Covid 19, Lockdown & Bangladesh
The pandemic has harshly impacted the downtrodden
Lockdown has had a profound impact globally but the effect on the majority of the people of Bangladesh is existential. At times like these, when my mind is brimming with thoughts and worries I find myself reaching out to Uncle.
Uncle has been my friend, mentor and guru since childhood. Although he was originally one of my father’s closest friends, his relationship with me probably has now surpassed that. Uncle’s love of philosophy, history and literature as well as our mutual love of cricket has resulted in fascinating hours of conversations for more than 35 years. Uncle is the proverbial white bearded wise man, although he is way too cosmopolitan to keep a beard!
I shared the an article with Uncle from the leading Bangladeshi English language daily, The Daily Star* which depicts the stories of some ordinary Dhaka dwellers who are unable to feed their families.
Uncle’s poignant response:
“Baba Raihan,
Thank you for sending the article from The Daily Star.
It is thought provoking, depicting a grim future awaiting us. T S Eliot wrote ‘April is the cruellest month’ in The Waste Land. He will be proven wrong this time. We are not sure what is in store for us. We are dead sure we are up against the deadliest enemy of our lifetime. It is almost invincible, indestructible, intractable. We are appallingly ill-equipped, ill-informed and blissfully unaware of the potential catastrophe that is staring us in our face. Any crisis unravels the ghoulish nature of our people. Those who trade on the miseries of common people get inflated both literally and metaphorically in these trying times.
Eliot in the same poem prophetically said:
‘I will show you fear in a handful of dust’
This time around even a grain of sand with the potential of destroying you and I is gnawing at us.”
25-April-2020
It is an unprecedentedly grim time, mentally exhausting and physically redundant. However, in these worst of times I have found solace in my Conversations with Uncle.
