REFLECTIONS- SOCIETY

moomal shekhawat

We at SEA believe that the pandemic has a granularity of meta, non-linear narratives that become useful in making sense of the relational complexities of the pandemic and society. Thus, we set out to collect stories of fears, joys, agilities, fragilities, friendships, networks, collectives, home, work, infrastructures, entrepreneurship, privileges, marginalizations, migrations, desperation, gender, equity, etc. The glossary as a method became useful to reflect on this granularity of experiences and account for slippages during these times. These spatio-temporal stories, when read together or as individual instances produce a new sense of the emergent contemporary. This framework also allows us to speculate on the kind of world we will inhabit once the storm has passed. We draw on multiple readings to bring out the nuances and patterns of social life produced in a pandemic. This we hope would allow us to collectively reflect on the restructured ideas of the self, the collective, society, space, and time. Individual micro-curated expositions are linked together for www.covidglossary.net in order to generate non-linear readings of the pandemic.

IN SEARCH OF A TRUE COLLECTIVE SOCIETY

The Coronavirus has demanded us to look at our behaviour in a way that we are not use to. Human beings often act on their individual interest. However the Covid situation demands for a more collective way of thinking.

However it does become difficult to adapt this collective way due to the fact that human beings unconsciously/consciously do things for their personal interests.

A very good example would be to only buy what we need.It becomes our sense of duty and morality to act in the interest of society as a whole.

Morality in the current society rather than coming from a desire to be a good human being, comes from the power relationship between classes of society. The way the upper classes distinguishes themselves from the lower classes. Justifying why they had benefits those less fortunate did not.

In this way of thinking it becomes our moral duty to follow the covid protocols and that those who do not obey the discipline of handwashing, facial awareness and social distancing are not simply dangerous but selfish.(However it becomes complicated when we generalise this as a ‘moral duty’ for all classes of the society.)

The collective way will be independent of “the constructs of good consequences and a sound character”. But to act rationally for the sake of rationality. The collective way enables us to not to do things that don't make sense if everyone did them.(categorical imperative-Kant)

For instance the example of panic buying. To buy and hoard more than we need fails to pass the collective way of living test, because it's not possible for everyone to buy more than they need, rather only possible for a small fraction to do so.

However it is very difficult as we have an innate tendency to make exceptions for our self. For instance we know that buying more than we need is one the reason for lower stock. Yet, we are likely to buy and put our family needs above the community.

The true collective society will be able to self isolate on a mass scale. Those that practice on a individualistic level will obviously be a burden in this framework. It is therefore no surprise that the government has enforced lockdowns with policing. Kant for instance tried to evoke the power of god to encourage us to act morally. The power system now is being forced to invoke the power of the state for the same.

The virus has really challenged humanity. Many people devoted their life for helping people while few people brought in political dimensions while dealing with the virus.

People died due to corona but many people died due to the fear ,anxiety and by thinking of the consequences of corona.The way a family didn’t get to see their dearest ones when they died due to the virus and the way that person died who knew he couldn’t meet his family members again is something that hurts a lot. Death is the last moment where we can at least see and touch our loved ones for the last time. But the virus has grabbed this chance from the humans. On the other hand the people who died due to some other reasons were quite fortunate to have their family beside..but the society...stepped back rather than voluntarily arranging for the funeral. This is not the fault of the people, instead we humans are trapped within the situation created due to arrival of the virus.

There is some sort of hesitation aroused in humans due to the virus which will take some time to completely vanish and get back to normal.

Let's talk about this pandemic - very serious news that came into the world.

What was our life like before all this?

You have wondered how drastically our thinking changed after the first rumour; for many, it is just one rumour more, for others, it is the fall of something grave.

The things we did, the places we went, without asking ourselves what will happen tomorrow.

Sometimes there is no explanation for why things happen. We know why, but under such circumstances, the human being is not programmed to obey 100%.

It's the law of life, and it's here we break the chain. Above all, I see sadness, nostalgia, madness everywhere; but nevertheless I see a united India because there are more people who do good than those who do evil, more people who do their part for society.

What worries me most is not going out anymore, not seeing my loved ones, and taking hold of the life I used to have - even though sometimes I didn't value it as I should have.

Despite the circumstances, I'm still standing. I do what I like from home, whether it is the same experience or not.

Even though I miss going out to have fun, I know that the day will come when they will tell us the news that we will all be free,the day when we will all carry with us a great lesson.

That time is now, today. Let's take action, let's save one more life, even if we don't know them. We will see that all this comes to pass, we will come out of this problem, and we will rise up to be better, because we are people with aspirations, goals, dreams, all together for the world.

IN SEARCH OF DARKNESSES

Living with my family through the lockdown was an experience of being encapsulated within a singular image of being a ‘son’. This image was a continuous disciplinary power that gazed at me from a distance, while I slowly negotiated with it, and settled over time. This settling is a slow changing of every day like a spiral, building associations, solidarities through memories, changing through understanding one another in their nuances

I usually wasn’t with them for a few years; living and working in my college; living through the book reading and discovering music in the train; phone calls in the corridors, and shouts, screams, and dances in the studio; talk to a rickshawala, starting mostly with “Kaha se ho?... Are hum bhi UP se hai!”; smoke at the tapri; drink at a friends place; and kiss, wherever they happen,”

But during the lock, while the mind wanders within a virtual medium, its inability to engross us into an escape, given the oculocentric nature of our devices, frustrates us. The disciplinary image of being or the identity of a ‘son’ is what produces the experience of power, and hence disallows being a ‘student’, a ‘lover’, or a ‘smoker’. While the apartment does not afford these darknesses, it does not afford an excuse to escape as well; since it isolates one from its neighborhood, and the long-distance engagements are now online. On the other hand, the city of Mumbai does not afford these darknesses, and its inability is much more apparent during these times.

Since the local trains are not functioning throughout the lockdown, the physical distance to escape the house and neighbourhood became expensive. Hence I have been wandering on the streets with Old Monk ‘Quarter’ bottles, or cigarettes in my pocket, desperately looking for a place to enjoy solitude.

A friend and I started meeting on her building’s terrace to smoke, but soon the watchman got suspicious and started taking rounds. So we met less often and were paranoid whenever we did meet. Once that was unreliable, we asked around looking for other terraces, but most buildings including mine have their terraces locked, opened only when permission is granted from a ‘Committee member’. We wandered around Juhu and Powai, in search of spots, and found a corner beside a pan shop on a residential street; a raised garden adjoining the Juhu beach with a bush backdrop; the rocks on the beach right behind the newly installed, but massive boat-shaped LED street-light; inside a car parked in BKC, where I even got questioned by a passerby police constable, who we ended up paying 12,000 rupees since we were scared and did not want to be reported to the police station and face our families; at the edge of relief road; in the interior streets in the old village of Vile Parle’; behind the parked buses and trucks below the metro; on the skywalk at night; on a silent street beside a garden landlocked by apartments; a friends place with a time limit of an hour; or the toilet with an ear to the door; and many more which I would not want to bring forth.

No excuse to leave the house creates the requirement of a ‘reason’ to do so. If transgressing, the expenses of traveling need to be justified, but the restriction to eat outside and do something else has made its justification difficult. On the other hand, the lack of ‘safer spots’ has made the enjoyment of transgressions fearful and hasty. Time is ‘wasted’ if the time to transgress is used to do anything else. “Jaldi kar koi aa jaayega”

What is the place that affords the process of making a home?

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