Bangladesh, a country with almost 49 years of age and a land crowded with more than 164 million people, has recently bloomed up with a new version of unsought freedom and confidence that really was not called for! We, the people who are living here more than decades could not resist our appetite to taste the newest thrill of getting in a box with a VIRUS, yes you read it right. ”A VIRUS”
God created the entire universe ornamented with various aspects of both blessings and fatalities were to be experienced by human beings. Whereas, the mighty nature has always been deceitful as for we made her be! She could not be more furious than to throw a deadly Virus onto us just a few months ago. It is ironic that we get what we gave. It was not a surprise for us to encounter with such disasters as we have been enjoying destroying and disfiguring the blessings we got from the Almighty! Our unbeatable thirst and desire of exploring have turned out to be vulnerable in such a way that we cannot protest and protect all the time.
“Corona”, a name of not just a virus, but also the name of a new era, where we did find ourselves the weakest of all the creatures! As all of us have already been known to it, I won’t be delineating about it anymore.
The history of pride and passion came along with us till today’s date reminding us how brave we are to snatch our freedom from anyone who crosses our ways by any means. But this time we are seeing ourselves to be failing over a long period of time against this virus and the disease made out of it, COVID-19. We have been keeping ourselves caged and cuffed just with a hope to survive for once and for all. Ridiculing about it at the very beginning when it was first appeared to be as a contagious virus outbreak in Wuhan, China, even if it wasn’t being predicted to be the worst nightmare for the whole world.
Bangladeshi we are, being what we feel so much proud in such a way that defines our audaciousness towards anything that comes in our way.so for us it was no new story to write on a new page that “We are unbeatable “!Who cares about a “Tiny microscopic creature”. So we decided not to fear or care about it.
The first case of COVID was found in Bangladesh on 8th March 2020. It has been more than 5 months now, but the matter of fact is that the majority of our people still not understanding what it is and what it already did to us really doubt whether it’s our bravery or foolishness without any bound not to become concerned or conscious to get away from letting it kill us.
The reports and updates revealing about the number of new cases found, number of cured, number of deaths, we were getting from the health directorate on a regular basis was for our awareness and to make us cautious about the continuous spreading of the disease, but here also we started to ridicule and question about the sanity of the information. Like I elaborated earlier about our “Unbounded brave”, we started acting in such an ambivalent way that we could just criticize and throw sarcastic comments through various social platforms, whereas we had to do nothing but to stay at home. We decided deliberately not to accept our duties to stay safely at home but yet we kept questioning the health and regulatory systems.
I did not start writing with any of the least motives of beheading the honor of this glorious nation of Bangladesh, rather I feel ashamed that even after living in a country beholding a history of more than 49 years of freedom and success, we really are denying that we are the most selfish and ignorant nation could be found in the whole world.
I became utterly speechless when I read any news telling about concealing essential information that might reveal about having the disease in a person just to restore the social acceptance and without having the least responsibility to protect others from spreading the virus. This is how the ignorant group of people started seeding the virus into our frontline soldiers, the health professionals, and the country’s security forces. I feel utterly proud of having our frontline soldiers ready for any unexpected situations and getting their hands on the needed aspects all day round. We could not be more than privileged and grateful to them for what they have been sacrificing constantly till today for our wellness.
There is always a saying, “practice before you preach”, I am thankful to all the people out there who were responsible and grateful to the system and services provided by our government since the outbreak till now. We had our educational institutions declared closed, had experienced lockdown and general holidays for both the government and non-government institutions, also continuous patrolling of the security force just to ensure our safety. But yet there have always been obstacles and misleads in every way to conquer anything good, for this nation it was nothing different. We have people who kept ruining the chain of safety, just roaming around for nothing. It was undeniably true that we, the responsible group are very few in number, the ignorant group was much bigger and stronger enough than us to destroy the country’s all kinds of efforts to keep the number of affected people low, which finally led us to win some extravagant honor (!) of becoming the country with the highest number of deaths of medical doctors in the whole world. This pandemic reminded us once again that we could learn how to bring glory by holding a weapon but could not learn how to enhance the glory by holding the knowledge of becoming responsible and a true patriot. For me, a true patriot is not only who fights for the country to earn the freedom but also who fights for the country and with the country in any kind of disaster or undesired situation it faces!
Wrapping up the whole thing, this has been a great journey with the pandemic so far as I believe my country may not have the full of resources, highest possible facilities in the health sectors, not having enough manpower, and also many other missing factors that are being possessed by the developed countries, but yet we fought, still fighting and would be fighting until it ends with all we have. There have been so many ridiculous speeches had been given by our politicians but it’s us what matters, not that what is said but that what is done! A pandemic taught us a valuable lesson that we all are helpless when the strike comes from Mother Nature. Some things are inevitable and impossible to protest, so what we need is to be patient and calm in any kind of disastrous situation. We need to help ourselves, need to think selflessly, need to be more and more careful about our deeds, and always remember that, “what goes around always comes around.”
I am Bangladesh, you are Bangladesh, and we all are Bangladesh. Let us live another day for a new sun. Let us rise again with the new hope to live, many more to see, many more to enjoy, and also many more to endure. So let us become one Bangladesh and no Pandemic would be a fear at all.
—————Tamanna Tabassum