We were equipped to fight the virus!

Only if we inherited a few habits!

Our religion and traditions have been the core of our being for a very long time. Science swooped in and started adding rationality to it.

It answered all the ‘WHYs’.

The questions are as many as the number of traditions and age-old customs every house has. Science is here to simply justify it all!

For this blog, I pick up an observation from my childhood, which some may relate too.

My maternal grandparents live in a town called Roorkee, the famous IIT spot.

My summer vacations meant a trip to meet them! I was always so super duper happy to head there.

The first time I entered their home, I noticed something peculiar. Something that is a rear sight in the city.

A weird mechanical thing with a handle on one side and tap on the other. Yes, I am talking about the Handpump! (Hey, I was a kid then)

Now please do not wander away to the thoughts of Sunny Deol’s dialogues. (I did though! Guilty!)

Curious me, I went straight to my mom. Remember her? The science teacher and my source of information and inspiration.

She told me something so simple, that now looking back makes me realise, had we kept up with this one little habit, and ensured every house followed it, we would have saved a lot many cases that Corona has already caused in India. Or maybe even prevented the very first case.

She told me — every home in the town has a provision for a handpump or a bucket of water in their aangan (balcony). They wash their feet and hands before they enter their home. This helps to keep all the dirt, bacteria, and negativity out while making the person feel refreshed.

This was compulsory. I saw all the neighbours do it too.

They believed that when entering the house, all the mud in their slippers, dirt in their hands for all that they may have touched on the way, should all be left outside.

When they enter their homes they should feel fresh and be able to hug their kids without the risk of passing on any bacteria.

They, in a simple manner, wash away all the bacteria and virus that they could have carried into their homes.

Guess they knew 2020 would hit an all-time low in health and this is the only thing that could prevent so much of the disaster.

I don’t see this happening in the city though. City people do make sure to clean up when they get home. But between the entry and the washroom, they have pet their dogs, hugged their kids, checked on their spouse and tasted the food still cooking on the stove.

This ONE SMALL HABIT of our elders was enough to keep the Corona at bay.

Is this not what we are doing right now? Washing hands every now and then.

As we moved to cities, focussed on better education, worked on getting fatter paying jobs, we suddenly had no time for the smaller habits which were so very necessary. Basic in fact.

Freshen up before you touch your kids or anything in the home and have our shoes opened outside the house. That’s it.

Now that the coronavirus has made us aware of the same, we are sanitizing every hour, bathing the moment we get home from grocery shopping, taking all precautions and going paranoid with it.

Our elders did this at the very entry of their house. EVERDAY!

Shouldn’t we too?

Let’s pledge to make this a habit, post-corona too. A mere 15 mins, that can save your entire family and you, from not just deadly corona’s but also the flu.