Day #10: Stress in the times of Lock Down...

Today is the day #5 of nationwide lock down and several people have recorded today about the kind of stress that people are subjected to. "Stress" is the unique human quality that we have inflicted upon ourselves.

A wise friend called this morning to share that "food and sex" are the stress buster activities that many not so young men are currently thinking about at home and they go to any extent for the same. From completely negating 'social distancing' to purchase their favourite food crowding in the markets to seeking over phone sexual 'help' from known women friends, men seem to be getting desperate in 'working from home'. Several friends have commented on the lock down of liquor shops and how that is leading to stress among habitual drinkers and weekend drinkers. Yoga teachers are getting requests for 'stress relief' yoga sessions because people can't handle the stress of staying at home continuously and another friend has recorded that migrant labourers provided with a place to stay and food by the authorities are now seeking to go out as they are unable to handle the stress of being taken care of. 

Late Sri. Ravindra Sharma, one of the best story tellers of India, who worked with tribal communities in central India for more than 3 decades and often combined in his stories their world view with that of the scriptures and modern challenges, once in a conversation spoke about, "what are the qualities of a home" according to Indian worldview, he said, "where the feet needs to be kept warm, the stomach delicate, head cool, where there is a visible sense of beauty and where the spaces are in such a way as to easily direct the mind towards spiritual goal". In fact in my conversation with him, he maintained that in a tribal / rural Indian traditional building of houses, the house maintenance should be such an onerous task and any house needs to be easy to upkeep. The challenge is the modern city houses don't provide for any of these qualities. 

I find it ironic when people living in such houses, often modeled on houses from other parts of the world suitable for other conditions talk proudly about adopting some practice of Indian-ness that is merely ritualistic. Being cooped up in such a space obviously will repel anyone without internal discipline and that is what we are seeing in a large scale across the country today.  While the methods adopted to address the stress currently is still rather mild, I suspect in the coming days, it is going to turn violent in some places. 

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The best news today is that the air quality in India has improved, in more than 90 cities the report indicates that the air quality has shown substantial improvement and our cities and towns are actually 'safe' for human habitat finally because and despite of the virus at the same time. For those who don't know, India has some of the most air polluted cities and towns in the world and the indo-gangetic plain has the largest concentration of worst air pollution cities. With the industrial activity, the vehicular movement and the overall emission coming down, this has lead to a situation where air is clean, sky is clear, some people have reported having sighted stars in the city skyline as well.   

Air pollution causes more than a million deaths a year in our country and studies indicate that it reduces life by at least 20 months apart from rendering people with permanent breathing challenges for life. As we know Covid-19 world over is reportedly fatal for people pre-existing respiratory challenges. Indo-Gangetic plains has  high concentration of people with respiratory challenges. Which means we have people  highly vulnerable for Covid-19, apart from being also a place with large segments of poor (many of whom are on the roads walking just now).  So, if the air has become better in this place, that is very good news just now. 

The trouble is just like the stressed humans in poorly built homes, wanting their cheap 'stress busters', we have a poorly built economic edifice which needs its 'stress busters' of polluting industries to survive and sustain itself.  So, in the middle of all the pandemic today there was also a news that the government has revoked ban on certain chemical pesticides banned already as unhealthy. 

So, let's breath in slowly and breath out even more slowly, the air is good and if   it  leads to a smile and the smile helps busting stress in a healthy manner, we join the world that  cures itself.