Covid, concoction and complacency

The Island editorial on the 14th of December, 20, titled ‘Putting the cart before the horse’, and the following little story, made me pen this short letter.

My sister happened to travel in a three-wheeler, a few days ago. And, the driver, who lives close to her residence, remarked, during the casual conversation: ‘Nona, mamanam dhan baya nehe. Mama ara paniya gaththa (Madam, I am not afraid now. I took that syrup). And, that probably sums up what many, who have acquired the ‘miracle herbal concoction’, felt.

They might have been driven to complacency and made to ignore the advice of the health officials, regarding precautions that ought to be taken to contain the pandemic. After all, is it not said to have a divine origin, as claimed by its earthly (specifically Sri Lankan) recipient?

For a few days, idiocy, lunacy and gullibility reigned in that part of the country, where the ‘syrup’ was freely given, and people were lining up in many hundreds (altogether around 15,000, they say) with hardly any ‘social distancing amongst them’. And in their haste to grab one (as the saying goes, ‘our people would run to grab even a headache, if it is given out free’), they must have forgotten to ask themselves one single, yet very pertinent question: what if this doesn’t work and someone around me is infected?

And then what would have happened to all the bee hives in the country? The syrup is said to have ‘bees honey’ as one of its ingredients and how in god’s name (?) did the Weda mahathmaya find that much honey to produce such a large amount of ‘syrup’?

Be that as it may, the sanity apparently seemed to have managed to prevail, finally amongst the authorities, and there are no more hundred-metre-long queues of people lining up to get the syrup. Had the ‘syrup frenzy’ continued, the Covid would have had a free run like a runaway loco, spreading the disease at will. It would have been only a matter of time (if it hasn’t happened already) for one or two infected people (knowingly or unknowingly to themselves) were going to be present amongst the crowd, and the Covid would have taken care of the rest of the operation of its community-wide propagation! I sincerely hope that there weren’t any.

Finally, my sincere appeal to all the authorities concerned: Please do not let religion and tradition get in the way of your duty to the country and its people. Faiths, beliefs, traditions, monks, priests, gurus, swamis, astrologers and even self-appointed weda mahaththayas, are a part and parcel of our society. And anyone is free to pour water into rivers from pots containing liquids or tasting any syrup (obviously not containing alcohol) in public. However, those actions should be confined to outside of your working hours. If not, they would be seen by the public at large as instances of giving official recognition of the action/object concerned. And they would also be taken by many concerned citizens as attempts to gain cheap publicity. Lastly, wouldn’t it also paint a poor picture of the quality of our government officialdom, including the ministers?

Now, is something not quite right in the last sentence of the above paragraph?

LAKSIRI WARNAKULA