An open letter to coronavirus
To
Not so dear and Unpleasant Corona,
I don’t know why? But somehow, I am not getting scared of you. Well, we have been trained to remain in close contact with dead bodies since the days of our first MBBS.
We have seen so many deaths from such a close distance, that death is like an old school friend to us. So please, you better don’t scare us of death.
Being a surgeon, we never think of ‘whose blood it is ?’ while putting our hands in puddles full of blood. We never think of ‘who is the owner of this blood?’, ‘if it belongs to an Asian or American?’, ‘Jew or Christian?’, ‘Muslim or Hindu?’, ‘Black or Blonde?’. We never ask these questions, neither to ourselves nor to the patients. Because blood groups might be different but blood color is always the same.
We never enquire if that blood is infected or not Coz we doctors, are not bothered with blood, we are bothered with human lives.
Corona, please don’t take it personally. We have been raised with microbes. Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi, Parasites. We know them inside-out. So, please don’t try to act smart.
If you can’t adapt to the human host, you will lose your existence. Organisms like E.coli have been living with us, inside us for a long time. They have learned this fact. You need to grab a piece of advice from them. Humans were never your natural inhabitant sweetheart. It’s just that you have accidentally landed in us. So now if you want to stay with us, you better behave yourself. Be like an obedient child.
Honestly corona, I am not scared of you. Each morning while leaving for the hospital, while examining patients who have cough and fever, while operating upon them, while holding their hands and infusing courage in them, I am not scared of you.
Not even when a patient who sneezed in front of me later comes with a positive report, not even while performing a duty in an isolation ward, while handling swab-samples, giving injections, draw blood samples, inhaling their breaths and intubating them, not even then. Not even for a second corona, I am scared of you.
Despite so many positive cases around, we doctors can as easily walk through them as some army man can walk across the field full of grenades and explosives.
Corona, we doctors are not afraid of you because we had mortgaged our lives the very moment when we had decided to become a doctor.
The only moment we are scared of you is when we come home. When despite telling ‘Stay away, Don’t come near to me’, my 8 years old daughter runs towards me and gets me in her arms. At that very moment, We are scared.
When we see our old parents waiting for us, we are scared. Despite taking all the precautions, we are scared and skeptical if we have brought home the bombs in our hands or our lungs.
Corona, a small request. Please spare the kids and the elderly. Let’s not involve them. Let the fight be between us. We need not tell you that in this battle of existence, who shall win? So please, behave yourself. You are dealing with doctors and we are not so kind and gentle with everyone.
Good wishes and bon voyage corona
-Dr. Nimitt Oza
