The Covid Quarantines - is it really necessary?

Yes, we all are waiting for this quarantine to get over to go on with our daily lives. We have been told that this is more deadlier than normal. So was swine flu which happened in 2009, so was SARS which happened in early 2000s and so was AIDS in the 80s and 90s.

We did not have any quarantines for those, did we? The samples of people suspected were sent for further check ups by our own ICMR and the testing and monitoring had continued for years and for many other diseases, we tested and monitored the samples. But all of these happened without any media coverage. It happened as a normal routine procedure. It did not have to be advertised. Now even though we have an active testing/ vaccine research going on at Trivandrum Sri Chitra Medical Institute, the central government did not give permission to Kerala government for covid research and included the Trivandrum hospital which is in Kerala in Tamil Nādu. Politics even in pandemic times!

My point is (as a person who had worked as a senior research fellow on the ICMR project of testing and monitoring of H1N1 and swine flu viruses), we don't need to be quarantined like this, there are much more deadlier and nasty fungal/bacterial/viral/parasitic worm diseases out there and people who look spotless and healthy might have it and we will never know.

Why is this covid given this much importance and propaganda by the media now? I tried rereading my virology from Prescott and I still don't get this quarantine thing... is this a new thing to show other countries in the world that we are handling it effectively? No. We don't need to disrupt public life to handle a pandemic effectively. Any new diseases will peak and then the curve falls, the time frame for it differs depending on many environmental conditions. Quarantine just postpones the peaking of the diseases which in turn postpones the natural immunity development/natural tolerance to that disease in a population.

I am not blaming the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs nor the Prime Minister, they did what they could under these sudden outbursts of the pandemic. I would say we are still doing good than many other countries, but the MOH should take advise from ICMR which has handled such type of situations in the past (I am sure they already have taken advise from ICMR) but it would be a good move to end the quarantine as of now. The Ministry might be criticized for it because the disease might peak in the coming days, but only then can we bring it down. But if the MOH can handle that in the coming days, then we would be on our way to conquering this novel virus in no time.

This is a humble opinion and request of a citizen of this nation to the Honorable Prime Minister and the Ministry of Health.

Since it is a novel disease being tested on populations, it will take some time to develop the right kind of vaccine, it might involve the use the retro viral protein coat itself(meaning vaccine might contain AIDS virus protein and may or may not contain SARS Virus protein in minute amounts in the vaccine), so care and adequate amount of clinical trials evidenced by success, failure and control should be carried out. 

Resistance Art

What is resistance art? Before writing about what resistance art is, let me tell you what resistance is.

Resistance is the expression of your opinion which pushes through the oppression on a topic of your choice. Resistance art is the artistic expression of your idea or thought against the oppression that you chose to resist.

The beauty of resistance art is you don't need any credentials or education to express your opinion in a peaceful way.

Look around you. What do you see?

• Do you see discrimination in terms of gender, race, religion, and politics? 
• Do you see an obsolete social class system that exists in your society?
• Do you see huge wealth disparity among your country's population? 
• Do you see failure and Death?

There are numerous topics to choose from to express your resistance, but I outlined some general topics which came to my mind.

Have you chosen a topic to express your resistance?

Have you chosen a particular audience for whom this might be helpful? 

Having a target audience in mind is always helpful rather than just posting on the internet for a general audience.

Once you have chosen a topic of your choice, research about it. Collect data - I would suggest from authentic sources - like actual scientific data of natural calamities, first-person account of historical events, Statistics, Graphs, etc, and not just any data from publishers or educators.

Now make a presentation or notes regarding the data you found - What is important? What information is relevant to the target audience of my choice? Once you have identified the important information for your resistance, select a medium to express it.

Ways to express Resistance Art:

Do you draw or paint? Would you like to express your resistance through your drawings or paintings? Then go for it.

Do you write? Would you rather write an essay or a poem as your resistance art? ( If Yes, I would suggest you try a hand at slam poetry. They are original work, your own writing and you can present your poem in front of a chosen audience without any music or any other props, using just your own voice.)

Would you rather compose a piece of music(could be classical, EDM, any genre of your choice - doesn't matter) or a verbal song to express your resistance? (Listen to various rap songs if you are interested in this.)

Or do you want to express it through dance forms or run a marathon or run for a social cause?

Would you choose to post a video or post an audio podcast?

You could also express it through lego pieces or by developing a game or an app.

You could express it through a play, as a meme(I would say go for memes, the most popular way nowadays), a one-act play, a movie, etc.

There are many more ways to express your resistance in an art form. If you know any different peaceful forms of resistance art, feel free to post in the comments.

Look at this Video:

What do you feel after watching this video? Do you feel this is a form of resistance art?

What he expressed in this video is a form of resistance art. I would say an exemplary form of resistance art of the 21st century. There may be better artworks that express resistance from history. But this is what comes to my mind when I am writing this blog.

He identified a problem that exists in his society, chose to express it in a way that he is most comfortable with (Keep in mind that this channel owner is a musician, hence he chose music).

Even if your art is not seen by many intended audiences, the fact that you are choosing to express your opinion about oppression happening in your own society is a good thing.

You can find plenty of evidence of resistance art throughout history. Some beautiful historical resistance art is shown in this video.

Try watching this video, the channel owner's strength according to me is making outstanding video documentaries on a topic they would like to comment on

Given the time and interest, which method would you choose to express your resistance art? On what topic?

(P.S. Cursing at your ex is NOT resistance art. But if your ex was Rasputin then it might count) 


Remember, the work has to be original.

I am yet to choose a topic and medium of expression. As soon as mine is ready, I will post it here.