No need of ridiculing people who clanged utensils

Since the COVID-19 pandemic is now commonly viewed as a war against mankind, I stopped for a moment to draw the comparisons to historical wars. I found myself remembering that wars are fought on many fronts (we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills -Winston Churchill). That made me wonder if we were forgetting to address one front where the war can be won without people actually going to the battlefield.

My Facebook timeline is currently filled with people ridiculing those who went out and banged their utensils to drive away the virus.

In my belief, ridicule has rarely brought about change in times of utter desperation. Comedians can resort to sarcasm. But the entire educated lots are not comedians. It does not take a brilliant observational comic to understand that people are tensed and do not know what to do. Their intentions were noble, howsoever, we view their actions.

Some of us have better access to news and guidelines than others. Many others can make no sense out of enemy they face. Such disparities in knowledge are inevitable and they are not matters of mockery. Our character is not tested in recording an ignorant man bleating his drums to ward off the ‘evil virus’ but in making the same man understand (or trying to do so) that the virus wouldn’t be driven away by such measures.

Our patience is not tested in branding our fellow men as ‘idiots’ but in denouncing those who ridicule them for their ignorance.

Not everyone is a doctor or nurse or a first responder, but many are well informed enough to make sense of the Do’s and Don’ts of the situation. Let us fight ignorance with education and not with ridicule.

Dr Anirban Dutta,

Nalbari, Assam