear to be too costly, but the longer benefits would trickle in slowly!

It is a world of sorrow in more than one way now. 

I hope it would be a turning point in human history. 

The home Minister of India who began the election journey to Bihar and West Bengal during this week began his aggressive campaign with harsh words of humiliation and accusation. It is a time when we feel wounded and shaken. His words echoed a harsh attitude and not sympathetic at all. 

One opposition leader did bring a new consciousness yesterday, when he said, 'it is not the time to canvas for votes, when people are distressed. Take care of them first..'!

Th department where I work receives about ten the telephoen calls in a day, with each family waiting for us to resume formal consultations. We can feel the the pain in their voice. It is only when we can share in the sorrow of people we become truly humane! That is the first step towards the path of recovery. To know the pain of people and rebuild lives by mutual support!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)