I and hubby
Sunday evening
I Let’s go to marine drive
Hubby - Traffic will be bad, let’s chill at home.
I with a melodramatic look, whole week I have not gone out.
Hubby hastily okay okay let’s go.
At around 5 in the rickety creaking Santro, I dressed to kill and hubby with a bored look on our way.
Police nakabandi delays entourage to marine drive
Hubby huffing and puffing
I say let’s have Rustoms sandwich ice-cream
Hubby after 2 ice-cream cool and calm.
With cool air and bevy of beauties spotted at start of marine drive, hubby in very good mood.
I pl let’s stop, I wanna click some hot pics of mine.
Sunset, me hottie and marine drive, what more you need to click.
But parking where, hubby’s question.
I jump out and frantically plead with a cab driver to shift his cab ahead, so that hubby can park.
Lo and behold, cab driver starts cab and leaves.
Yes
I clench my fist and do a small gig, hubby parks
Covid, Corona suddenly sinks in
I search for a place which less crowd
Social distancing, constant cleaning of hands and masks, ingrained in my brain since last year
Relatively finding a place where I and hubby can sit, hastily jump on the parapet and hubby starts clicking, suddenly I hear a voice close by madam, don’t remove your mask, you will be fined
I roll my eyes over to the sound, and say how can you click pics with mask on and with a haughty look, command hubby to focus on the unfinished job
Apart from the hubby flash, feel one more flash on my face and I turn to see 2 females having a bus conductors bag around their neck frantically clicking me.
I am on cloud nine, wow someone else is also clicking my pic, wow that’s a compliment to me, my beauty.
I am rudely interrupted by this thought process when the female in a very highhanded manner commands me to get down from the parapet and says come here madam, I feel like I have been caught red-handed murdering someone,
I yes
The lady in a creaky and pompous voice says you are not wearing a mask. And hence fined
I in my squeaky voice, I am having my mask on
Lady with a evil look, we have proof you were without masks now, we have proof.
Hubby intervenes
Hubby in a husband mode who has the guts to say anything to my wifey ( Even I don’t in falsetto note)
Lady in glee whips out the phone ,
By then hubby in shivaji maharajah mode
Do I need to stop now from the further narrative?
Yes
Right
I need to
Just wondering
Pandemic has seen the growth of so many new ventures starting from sanitizer to facemasks, and thrown out of gear many businesses which have been well entrenched.
And now this latest new mushrooming of punishing citizens for not wearing masks in public.
No-one Denys the importance of wearing masks in public and social distancing.
Are their no fines for social distancing?
Is it strange or is it just impossible to ensure social distancing in a country as crowded as ours?
Then what next best option to fleece citizens?
Penalize citizens in closed car.
I fail to understand how is covid spread from a car when windows are rolled up.
If windows are open, I still understand.
And if we are worried about passengers in the car, are they not already at risk because of the proximity mask or no mask?
Or is it that citizens in cars are a easy target and can shell out the fine as compared to others on road ?
Public places like marine drive where it is very natural for citizens to click pics and thus removing masks.
Yes I agree it is a risk removing masks even for sometime.
But what about social distancing?
Will masks but no social distancing reduce the spread of covid in crowded places?
I am no expert, but my common sense dictates that it is very doubtful.
What I find more disturbing is the Marathi news channel ( Pardon my ignorance about other news channel as I have promised myself to stop watching them since Sushant Rajput tragedy) is the brazen humiliation of citizens and naming and shaming those caught on cameras without masks.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not against masks.
I strongly believe in wearing them in public.
But what is disturbing is the Govt seems to have devised a new revenue model to recoup lost revenue in the last year.
I heard a govt official boosting we have fined 16 Crores or something like that.
Number of fined people is not important, what is to be noted is -
Govt focus on fining and collecting penalty or ensuring that we have atleast some sort of normalcy and get on with our lives and normal economic growth .
This pandemic will continue for the next 2 years is what experts say, in such a scenario, what should be a priority?
Ensuring code of conduct for marriages and functions or penalizing the owner of the marriage hall and the parents and God knows who all.
We as citizens have to take responsibility and yes I agree we would have black sheep’s amongst us, hence strict action is necessary.
But let us all educate, unlearn, relearn, how to handle this new normal which is still an abnormal and not a happy situation for all of us.