Swine Flu is getting scary! (see the screenshot of reuters website on left)
It reminds me of the movie “I am Legend” , where a pandemic was getting spread in New York City and people were leaving NYC.
Although the media is hyping it, like they do always, but this time I dont see people much affected by the media hype. For example, in my office I have hardly heard or overheard any discussion about this flu. I really dont see anyone panic till now.
We have a folk story back in India, where a shepherd use to joke around with his friends calling “save me, there is a lion lion” … and one day when real lion came everybody thought he was joking again and noone came to save him. I hope the same things doesnt happen with things like Swine Flu … where we get early signals about a catastrophic event … but since everybody has got so used to these kind of threat signals from traditional media – that they will simply ignore it in the beginning and will continue with their usual life, till the time that the event becomes so big that it cannot be controlled.
But when I think from a cool mind there is actually nothing we can do about this situation … because there is nothing we can do to control or end this flu because I guess it is all governments job to take care of this mess… right?
So, since we are just supposed to watch the show, so maybe it is best not to panic and just enjoy the ride.
While i am on this topic, I was talking to dad in the morning and he was saying that at New Delhi Airport team of doctors have been posted at various airport terminals – especially for flight coming from US, mexico or Europe… to make sure this flu doesnt enter India…. this maybe a usual/expected news, but i found it kind of ironic …
i mean normally bad things like this happen in Asia and it is western countries who have this kind of attitude of treating us all like we all are plague carriers, and make us go through these tests etc.
Taking the argument further, similar things may happen in economy also, where US/western countries may be so much affected by the plague called recessions like the one we are going under…. that Asian countries will take the centrestage and start making rules… you and I know that there is nothing called impossible … see this slide called shift happens, … we already saw some such signals like China asking that dollar should not be world currency etc…
Maybe what is freaking me out more is more similarities between “I am Legend” and my current situation – like my wife is going to india this weekend (planned trip), and I will be in US while this flu will grow and will reach climax. (will smith sent his family to safe zones while he stayed in NYC to research the cause and solution of pandemic)
Lately I have been reading stories about December 2012 – and how the world is going to end at that time…. and I hate to admit that there is one part of me who has started to believe that bullshit (the power of brainwashing) …. Hindu religion also says that Kalyug is about to end and satyug is about to begin bla bla bla, which actually means mass extinction or CTRL ALT DEL. (this mass extinction topic i guess is a separate post altogether, and very close to my heart, so maybe i will discuss it some other day on a dedicated post)
for the time being, fasten your seat belts because we may be warming up to a bumpy ride ahead. I just hope you & I will be the one who will survive all this to tell stories to next gen!
I will see you in a new post Swine Flu virus world! (tell me when it’s all done)