Sealed

 Don't let my appearance or my attire or my age fool you. My dil is not at all Hindustani and never has been. 

I never watch Indian movies or serials in Netflix, I never watch Indian news channels. I used to watch CNN and BBC often - until Trump era. 

But I do read Indian newspaper. Used to. Until the pandemic showed its ghastly face and I realized that I can not wash the newspaper like other things from outside. Then newspapers stopped entering our house. Instead I installed prajavani and deccanherald apps.

But of late, I am searching for news from my home town - a remote town in a  malnad district, frantically. Deccan herald has very few stories from there. Prajavani has a section for our district. But that has nothing new about the post severe lockdown and sealdown situation there. Then I got hold of local newspaper Janamadhyam. OK, better.

But news there wasn't comforting enough. Stricter measures, people breaking lockdown rules. Then there was an article about a Yellapur village getting covid tests. Good, but may be because it is home taluk of a minister. 

Where as in some sealed down places, the trenches 3 feet deep and 5 feet wide are dug on the roads, to "discourage" the people from going out. 

Wonderful, if some one falls sick, if someone needs some medicine, or anything else government will supply those things to them. Right?

And when you know that entire houses are down with fever in villages, you need to seal down the village. That is higher priority than testing them for virus or supplying them life saving medicines. Because those villagers are sitting home with all kinds of medicines, oximeters and thermometers!

Wow, wow. Dhanya ho ! Ours is a wonderful country with wonderful people!