Blind Devotion

9th April, 2020 – Delhi

Puppies!

First, a nice video of one of the puppies born about 6 weeks ago playing with its mother. The puppies have been a Corona bright spot during the lockdown. Smritika and her mom often go downstairs to hang with them when they need a pick me up:

Still here! We are in week 2 of the largest lockdown in the world. The lockdown is set to expire on the 14th but it looks like it will be extended till the end of the month.

Our Daily Visitors

As I was getting to know Smritika she would always talk about the different wild animals, stray dogs & cats that would be their temporary pets growing up. Being here for so long has allowed me to see this in full force. Videos below capture:

1) Ram Uncle Gee feeding one of his many crow friends

2) The 3 stray dogs that come upstairs around 5pm and have their yogurt.

Unfortunately I was not able to capture the cat that makes an appearance every couple days. I think the cat lives on the roof or something. All of a sudden you will be at the table and you see this cat speed by to the outside door. No one finds it strange.

Forced lockdown:

I’ve been in lockdown for nearly a month now. You are not allowed to leave your house except for essentials. Only one person is allowed to go out for essentials.

Most agree that the forced lockdown was a good idea and slowed down the spread. But criticisms are with the execution, lack of transparency and how the majority of the country have been treated.

If you have the money, the lockdown has been annoying but of course you have enough food, internet, and shelter with plenty of space. For the majority without the privilege it’s a different story.

Here is one post that seems to sum up some people’s frustration with Modi:

Arundhati Roy, famous author of God of Small things recently published an article with a similar perspective:

– Government was unprepared financially. They had to raise private funds through the “Prime Minister Cares” fundraising campaign. Much of these private funds came from foundations. The foundations in turn had to take money away from other initiatives they were funding.

– There is no transparency or laws regulating how this private money will be spent.

– Lots of media suppression And not a lot of information about what government is doing or will be doing.

– If you are poor and/or Muslim you are either forgotten or a target. Everyone’s attention is on Corona allowing the state to hurt and humiliate people on the street and/or continue its nationalist agenda without much notice.

Blind Devotion

Whatever you want to say about right wing Prime Minister, the man is wildly popular. He has the most followers in the world on Facebook/Instagram & third most on twitter + a 70% approval rating. When he tells Indian citizens to do something people do it.

On 5th April @ 9pm he requested that everyone shut off their electricity, light a candle or torch to pray away the darkness of the Corona Virus. India remains, one of the most superstitious countries in the world. People from all ends of the spectrum will consult an astrologer before marriage and other important occasions. So this was a very clever and populist thing to do. Of course this caused anger amongst the 20-30% who don’t support him as they felt this was just a publicity stunt without providing transparency.

Leading up to the event there was legitimate fear that hundreds of millions people suddenly turning off their electricity was going to create an energy grid collapse. (Dad, you can explain this one)

Hundreds of millions followed Modi’s orders. The candles, torches and firecrackers were lit & the spectacle took place. No grid collapse but in Delhi the air quality went from “good” to “hazardous” in 5 hours due to all the smoke (see image below).

The event was a little bit of a “shit show.” Some religious zealots forgot about social distancing & used it as an excuse to do small rallies. A couple homes burned down from all of the firecrackers and torches.

Here is a short video making fun of the event. The clip starts with a quote from a classic Indian show called Ramayana that has begun to be reaired during the lockdown. The quote says:

“sometimes when you worship someone that hard it is akin to craziness.”

This is a reference to people’s blind devotion to Modi. The other images are actual footage from 5th of April spectacle.

Beautiful Night Sky

The illuminated & clear night sky has been spectacular. Check out the moon! Here are some pics from the other night.

Some Humor

In India everyone is talking about the drop in pollution. A series of funny memes have been created: “Because of no pollution, I can see…” Here are some examples:

Grocery Delivery Humor

Grocery delivery in urban India is part of the culture. With Corona, demand has increased. India is a place where people speak in parables, allegory and other indirect ways. Here is a humorous video that combines trying to get groceries & the Indian style of communication during the time of Corona.

Feel the Bern!
Goodbye Bernie & thank you for being such a old Jewish socialist uncle crumedgdgeon who stood up for what he believes in. I think Sarah Silverman says it best: