Swine flu

During a recent conversation, one of my friends who was down with a viral, heard me exclaim "swine" through the phone. He promptly questioned me if that was a general take on his behaviour pattern or was I sounding worried. It was a bit of both actually. He had not bothered to call back on a couple of occasions. So much for the innovative name which is slowly gripping the nation.

But inspite of all the news of a rising toll of victims, my present homeland Gurgaon remains oblivious to the dangers. We all know it spreads fast and there is no doubt that there is a higher probability of contracting it when in a human congregation. There is also the terror of having to be admitted into a government run hospital on contracting it and being exposed to a horde of other disease which run free.

I was taken aback when even in the schools, children have not been asked to take on the precautionary mask. The mask is still the sign of a victim and is open to being discriminated against rather than being seen as a measure of precaution. I agree, precaution is not really embedded in the Gurgaon psyche where beating the other vehicle to the toll plaza would probably top the favourite daydream contest, but schools?. Atleast that's the last place you hear that tree and sapling planting is good and that it could save the earth. Yes, idealistic, and you would expect them to think better during such an epidemic.