Yes, our generation didn’t see the greatest war or a great depression. Yes, we are the middle children of history. We neither witnessed bloody partition nor great exodus of Kashmiris. Unfortunately, we are witnessing one of the saddest incidents of Independent India. I used to watch great Wildebeest migration on Discovery Channel with awe and wonder. When it happens to humans, its not the same. The awe is replaced with disappointment and melancholy.

If you hadn’t guessed it already, yes, I’m talking of exodus of migrant workers. I don’t think any of the images you and I have seen or the videos that are making rounds in news channels wouldn’t do justice to what those wretched souls are experiencing. All they needed was two square meals a day and assurance of their wellbeing, and the world’s largest democracy could do neither. 

We have built cities, skyscrapers, metro lines, and express highways with the very sweat of those migrant workers. It’s not the people like me or you who are supporting our system, it’s them who just left us to our miseries. With them being at home, they may not have two meals a day, they may have to forego few ‘luxuries’ known to them. But, without them, our beloved system would crumble within itself. The very roads we walk on, will be worn out with potholes, the clean premises that we take pride in would stink.

I might sound selfish by drawing parallel of my luxuries to their miseries. May be I am. But, that’s not the point here. We shook the very foundation that our system is built on. We just can’t blame any single person for this treason we committed to our fellow Indians. It is our collective failure. I writing an article on their misery or you sharing some pitiful pics on social media wouldn’t help any single one of them. 

We, sitting in our comfort zones i.e home/offices, by criticizing our governments and systems in place wouldn’t do any good to anyone. At some point of time in future, Pandemic Covid-19 would leave us, but the scars it left behind would stay with us forever. It has shown us our true colours, and they are not good. We have become a selfish scum that doesn’t think about anything else but itself. 

We are slowly descending into chaos; Covid-19 has only acted as a catalyst. Hope those migrant workers who have safely reached their respective homes would believe the system, believe us sooner than later. Otherwise, the chaos we are about to descend into is a question of when rather than how. 

Hope my country finds its freedom where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.