THE REAL VIRUS

SFVID-20

By Christine Jayakaran

April 13^th, 2020

Well this is has been a weird couple of weeks right? Locked into our homes all day, social distancing (something I had never heard about before), sanitising and re-sanitising our hands and keeping our children occupied all the live long day. It's been difficult yet necessary. I for one will never take my maid or cook for granted. So much good has come off this time in the sense that I have been forced to finally learn Indian cooking (it's a work in progress but I'm not intimidated by it anymore)!

On the other hand so much of humanity’s evil has been revealed. In housing communities people’s need for self- preservation has gone up to unbearable notches. While self preservation is not a bad thing in itself, it gets offensive when it leads to outright selfishness and discrimination. I understand that we must practice isolation and distancing but treating the poor like they are contagious just because of their living conditions or their appearance is wrong especially since this pandemic was, in all fairness, spread by the middle class and upper middle class who could afford to travel abroad. I was speaking to my maid a few days before the lockdown began and she was saying how she was stopped from working in other houses because of the viral outbreak even before the government order was passed. She said with a sad smile ‘Amma, we are clean. Just because of who we are and where we come from we have been told to stay back.’

I tried explaining as best as I could in my broken Tamil that I agreed with her and that in actuality, 'she had a higher risk of catching it from us than we did of catching it from her’ - but the damage was done. She recognised discrimination as clear as day when she saw it. She didn't need a college degree or social finesse to identify it.

The past weeks it's increasingly obvious that those who are hung up on their own safety cannot look beyond the end of their nose. It is covered up expertly - under the guise of caring for others' safety in the vicinity (lol) but it's quite obvious what the motives are. I also realised during this time just how selfish I could be. I realised (okay, my husband made me realise) that I wanted things done my way, in my time within the house irrespective of how he felt about it. I felt terrible and (after a morning of dishing out the silent treatment) I finally apologised to him. My husband may have called me 'difficult' but I was being plain old fashioned 'selfish'.

It brought to my mind that the kind of selfishness each of us display is so contrary to the kind of selflessness Jesus displayed when He gave His life up for us. As we remember His sacrifice this Easter it convicts me to be more generous and selfless. We must follow the rules of engagement set before us by our leaders but we can choose to care more for others and their needs than for ourselves.

We have friends who cook extra just to drop it off with the homeless in their locality. A relative of ours, who is a brilliant cook, cooks in bulk and parcels it for her in-laws so that they have food for the whole week (my in-laws will thank me that I don't parcel my kitchen experiments to them!) My mother cooks for aged neighbours and stocks up their fridge for the week. My children collect leftover bones from our meals and feed the dogs outside our home (they want to adopt one- but I'm not that selfless). Close friends feed the homeless all around South Chennai with fresh food from restaurants. Dancer friends take free classes via zoom - teaching people different styles of dance.

Most of these things may not be pasted all over social media but they are precious acts of kindness and generosity that I believe, mirror the very heart of God.

Let's make this more personal shall we?

When we serve the poor can we do it without making them feel inferior? We could avoid sterilising our hands in front of them after they hand things over to us- we could do it once we are safely back in our homes. We could avoid air drying the vessels which they handle, in public view for them to see that we're disinfecting it- why not do it in the privacy of our backyard or balcony? Let’s use masks and gloves by all means, but can we buy extra for those who help us?

Safety and wisdom are necessary yes - but kindness and selflessness are vital for the Human soul to thrive.

During this season of lockdown and forced solitude can we look closer at ourselves and treat the virus of ‘Self’? It's a nasty bug (I call it SFVID-20) which creates a whole bunch of undesirable side effects! If treated now- it will make the whole Earth a better place beginning right from your own home! I for one, am working on being less OCD at home and and (slowly) learning to embrace the chaos.