Sunday, August 16, 2009

Sign of the Times

Oink Oink...pigs are about to take on the world.As Allan’s status message suggests,”Revenge of the Ham: Pigs are ready to rule the world.”This would be George Orwell’s most dreaded day…remember Animal Farm?

The whole world is in the grip of the H1N1-A Influenza virus commonly known as Swine Flu.It all started in Mexico and spread outward like a nuclear blast’s plume.And finally it has to come the one place where it is beng accorded celebrity status…INDIA.

Officially 21 people have died so far due to complications arising from Swine Flu and the nation is on a high alert.Many are infected and even more have what can be called “I-think-I-have-swine-flu syndrome”. Everything in India has to be larger than life otherwise we just don’t like it, do we? Governements all over the world are tackling this pandemic but here the response is knee-jerk. In any case the point in case is the hype surrounding the Swine Flu.

I was in Noida for four days and what I saw again strengthened my belief that the NCR is a land of hype and “15-minutes-of-fame”. Imagine this:

N-95 masks are the standard advised masks to be worn for protection against Swine Flu but in the NCR a whole new thing has sprung up called “Mask Couture” where-in multicolored masks with different logos, motifs and cartoons are being sold in stores.Sporting a “different” mask is becoming a new way of asserting one’s unique identity.Waah Delhi!

Some people have gone to the extent of organising…guess…”SWINE FLU PARTIES”! The logic behing these parties is equally hilarious; you invite a lot of people known to you and try to especially invite all those who are showing early symptoms of swine flu.Then you dance and mingle with them to catch the virus.Reason being that if you catch the virus when it is relatively mild you build up your immunity against swine flu!!!

And to top it all, what if more people in India are dying of AIDS than swine flu, after all you can flaunt only what you can show.So bring out all your colorful masks and put on your dancing shoes…I’m cordially inviting you to my own Swine Flu party… who knows,we might just build some immunity.

Cheers!

P.S. For the information challenged people like me, Swine Flu isn’t caused by pigs.It’s been given this name simply because it attacks pigs equally fast as it does to humans.The meat of an infected animal poses no risk of infection when properly cooked.Why to hurt the poor pig then?

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