Abhishek Sarna:  

Taking a five-year journey down the lane, ruminating on the COVID-19 pandemic, I reflect on some thoughts I had penned down in April 2020.

As the COVID-19 pandemic unabatedly engulfs humanity, the prognosis of what lies ahead seems uncertain. Masks and sanitizers have become our new companions in the social domain, and along with them, we seem to be increasingly embracing “ alienation.” 

It won’t be surprising if the famous phrase “man is a social animal” may become a relic of the past. As people living in urban spaces, we already lead quite narcissistic and estranged lives, and to add to this saga, a virus has entered our lives with a package of restrictions and proscriptions – at the core of which “distancing” is been deemed as the supreme panacea. The prosaic individual’s social intercourse is been significantly affected by this potent virus. 

In the future, every individual may see each other as “carriers” of this highly contagious disease and not as friends, neighbours, or acquaintances as the seeds of fear and suspicion are planted in our minds.

In a diverse country like India, this package of proscriptions and physical distancing can also exacerbate and amplify the already existing social schisms in our society, as the urban yet parochial Indian may tend to rekindle and reinforce the retrograde practices of caste and class discrimination.  

I wonder whether Karl Marx would have thought that his concept of alienation, which he propounded in the 18th century, would become a sordid reality one day!