Swine Flu – Fear or Relax – Pune Schools, India

Indian are bravehearts !

We go through the worst one can imagine and then forget faster than the disaster could feel important.
We have the habit of forgiving and forgetting whether things happen to others or to our loved once….

Why? May be because in the day to day grind to survive in this 1.15 billion peopled country, taking out time for retrospection could cause loss of income …IS IT SO?

Well , to explain OTHERS yes this is the best answer I can come across but the truth is obnoxious and disgusting !

We are a country of 1.15 billion SELFISH people. We have this attitude that whatever BAD happens to others will not happen to us. We live like ostriches in the deserts of the Aussie lands with out heads in side the sand and pray in our hearts that nothing should happen to us and b*** to other!!!

I have known more people praying to GOD and leaving everything to the poor GOD to handle. I know a lady who in her very pregnant state was roaming in the malls of pune, lured by the 60% discount offers when the swine flu was making headlines that even our superstars fail to achieve. I tried to reason out with her that she is not only endangering her life but her unborn’s too. Her reply left me feeling as if I am not talking to an educated woman but a thick wall! She replied ” My God will take care of everything”!!!!!!!!

Why the poor GOD has to be bothered with doing things that we mortals can very well take care of? Instead, leave him to handle the virus and much more dangerous calamities out there.

No headlines, no Fear, No Precaution !

Well, that’s what we Indians are known to believe and follow. I was doing a casual rounds of a few schools in Pune and found quite a few have forgotten what SWINE FLU is?

Kids going to most of these schools have stopped wearing masks in the classes or in the buses they travel. Parents are no more worried. Most say, ” jo hoga dekha jayega”.

There was a student from my stop who had severe cold and cough with running nose. The selfish parents continued to send the child with the mask on! Now that’s a dangerous situation as the teacher cannot see what going on behind the mask!
After requesting several times when she continued to send her child to the school in that sick state, I decided to not send my child. My son was at home for 2.5 months out of which 20 days was because of one parent’s careless attitude.

Why such parents do not get this simple logic, that by carelessly sending her sick child (not swine flu), she is exposing rest of the kids in the bus and all the kids in the class to flu. Even if it’s a common non life threatening flu, immunity of the sick kids will be lowered. With low immunity, these poor kids have the maximum probability to catch any other disease, including swine flu (H1N1 virus).

My son had to forgo two papers in his half yearly exams, all because of one careless mom. She continued to send her sick child to play with my kids. My older son was so down with congestion that he had to skip his half yearly. Thankfully just after the last two papers, the diwali holidays had begun. How did I come to know of the source of infection? Well, when I requested her son to go back home, lest he too caught the cold, the poor kid replied innocently, ” But Aunty, I have fever and cold since last one week!”

But, like it’s well known fact, we Indians have become very self-centered and thick-heads. We do not give a damn to what might happen to people in our neighborhood. As long as we or our loved once do not get affected, we prefer to keep a non interfering, non caring and non existent attitude. How disgusting?

I have my own friends’ asking me, what do I get by doing social work? I wish such people go out of the country and live in US, Australia or any other country and feel how much social sense prevails there. Even if it seems, people are aloof there, in times of need, they all join their hands to fight together. Why cannot we be little more caring, little more sensitive to other people’s needs?

No one expects you to go out of the way, just the physical presence and a collective support will make a difference in your neighbors’ lives.

How about taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule and thinking what might be the effect of your taking an action or not taking an action in people’s life around you!

A few simple but important do’s to make India a better society :

1. Start making your kids wear mask and use sanitizers again.
2. Coax them to wash their hands every time they come back home.
3. Stop going to the malls unless you really want to buy things.
4. DO NOT send your sick child to the school.
5. In case your kid is not well ( even if it’s not swine flu), keep the kid away from other kids even in the society you live in.
6. Do one tiny deed for somebody in your neighborhood.
7. THINK THINK THINK and STOP being a Zombie.

Read these two very important articles on Swine Flu in Pune.

Swine Flu Precautionary Move

SWINE FLU is VILLANIOUS

Related posts:

1. Swine Flu – DPS, St Marys, Bishops, Vibgyor and All schools in Pune till 16th August 2009!!!
2. Pune schools closed due to Swine Flu – How to keep kids busy !!!
3. Pune Schools Closed till 30th August – DPS,ST Mary's,Bishops,Vibgyor..
4. SWINE flu is villainous !!!!
5. SWINE FLU precautionary move -School Pune closes !!