In memoriam: April-May, 2021

Letrsquos assume that over the years two things that Bombayrsquos been known for are cinema and cricket Whatrsquos the capital of subaltern Bombay cricketShivaji Park Where lirsquol Sachin learnt to wield the bat Likewise whatrsquos the Central Perk of Bollywood Irsquod say currently areas in and around Seven and Four Bungalows in Andheri WestHow did these iconic addresses come up The latter because a few Parsi families sailed from Marine Drive to Versova islands to move into their seven and four bungalows respectively to escape the 1896 plagueLikewise Bombay Improvement Trust established for creating ventilation wider roads etc in the city led to Shivaji Parkmdashas response to the same plague that led to half of Bombay 400000 fleeing the city thankfully through trains that were still operational Chawls were later built for returning workersBut history is taught through wars nationalism imperialism and public figures In that vein there are two men yoursquove learnt about in school and admire regardless of your WhatsApppolitical persuasions Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel How did they first emerge on the national sceneTilak because he wrote extensively against the plague commissioner WC Randrsquos draconian containment measures in Pune Rand was subsequently shot dead by freedomfighter Chapekar Bros Tilak was jailed for a year He became a national heroPatel similarly made a name for himself first working tirelessly in plague relief measures often in personal capacity although also as a member of Ahmedabadrsquos municipality Think of him as lsquoSonu Sood of COVID19rsquo as author Chinmay Tumbe cheekily describes it in an interviewIn fact it is only through Tumbersquos book The Age of Pandemics 18171920mdashlooking closely at plague cholera and Spanish Flu across the world with focus on Indiamdashthat I realised how much of modern history is shaped by the story of pandemics alone defined as excessive mortality across two continents minimumThese pandemics wiped out nationscitiespopulations in percentages Such that a 17th Century friar battling plague himself described it as Godrsquos way of ensuring ldquogood governancerdquo how else will God feed so many peopleIt is only through Chinmay Tumbersquos bookIn the mid 1800s understandably the public debate in England centred on which is worsemdashcholera or war The former having caused 20000 deaths 17931815 the latter 70000 deaths between 184849Which is a debate on whether humans should spend on weapons and soldiers or hospitals and doctors isnrsquot itAnother matter is that while there are proud gallantry awards for taking on other humans I donrsquot find equal pageantry for medical staff who repeatedly save lives risking their own especially with contagious diseases Tell me who you need moreAnd yet look at other numbers in Tumbersquos book The 1896 plague until 1920 killed 12 million Indians The 1817 lsquoIndia Cholerarsquo pandemic until 1920 wiped out 40 million Indians ie 5 per cent of all deaths in the subcontinent The period being decades after decades of waves and troughs trial and error for prevention and cure evacuation and inoculationConversely the 1918 Spanish Flu with evidences pointing to its origin in Kansas American midwestmdashcalled lsquomarirsquo lsquomanmodirsquo by desismdashtook away 20 frickinrsquo million Indians in a span of few months during the pandemicrsquos second wave in the last quarter of 1918 starting SeptemberMahatma Gandhi who coined the phrase lsquocleanliness is next to godlinessrsquo in the context of plague also apparently suffered from Spanish Flu Although Tumbe asserts it was dysentery Either way he lost his son Hiralalrsquos wife Gulab and his grandson Shanti to the pandemicThe great Hindi writer Suryakant Tripathi lsquoNiralarsquo who also lost his wife and family members to Spanish Flu observed the Ganga riverbank in UP ldquoswollen with dead bodiesrdquo The American senate discussed the Indian governmentrsquos abysmal response leading to 6 million deaths official death figures thenIncidentally Hyderabadrsquos Charminar came up in 1511 to commemorate the eradication of plague There are temples in IndiamdashOladevi in Bengal Lala Hardoul in Bundelkhandmdashdedicated to deities associated with choleraUp until COVID19 struck India and the world in March 2020 I hadnrsquot read anything on the Spanish Flu pandemic let alone its similarly ferocious maneating spread in 1918 Certainly not in school textTumbe says this has to do with how short the pandemic lasted That it coincided with Indiarsquos freedom movement WWI in the West And how long after the influenza reappeared about 100 years In which case the policy response will always be fourstep denial confusion acceptance and erasure of memory Like the second wave of Spanish Flu the second COVID19 wave in India roughly AprilMay 2021 was a nightmare with practically everyone I know waking up each day to news of bereavementmdashof a direct loved one or someone within two degrees of separation We donrsquot even know the exact fatality count Who caresLooking around it appears to me that wersquove repressed the memory of that cloud of death for the time being Thatrsquos how humans ldquoadjustrdquo perfunctorily move on I guessI write this on May 31 2022 Having recently returned from a college alumni meet looking for my annual old friend at these dos ldquoCanrsquot see Parthardquo I ask ldquoHersquos no morerdquo I am told Out of dread I donrsquot check on others How will we grieveremember themMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper