Where Have All the Good Times Gone?

Like a looming cloud the pandemic has taken over the country. We wake up with the usual joy in our hearts like on any other normal day. A few seconds later we realise that the pandemic is around us reminding us of our rituals of having to wash our hands with soap and water, pack the little sanitiser bottle into our pockets or pouch or handbag and having to be double masked each time we step out or meet somebody. This is only amongst those who can afford these long-term expenses. Most of the population cannot afford the luxury of carrying a little bottle of sanitiser with them or purchasing new masks. Many depend on their employers providing them with masks when entering their workplaces; however, very few places do so. 

Gazing out of the vehicle window on a trek back home one day, taking a longer route than usual, I noticed that many shops have closed and other spaces seemingly abandoned. The lively restaurants located in the nooks and corners of the Marine Drive in Colombo are mostly shut or closed for good. The Radio Channel was airing the haunting song “Where Have All Those Flowers Gone,” which was so apt watching all this sadness. Peter Seeger wrote the lyrics to this wonderful folk song which talks of how war and suffering can be cyclical in nature: girls pick flowers, men pick girls, men go to war and fill graves with their dead that gets covered with flowers. 

• The universe must stand still for awhile since it seems that it is the only way to halt the spread of the virus. The poorer nations will bear the dire consequences economically and its populations suffer

Here we are now fighting a war with an unknown enemy with the created vaccines to fight it not guaranteed to be a complete prevention from contracting the virus. The vaccines seem to have the least effect in today’s context as the enemy can mutate and it is now becoming a challenge to those scientists who have created the vaccines. They are all groping in the dark, Whilst some manufacturers seem to be reaping profits and talking of increasing its costs, holding the world to ransom. 

Many are unemployed, the cost of living phenomenal and with the drop in interest rates very few can help others. It is a sad situation out here.

It is very common to hear of our dear friends and loved ones, who have contracted the virus and also the unknown, with many succumbing to it. Tragic visuals of cremations or burials sans close family and friends are many. 
Once we brace ourselves and do go out, we come back home wash our hands or have a shower scrubbing ourselves in the hope we have not caught the virus. Unfortunately, there are also masked charlatans walking around the town. Amid all of this, it is sad that many, educated or not, yet wish to celebrate with large weddings defying the law, creating a petri dish for the virus to propagate in. The medical system has reached a state of collapse, the law makers exhausted trying to prevent the public from holding mass gatherings and protests, whilst the other lot are bracing themselves to travel overseas, which used to be a joyous journey but now a risky plan with the associated uncertainties of overseas travel.

The universe must stand still for a while since it seems that it is the only way to halt the spread of the virus. The poorer nations will bear the dire consequences economically and its populations suffer. The haunting lyrics of the folk song will need to replace the word ‘soldiers’ with the ‘public’ gone to the graveyards, and the graveyards covered with flowers, with the generation who have survived picking them off the graveyards. 
Universally we all pray for a miracle or a divine intervention to get us out of this miserable situation.